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Ancient Instruments & Music

ramonmercado

ramonmercado

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Another find in High Pasture cave.

Skye cave find western Europe's 'earliest string instrument'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-h ... s-17537147

The notched wood is believed to be the bridge of an ancient lyre

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Archaeologists believe they have uncovered the remains of the earliest stringed instrument to be found so far in western Europe.

The small burnt and broken piece of carved piece of wood was found during an excavation in a cave on Skye.

Archaeologists said it was likely to be part of the bridge of a lyre dating to more than 2,300 years ago.

Music archaeologist Dr Graeme Lawson said the discovery marked a "step change" in music history.

The Cambridge-based expert said: "It pushes the history of complex music back more than a thousand years, into our darkest pre-history.

"And not only the history of music but more specifically of song and poetry, because that's what such instruments were very often used for.

"The earliest known lyres date from about 5,000 years ago, in what is now Iraq, and these were already complicated and finely-made structures.

"But here in Europe even Roman traces proved hard to locate. Pictures, maybe, but no actual remains."

The remains, which were unveiled in Edinburgh, were found in High Pasture Cave, where Bronze and Iron Age finds have been made previously.

Cultural historian Dr Purser said: "What, for me, is so exciting about this find is that it confirms the continuity of a love of music amongst the Western Celts.


Archaeologists said the find marked a "step change" in music history
"Stringed instruments, being usually made of wood, rarely survive in the archaeological record, but they are referred to in the very earliest literature, and, in various forms, were to feature on many stone carvings in Scotland and Ireland, and to become emblematic in both countries."

Steven Birch, an archaeologist involved in the excavation, said deeper sections of the cave were reached using a flight of stone steps.

He said: "Descending the steep and narrow steps, the transition from light to dark transports you out of one world into a completely different realm, where the human senses are accentuated.

"Within the cave, sound forms a major component of this transformation, the noise of the underground stream in particular producing a calming environment."

Dr Fraser Hunter, principal curator of Iron Age and Roman Collections at National Museums Scotland, said the fragment of musical instrument put "sound into the silent past".

Culture and External Affairs Secretary Fiona Hyslop added: "This is an incredible find and it clearly demonstrates how our ancestors were using music and ritual in their lives.

"The evidence shows that Skye was a gathering place over generations and that it obviously had an important role to play in the celebration and ritual of life more than 2,000 years ago."

AOC Archaeology in Edinburgh worked on conserving the bridge.

It was among several artefacts recovered from the cave in a project supported Highland Council, Historic Scotland and National Museums of Scotland.
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I'm hoping for more links to sounds here. A year or two back there was a thread linking to the sounding of ancient Egyptian trumpets found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. There was recording from the 1930s which was kind of derided by the board members for its tinny, unimpressive sound. I preferred to imagine the effects of a hundred within a giant vaulted stone chamber, which would have been deeply impressive. I liked the sound as it was, but can't find the thread right now. Once I do, I'll link it in here.

The thread's for any musical styles outside of the most recent centuries. The older the better. Tudor-era Crumhorns are nice and there are plenty of those, but there is something even more haunting and evocative about muscial sounds rising from the darker long-distant periods of history when music perhaps had a more esoteric function than it has in our own recent history. Calls to arms, evocation of spirits in religious ceremonies, and repetitive rhythms and melodies evoking trance states are just what I'm after. The instruments can be wind, string or percussive, it doesn't matter. As long as they are drawn from deep ancient culture. It would be good to provide some cultural context if tis known, but not essential.

This first video features reproductions of Irish horns from as long ago as the Bronze Age. It is worth playing through to the long horn at 5:20, which evokes battle dread so perfectly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4t8ap5KXqQ

Mockery is welcome, as long as it's funny. No fart jokes, please. 8)
 
Here's jimV1's link to that Egyptian trumpet (edit: actually two trumpets http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13092827). It is from a thread called "Mummy's Curse" in Earth Mysteries: Land. The trumpet is said to have been part of Tut's funerary treasures. The link features a soundbite of the horn being played in the 1930s.
This is a new Youtube link to the soundbite no longer on the BBC page.



Here is a short documentary on Tut's trumpets and how the artefacts came to be sounded (the same broadcast recordings feature here).
Interesting events occured at the sounding. Listen in to the tale.
 
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Bronze Age lurs from northern Europe. These instruments are quite large, with a deeper more earthy tambre. Some of the attached info:

Description:
The bronze lur is made entirely of bronze. There are two forms of lurs. The latest and most developed is the "S-shaped". This lur can be described as a thin-walled, conical tube, about 1 meter 50 cm to 2 meter 25 cm.

The other older form of lurs, less developed, was shorter, slightly bent and lacking the endplate. The "Wismar horn" from Germany - an older lur type.

The earliest references to an instrument called the lur come from Icelandic sagas, where they are described as war instruments, used to marshal troops and frighten the enemy. These lurs, several examples of which have been discovered in longboats, are straight, end-blown wooden tubes, around one meter long. They do not have finger holes, and are played much like a modern brass instrument.

The word lur is still very much alive in the Swedish language, indicating any funnel-shaped implement used for producing or receiving sound. For instance, the Swedish word for headphones is hörlurar (hearing-lurs), and a mobile telephone might be referred to as a lur in contemporary Swedish (derived from telefonlur, telephone handset). The Danish butter brand Lurpak is named after the lur, and the package design contains pictures of lurs.

The Lure from the Bronze Age are one of the oldest musical instruments in the world - that still can be played.

The King's Grave near Kivik info:
The King's Grave near Kivik (Kungagraven i Kivik, Kiviksgraven) in the southeastern portion of the Swedish province of Skåne is what remains of an unusually grand Nordic Bronze Age double burial c. 1000 BC.

The site is located about 320 metres (1,050 ft) from the shore of the eastern coast of Scania in southernmost Sweden. In spite of the facts that the site has been used as a quarry, with its stones carried off for other uses, and that it was restored carelessly once it was known to be an ancient burial, these two burials are unique.

In both construction and in size—it is a circular site measuring 75 metres (246 ft) in diameter—this tomb differs from most European burials from the Bronze Age. Most importantly, the cists are adorned with petroglyphs. The images carved into the stones depict people, animals (including birds and fish), ships, lurs being played, symbols, and a chariot drawn by two horses and having four-spoked wheels.


Music:

From "Fornnordiska Klanger". Played on Bronze Lurs dating back to the first millenium BCE! As close to Indo-European Music as you can get basically ;)

From "Fornnordiska Klanger." Played on instruments found in the King's tomb at Kivik, Sweden, c. 1000 BCE!


History documentary: Stenristarna
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The video features sounds of these lurs as well as additional information on the instruments.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld6Dt-Lce6M
 
Love it Skinny!! I've posted Tut's trumpets over at the Bronze Age Center a couple of times in the past. I do Egyptian stuff! One of our members, Jeroen Zuiderwijk,will eventually try to cast a lur too! :shock:
http://z8.invisionfree.com/Bronze_Age_C ... topic=1931
Love the fact that it had to be done by candlelight! And everyone was freaked out. :twisted:
 
For some of the deepest ancient horn sounds, one has to go to Tibet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1_C3TLXRlI

The deep horns featured in this track blending sounds by Tibetan monks and celtic music artists Brother off the Baraka soundtrack are also very evocative of battle. Michael Stearns, mostly known as an ambient moog/synth specialist, is an artist who brings ancient and modern instruments together to produce some very trippy stuff.

If this link doesn't take you to the right track, it is on track 7 of the playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUXNME9bhNQ&list=PLB4AB77FDC5EB7208
 
Some very cool horns at the intro to this scene from Altered States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_y9eRzk_Oc
I doubt they are culturally contextualised to the Mexican setting, but they might be. It is hard to find info about where the soundtrack editors source their tracks sometimes.
 
skinny said:
Some very cool horns at the intro to this scene from Altered States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_y9eRzk_Oc
I doubt they are culturally contextualised to the Mexican setting, but they might be. It is hard to find info about where the soundtrack editors source their tracks sometimes.
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Love that too. Even in unaltered states..
 
Michael Levy deserves respect, i think, for reverse engineering many of the instruments of the ancient world. I bought his Echoes of Ancient Rome album and listen on occasion to other stuff he's done on youtube. here's his website:

http://www.ancientlyre.com/
 
Edit: Added, 'Instruments' to the title. P_M


Fascinating stuff. I really love early music and instruments, but most of what's available only goes back about a thousand years. There's something magical about music's ability to act like a time machine. Whether it's the 1960s, the 1920s, the 1820s, or the 1220s, music can give you a brief window into the emotions and concerns of another time. With really ancient music, that goes double.
 
Twin_Star said:
Michael Levy deserves respect, i think, for reverse engineering many of the instruments of the ancient world. I bought his Echoes of Ancient Rome album and listen on occasion to other stuff he's done on youtube. here's his website:

http://www.ancientlyre.com/
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That's a great link. Thanks. The artist has uploaded samples of his rendition of the Hebrew Kinnor (lyre) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKMk1nj81w8
It must be quite difficult (impossible? maybe not) to reproduce the structures of musical pieces that existed before the annotations were written down, but Michael Levy's interpretation is very pleasing. I wonder how close to the original style it really is. I'll look more into his research later.

There's something magical about music's ability to act like a time machine. Whether it's the 1960s, the 1920s, the 1820s, or the 1220s, music can give you a brief window into the emotions and concerns of another time. With really ancient music, that goes double.
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This is really true, and a nice way to put what I was trying to to say in the OP. The sound itself prompts the imagination; some might even argue, the genetic memory of our own ancestral pasts. Even without instruments, A capella singing of ancient songs and verse churns up something primal.

One of my favourite harmonies from Clannad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjj64PFO_DU
 
bunnymousekitt said:
I posted this some years ago, and don't know if it could be considered music as such. It is most definitely an ancient sound, at least:

Aztec "whistles of death"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Nk6FnNxDU
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The whistles of central and south America are sounds I've heard in many different places, but I hadn't heard those harsh screechy varieties before. Are they sure they're not broken? :lol: Another I've actually played (not difficult - you just tip it on its end) is the Chilean rain stick. This video doesn't give a very clear example, but this instrument produces one of the most soothing hypnotic sounds I've heard. The one I played belongs to a Chilean-Australian friend and is longer and thinner with far more intermediate 'toothpicks' inserted the entire length of the stem, so the grains have more work to do to reach the bottom. One turning allows the sound to sustain for about 3 minutes.

Chilean rain stick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBlTwqDx5-A
 
dreeness said:
Some Viking sounds and stuff:
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/music.shtml
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Goldmine. Thanks very much. I'm watching series one of Vikings (2013 - Thread here) again and have downloaded some of the music of Norse 'dark-folk' group Wardruna whose music features in the series. This band consists of some of the members of the currently in-hiatus black metal group whose singer burned a cathedral and murdered the priest around 10 years ago.

Their album, Runaljod-Gap Var Ginnunga, is here uploaded to Youtube and features a number of spooky instrumental sounds and gutteral vocals set to extremely doomy melodies. Dark. Dark. Dark. I love it.
Updated link to album on Youtube
 
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The Serpent :shock:
Came across this bizzare looking wind instrument while searching for a good crumhorn link. 16th century, French in origin, sounds like the instrument used in the theme of Open All Hours. Has a rather solemn tone. Not surprised it isn't more widely known. It would have its place in an ensemble, but does nothing for me on its own.

Here's a rendition of Amazing Grace (The Doleful Mix :lol:). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dwuW2CbO54
There's a sound sample at the Wiki too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_(instrument)
 
rynner2 said:
Some quotes about, info on, and pics of, the serpent:
http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/serpent.htm

Modern Music for Serpent:
http://www.serpentwebsite.com/mmus.htm

On 6-7 October 2011 a scholarly symposium entitled “Le Serpent sans Sornettes” devoted to the serpent was held in Paris:
http://www.historicbrass.org/Portals/0/ ... 202011.pdf
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Thanks for the links. From the top link:
It was used in sacred music to reinforce low men's voices. When well played, it blends with voices and gives a depth to the choral sound. During the next two hundred years after its invention, it was used as a military band instrument and later evolved into the ophecleide and tuba.
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marionXXX said:
Have you heard The Kilmartin Sessions? Hard to find a decent review but this is OK
http://www.greenmanreview.com/cd/cd_va_kilmartin.html
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Great link, Marion. Couldn't find any of their music available on Youtube, so I need to look a little deeper when I have time, but here's a link to one of the instruments they reconstructed - The Carlyx.

A longer video featuring "The first piece ever composed for the carnyx, scored for 4 multi-tracked carnyces". Wonderful sample. Some good images of the beast too.



From Marion's link:
The Carnyx was a long Celtic drone instrument made of beaten bronze and held vertically so that the sound travels from more than four metres above the ground. It was known through much of Europe from about 200BC to 200AD and was widely depicted, notably on the Gundestrup bowl which shows three carnyxes being played simultaneously. The end of the instrument is in the form of a wild boar's head, and it has a movable tongue and lower jaw!
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It sounds amazing. I suspect my Youtube link features an electronically amplified output, but I could be wrong - what I thought was the microphone attached to the boar's head looks like it could be the moveable jaw quoted above. If it isn't amplified, that's some hearty volume. A line of 12 of these babies in full brazen battle blast would scare the kilts off the opposition (I know - Scots clansmen historically did not wear kilts, they wore breeches).
 
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A 600 years music hidden in the Bosch’s triptych – The Garden of Earthly Delights - Symbolism in Games

A 600 years music hidden in the Bosch’s triptych – The Garden of Earthly Delights

Here you can find a recording of music hidden Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights. The notes were there (on the backside of a sinner tormenting in hell) for around 600 years and only now we can listen to the hell music from the Middle Ages.

Once zoomed-in, the third panel reveals the mysterious series of notes.

Taking into consideration that literally every painting of Bosch had a symbolic signs, we can assume that he could have been foreseen it or planned to attract attention by the music motifs. Just imagine how much information is stuffed in these pictures. Even simple notes have their interpretation and convey symbols of pleasure, lust and naughty habits. All Bosch's works are a subject of considerable debate.

The original of The Garden of Earthly Delights is in Madrid. This painting had much more meaning to the 16-th century people because of its rich symbolism. The back side of the Bosch’s triptych forms another picture, an image of how the world looked like when God had created it. If we take a closer look at the front side of the painting we will find many interesting things and the image will speak out in words:


Ladder - symbolizes a way of learning the alchemy or intercourse

Cut Leg - is a sign of heresy or magic

Arrow - means Evil.

Key - knowledge

Inverted Funnel – false wisdom or fraud

Black Birds – sins

OWL - Bosch especially loved this symbol. He considered the owl an evil night bird, predator. It symbolizes stupidity, spiritual blindness and ruthlessness of the earth.
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http://casuallog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02 ... oschs.html

Links to Youtube audio clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPA4OW2FjFg
 
skinny said:
dreeness said:
Some Viking sounds and stuff:
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/music.shtml
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Goldmine. Thanks very much. I'm watching series one of Vikings (2013 - Thread here) again and have downloaded some of the music of Norse 'dark-folk' group Wardruna whose music features in the series. This band consists of some of the members of the currently in-hiatus black metal group whose singer burned a cathedral and murdered the priest around 10 years ago.

Their album, Runaljod-Gap Var Ginnunga, is here uploaded to Youtube and features a number of spooky instrumental sounds and gutteral vocals set to extremely doomy melodies. Dark. Dark. Dark. I love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak0ZmAvAyB8
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Coincedentally, I've been introduced to Wardruna, within the last week!

If you like them, you might like Nortt; even darker. Way darker!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qdk5OhpULs

Sorry for going OT; none of this stuff is truly ancient

:oops:
 
skinny said:
dreeness said:
Some Viking sounds and stuff:
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/music.shtml
Click to expand...
Goldmine. Thanks very much. I'm watching series one of Vikings (2013 - Thread here) again and have downloaded some of the music of Norse 'dark-folk' group Wardruna whose music features in the series. This band consists of some of the members of the currently in-hiatus black metal group whose singer burned a cathedral and murdered the priest around 10 years ago.

Their album, Runaljod-Gap Var Ginnunga, is here uploaded to Youtube and features a number of spooky instrumental sounds and gutteral vocals set to extremely doomy melodies. Dark. Dark. Dark. I love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak0ZmAvAyB8
Click to expand...


There used to be cassettes you could buy in museum gift shops, like "Sounds of the Viking Age", or Roman or Medieval etc. The one I have has "1985 Archaeologia Musica" (and some other stuff) stamped on it.
 
skinny said:
Fluttermoth said:
... Nortt; even darker. Way darker!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qdk5OhpULs

Sorry for going OT; none of this stuff is truly ancient

:oops:
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Spectacular. Beautiful. You can almost smell the corpse. It relates in so many ways to the ancient muse I'm trying to raise here. More, please.
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If I ever come across anything half as good, I'll pass it on! Glad you enjoyed it; no one I know in RL has understood my enthusiasm for Nortt; not even my 17yo black metal loving son. Not fast enough for him :roll:
 
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