#ancient instruments

[spineless-lobster]

Yapping to my friend about ancient greek instruments and I can tell they’re getting just a little bit sick of it but I cannot stop YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT THE GLORIOUS CROTALUM!!!!!

[petersmusicspot]

I don’t know this site yet so forgive me if tumblr etiquette isn’t right.

Does anyone on here play a recreation of the Ancient Greek aulos? I just ordered a set and want to learn more while waiting for them

[aerikarkadian]

Unveiling the Carnyx: The Celtic Battle Horn on the Gundestrup Cauldron

The Gundestrup Cauldron, an elaborately decorated silver bowl, is one of the best representations of Celtic artwork found anywhere in the world. It consists of several individual relief panels, each depicting a different scene, the most well-known of which is probably the image of Cernunnos. A little less well-known, however, is another panel that features soldiers carrying the Carnyx, an ancient…

[suzilight]

Instrument built by María Ruíz and Abraham Cupeiro, based on the cornus found at Pompeii in the 19th century.

Gave me goosebumps!

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Jules-Élie Delaunay (1828-1891) "Sappho Kissing Her Lyre"

[ladycharles]

My new track is a dreamy instrumental inspired by the flurry of emotions, limerance, anxiety and wonder of new love. I have been doing some soundtracks lately and this piece was for a dance scene between two Lesbian characters falling for each other, so I tried to evoke the ancient world of Sappho and the mystical beauty of those distant times while centering the character' emotions. Hope you enjoy!

If you like it, I have put a collection of some of my unreleased soundtrack work in the Bandcamp version as bonus tracks! Name your price and pretty sure you can stream them on there too. I hope it can be the soundtrack to some of your moments!

https://ladycharles.bandcamp.com/album/the-rites-of-sappho-bonus-tracks

��💖💖💖💖💖💖

[thesilicontribesman]

Iron Age Deskford Carnyx Trumpet and Facsimile, The National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland

[mozartbachtoven]

The stolen Ancient Greek masterpiece from the sculptor Lysippos :

The horse sculptures come from the island of Chios ( the fifth largest of the Greek islands), since four horses and a quadriga (a type of chariot that was also used in the Ancient Olympic Games) was mentioned in the Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai, more commonly called “brief Historical Notes”text dated from the 8th o 9th century. The horses stayed there until 1204, when they were looted by Venetian forces as part of the sack of the capital of the Byzantine Empire in the Fourth Crusade. Interestingly, the collars on the horses necks that you can see in the photos below were added about this time to cover the areas that their necks and heads had been removed to allow then to be transported from Constantinople to Venice.

Soon after the Fourth Crusade, Doge Enrico Dandolo (Doge meaning a civil officer or lay judge in Venice or Genoa) sent the horses to Venice, where they were installed on the terrace of the façade of St. Mark’s Basilica in 1254.

In 1797, Napoleon had the horses forcibly removed from the basilica and carried off to Paris, where they were used in the design of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel together with a quadriga.

In 1815 the horses were returned to Venice by Captain Dumaresq, who had fought at the Battle of Waterloo and along with the allied forces in Paris. He was selected, by the Emperor of Austria, to take the horses down from the Arc de Triomphe and return them to their original place at St Mark’s in Venice. For doing an excellent job bringing the horses back to Venice, the Emperor gave him a gold snuff box with his initials in diamonds on the lid.

Until the early 1980s, the horses remained untouched over St. Marks. But with growing air pollution that would make the statues deteriorate quicker, they were removed and brought in side St. Marks and can still be seen inside the basilia. They were replaced with exact copies that can be seen outside.

Thank you FB @ Taylor McMahon

[spineless-lobster]

was wondering if you’d want to make a post simply yapping about ancient greek instruments, i wish to learn moreee

Oh I really don’t have much to say at all about them, I was mostly exploring the wiki page and that’s about it lol, but since you asked!

I’m currently writing a fic rn where characters are playing instruments and I was curious about ancient greek instruments, considering all I really knew was the lyre and the aulos. So I decided to look up a wikipedia list and click around to see what I thought was pretty cool

(Quick disclaimer, everything I’m about to say is from wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt. Also I am not a music historian or a musician so really I barely have any idea about what I’m talking about)

Turns out, there’s a million different versions of the lyre! They all look quite similar but I am sure they’re from different regions and have their own unique sounds and histories. The one I went with in my fic was the kithara! It is a seven stringed lyre-esque instrument that was mainly played by professionals (called kitharodes). Since lyres were considered a folk/beginner instrument, those who played music for a living tended to prefer the kithara. Fun fact! “Kithara” in modern greek means guitar, and the etymological origin of the english “guitar” comes from kithara. Words are cool!!!

Please forgive me if I am using the singular/plural versions of this instrument wrong, I’m not entirely sure how this all works and I am trying my best

I was mainly excited about the krotalon (latin: crotalum) which were pretty much castanets! (I really like castanets because the fun clappy sound is nice in my ears lol) they were made out of wood or shell and brass and were mainly used by women in religious dances. Often at a slower beat/rhythm than castanets as we think of them today

More fun facts! This time bird related! Krotala allegedly made the sound of a crane’s bill, thus the bird was called crotalistria "player on crotala.”

In some versions of heracles’ myth, he uses krotala to scare away the stymphalian birds in order to shoot them down!

Now, I mentioned the aulos earlier but honestly I still didn’t know much about it other than what it sounded like. (Shout out to olympus alfame from the hades 2 soundtrack, absolute banger!!!)

Anyways, while the aulos may look like a modern flute or clarinet, it is more akin to highland bagpipes in multiple ways! We see similarities in the way it’s played (the use of circular breathing), in sound (the droning that people often find really annoying) and in function! (Both instruments were used to communicate on the battlefield.)

They were also double-reeded like oboes!

There’s multiple types of auloi. The plain “aulos” we think about is the two pipes with reeds. A single pipe without a reed was called a “monaulos.” A single pipe that was held horizontally like a flute was a “plagiaulos,” and a pipe with a bag (ahem, bagpipe, one may say) that allowed for continuous sound was called a “askaulos”

Finally, I want to talk about a myth surrounding the aulos. A satyr named marsyas either invented the aulos or picked it up one day after athena discarded it because she hated how it made her cheeks puff up (which is really funny to me). Either way, he gets his hands on the instrument and challenges apollo to a music contest (always a bad idea) the winner would “do whatever he wanted” to the loser.

If you’re a freak like me you probably had the same train of thought as marsyas who, being a satyr, would never turn down the opportunity to fuck our favourite sunshine twink. Unfortunately for him, apollo and his lyre beat him in the competition. Even more unfortunate is that instead of being taken by the god of light he is strung up on a tree and flayed alive for his hubris. Hooray!

Ack it’s almost 4am I meant to go to bed an hour ago lmao (as if 3am is a reasonable time to go to bed)

Anyways I hope you enjoyed my yap sesh! I always get nervous when writing these up because I am bound to get information wrong. And if there are any discrepancies PLEASE do not be afraid to (kindly) inform me otherwise and I will fix it!!! I am no historian I am just a silly little guy with worms in their brain who is running on 5 hours of sleep

“I don’t have much to say at all about them” <- call me odysseus the way im a fucking liar

[beauty-funny-trippy]

[wildwood-faun]

went to a concert at the historical museum tonight

[illustratus]

Orpheus in the Underworld by Nils Asplund

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

No Escape • The House of Hades • Out of Tartarus • Wretched Shades • Lament of Orpheus • The Painful Way • From Olympus • Through Asphodel • Good Riddance (Eurydice Solo) • Final Expense • Mouth of Styx • Primordial Chaos • The Bloodless • Scourge of the Furies • Hymn to Zagreus • Field of Souls • River of Flame • Death and I • Rage of the Myrmidons • The Exalted • Last Words • The King and the Bull • Lament of Orpheus (Underworld Mix) • Gates of Hell • God of the Dead • Final Expense (Payback Mix) • On the Coast • In the Blood • The Unseen Ones • Good Riddance

Spotify ♪ Bandcamp ♪ YouTube

[thesilicontribesman]

'Phillipson's Musical Rocks' Lithophone, Cliffe Castle, Keighley, Yorkshire

[arthistoryanimalia]

#TwoForTuesday :

Cranes and Serpents, 475-221 BCE (Warring States Period)

China, State of Chu (reportedly from Hunan province,Changsha)

Lacquered wood with polychromy

132.1 x 124.5 cm (52 x 49 in.)

On display at Cleveland Museum of Art 1938.9

“A different style of ritual art developed in the state of Chu in South China. In addition to bronze vessels, lacquered wood artifacts expanded the repertory of ritual implements.

This extraordinary sculpture was probably a drum stand for supporting a suspended drum in ritual ceremonies. It is unique among other excavated drum stands of the Chu, which typically show two birds standing on tigers. The theme of the bird stepping on the serpent was common in the Chu visual culture. Yet the slender proportions and seemingly flimsy structure of this particular set raise the question of whether it was utilitarian or mostly served symbolic functions in the tomb.

The birds' and serpents' bodies have designs painted in red lacquer and yellow pigment against the black lacquer. Scientific analyses confirm the additional use of a blue or green pigment that has been discolored over time.”

[thunderjackal]

*scuttles in and drops this at your door* jmart dnd au anyone??? anyone???

anyway trying to improve on backgrounds and I think this turned out really well as I haven't drawn a proper forest background before, its a little cluttered but alas.

alt w/o eye below the cut