1 THE EXHIBITION - MUSIC, AN ANCIENT ART FORM

Описание: The Exhibition
The permanent collection of musical instruments in the San Vincenzino Archaeological Park consists of faithful and accurate handcrafted reconstructions of all major musical instruments from Etruscan and Roman times. Here you can not only touch and play some of the instruments, but also play and listen to the sounds of instruments from the Roman era, thanks to a push-button panel, and listen to some Etruscan sounds by framing the Qr Code on the exhibition showcase. In the adjacent room you will then find, in addition to the musical instruments of ancient Rome, a reconstruction of a Roman banquet hall, the triclinium. Incenses evoke the sacred olfactory landscape.
It will be an immersive experience where all our senses will be involved.
Let’s set off on a journey back in time!

Music, an Ancient Art Form
The birth of music is lost in the mists of time: in fact, the first instruments date back to the Palaeolithic era.
Later peoples of the past such as the Egyptians, Sumerians and Hittites tried their hand at playing a wide variety of instruments, from wind, string and percussion instruments. Music almost always accompanied singing and dancing. The oldest musical scores date back to the Sumerians, but the most intact document is the so-called Hymn to the goddess Nikkal, dating back to 1400 B.C. in the Hurrian language. It was, however, the Greeks who made music a fundamental part of the education of young people from good families, with strict rules on rhythm and intonation to be used according to the occasion, to which Asian melodies were later added. For them, every instrument had a mythical origin. The Etruscans were original in their musical practice, which they placed at the centre of every activity, playing both instruments derived from those of the Greeks and those of their own invention. The music of the Romans was multi-ethnic, contaminated by Greek, Etruscan, Egyptian and Oriental music. Musicians were specialised, belonged to various guilds and were also present in armies.
The sources for trying to understand the modalities of Etruscan and Roman music, which must have been different depending on the context in which it was played, and the characteristics of musical instruments, are mainly historical-literary, and iconographic, such as the images we see on vases, in frescoes, and in mosaics. The remains of instruments are in fact rare and the scores almost completely absent, because they have been lost or because they are rarely used.

Project: Francesco Landucci and Cinzia Murolo
Experimental reconstruction of musical instruments: Francesco Landucci
Triclinium room: reconstruction by Francesco Landucci based on a project by Cinzia Murolo
Panel editing: Cinzia Murolo
Graphic design: Diego Luci
Translation by: Kim Bizzarri