MUSIC IN ANCIENT ROME

We know less about music in ancient Rome. There are plenty of images, some instruments, and thousands of written descriptions, but no settings of Latin texts survive from the Roman period.

The Romans took much of their musical culture from Greece, especially after the Greek islands became a Roman province in 146 BCE. As in Greece, lyric poetry was often sung. The tibia (Roman version of the aulos) played important roles in religious rites, military music, and theatrical performances, which included musical preludes and interludes, songs, and dances. The tuba, a long straight trumpet derived from the Etruscans (earlier residents of the Italian peninsula), was used in religious, state, and military ceremonies. The most characteristic instruments were a large G-shaped circular horn called the cornu and a smaller version, the buccina. Music was part of most public ceremonies and was featured in private entertainment and education. Cicero, Quintilian, and other writers state that cultivated people should be educated in music.

During the great days of the Roman Empire in the first and second centuries CE, art, architecture, music, philosophy, and other aspects of Greek culture were imported into Rome and other cities. Ancient writers tell of famous virtuosos, large choruses and orchestras, and grandiose musical festivals and competitions. Many of the emperors supported and cultivated music; Nero even aspired to personal fame as a musician and competed in contests. But with the economic decline of the empire in the third and fourth centuries, production of music on the large and expensive scale of earlier days ceased. Whatever direct influence Roman music may have had on later European developments seems to have left almost no traces.