MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS
The musical landscape of Roman civilisation is very varied: we can see this from the quantity of images and actual instruments that have come down to us, and from the inscriptions mentioning musicians and professional associations (collegia). First they absorbed the musical world of the Etruscans, then they reworked the Greek one (especially after the conquest of Corinth in 146 BC), and finally they contaminated these two traditions with those of the peoples that gradually became part of the Empire. In fact, Egyptian, Syrian, Spanish and, of course, Greek musicians arrived in Rome, increasing the types of instruments and musical festivals. Orchestras were formed with numerous elements playing in the theatres. Music was present both in public events, in theatres, amphitheatres, circuses, religious and military celebrations, and in private events such as weddings and funerals. In the ranks of the armies, as in those of the Etruscans, there were specialised soldiers, such as the cornu-playing cornicines, whom we can see for instance on the Trajan column next to the tubicines, the tuba players. A musician who was part of a collegium such as that of the tibia players, the tibicines, enjoyed important advantages, such as owning real estate, benefiting from festive meals, and being respected in society. The musicians also achieved remarkable achievements in technical progress: to the tibiae, for example, they added movable rings to vary the filling of the note holes or keys, so that they could have more playing possibilities. They also perfected the hydraulis, the pipe organ of Greek origin driven by the force of water.
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