Romansch Music
The Romansch music is known from some of the Greek sources and some through the
writings of later Roman authors. There are 40 deciphered examples of Greek
musical notation Romansch music. There are various reasons that why little is
known of Romansch music because when the Christianity became the official
religion of the Roman empire the early fathers of the Christian Church did not
approve of the music of theatre, festivals, and pagan religion music.
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The Romansch music was mostly monophonic i.e. they used only one way of
singing that is single melodies with no harmony. The Romansch music was
influenced with Middle Eastern and African music. Therefore there is no
doubt that there were signs of non-European music that is Middle Eastern and
African music in the Romansch music.
The Romans may have borrowed the Greek method of ‘enchiriadic notation’ to
record their music. In English notation ‘a’, ‘g’, ‘f’ and ‘c’ indicated a
series of four succeeding tones with the range of a tetra chord. Though none
of the musicians are shown singing music and also very few written examples
have been discovered.
A well-known philosopher has also written the music very systematically
rather than description of contemporary music. The Romans must have tuned
their instruments to Greek modes. The military music was also played on the
trumpet like tube. There was a wide range of musical instruments in Romansch
music from within all the common regions of a modern orchestra.
The instrument named tuba was a conical mouthpiece like that of the modern
French horn. This mouthpiece was placed in such a way in the mouth where the
sound came like bells ringing similar to that of the modern trumpet. This
one was the only one instrument that was capable of single overtone series.
The cornu was a musical instrument that was used in playing the military
music.
The aulos consisted of two double reed pipes generally played with a mouth
band to hold both pipes steadily between the player’s tips. There were
plucked string instruments also used in playing the Romansch music like The
lyre, was a harp with a frame of wood or tortoise shell and various number
of strings stretched from a cross bar to the sounding body. The Romans
abandoned sophisticated instrument called kitharag.
The lute was another instrument that was like a guitar and the ancient
Romans played it. This instrument was easy to play. The kithara played both
kinds of music that is the popular music and also serious form of music. The
organs were also used in playing Romansch music. The bagpipe was one organ
that was blown by the lungs or by some mechanical bellows. Also there were
various rattles, bells and tambourines.
The ancient Romansch music the Drum and instruments like tymapni served
various musical and other purposes in ancient Rome, including backgrounds
for rhythmic dance, celebrity rites. Romansch music was distinguished for
its having a steady beat, no doubt through the use of drums and the effects
of clapping and stamping..