Voices & Instruments

Some of the instruments found in the Stone and Bronze Age are:

- phalange whistle: it was made of bone and it could only play one note.      

- musical bow: it was a hunting bow and they changed its use.

- animal antlers.

- the bullroarer: it was a piece of bone or wood attached to a cord that produced a kind of buzz from its rotation. This buzz varied depending on the speed of the rotation.

- bone scraper: a bone with protuberances was scraped with a stick.

Mesopotamia: the instruments that are known are :

- Lyre       - Lute 

- Harp     - Rattle      - Drums

Egypt: they are very similar to Mesopotamia. Only the shapes are modified. Two trumpets were found in perfect condition when the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered.

 



China: in Confucio’s book (551-479 BC), Book of Songs, there were texts but not songs. Some instruments are:

- Sheng (mouth organ with bamboo and pumpkin)

- Kin (zither with 5 or 7 strings)

- P´ai-siao (pan flute).

India: some instruments are:

- Tabla: is the most typical instruments (two drums)

- Vina: is a zither

- Sarod: is a lute
- Sarangi: is a 4-string instrument, with 20-sympathetic steel or brass strings.

The instruments used in Greece were:

String instruments:

- Lyre: it was played standing, and Apollo was always represented with it. Among them, the oldest one is the phorminx.

- Harp

- Lute

Wind instruments:

- Double-aulos: it was used in musical competitions for songs with choir and dances.

- Panpipe: pan flute (Pan was a pastoral Greek god), that’s why it was always related to happy songs.

- Salpinx: instrument to send messages similar to a trumpet.

Percussion instruments:

- Tympanum: tambourine

- Krotalum: zills or finger cymbals

- Cymbal: metallic plates

Instruments in Rome were copied from the Greek ones so there are many that are the same like the zither, the lyre, the panpipe, the tympanum, the krotalum, the cymbal. The proper Roman instruments were:  

Keyboard instruments:

- Hydraulis: hydraulic organ      

Wind instruments

- Tuba: straight trumpet, similar to greek salpinx.

- Bucina: curved trumpet

- Lituus: kind of horn

- Cornu: long metallic horn, bent in a semicircle, with a bar to lean it on the shoulder. It was used by the army to send messages.

- Tibia: it was the name of the double-aulos.

Percussion instruments

- Scabillum: foot rattle