Several years ago, I went down a shallow rabbit hole on Roman history and culture, and eventually ended up googling “roman music”. The early music group Synaulia seemed to be leaders in the field of performing Roman music, so I gave their two CDs a listen.
I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. The music is a revelation.
On one hand, it is what you might expect Roman music to sound like: it’s early-sounding (I’m guessing in Pythagorean tuning) and played on early-sounding string and wind instruments (probably lyre, cithara, and various flutes, reeds and horns) with vocals and percussion. Yet the music has a sort of otherworldly quality, like a dream involving family members that is simultaneously weird and unfamiliar.
The people who comprise Synaulia are more than just musicians; they are “a team of musicians, archeologists, paleontologists and choreographers dedicated to the application of their historical research to ancient music and dance, in particular to the ancient Etruscan and Roman periods”, according to their Wikipedia entry . One assumes that the group took some license in their reconstruction of ancient music theory and performance, but assuming they were reasonably rigorous and the music reasonably reflects actual Roman music…those Romans were a l'il freaky. Go figure. But I am no musicologist, and unsure of how truly strange or unique Roman music is (or is not) compared to, say, the ancient Greeks, Phoenicians or Egyptians. More research to be done, I suppose.
Synaulia produced two CDs:
- Music of Ancient Rome, Vol. I, featuring wind Instruments, and
- Music of Ancient Rome, Vol. II, featuring stringed instruments.
Many of the tracks seem to be odes or paeans to gods, goddesses or important figures. Others seem to be ritualistic and/or theatrical and, as far as I’m concerned, those are the most interesting. A few of the tracks that stood out to me in terms of pure musical or sonic interest are Oraculum, Isis, Neniae and Synphoniaci.
If you are looking for something that is at once familiar but also rather strange, I highly recommend these two albums. Listening to the music is like taking an ethnographic vacation to ancient Rome, where you might find yourself alternatingly at a pious invocation, then at an impious bacchanale. Pack lightly, but strategically.
Synaulia’s music is on the Amiata Records label.
Their music is streamable on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube.
Written by Brian Tibbs