What we Learn from our Predecessors
Each generation of music archaeologists enjoys a huge advantage over its predecessor as technological developments offer the opportunity for greater exploration of the material available. However, they also suffer the disadvantage that, as the resource in terms of physical objects, iconography and written materials is, in effect, relatively finite, much of this has been already worked over many times. Of course new material does arise occasionally but its appearance is very rare and somewhat haphazard.
New Techniques: New Advantages
Nevertheless, post-war workers began to apply new technologies in new ways which allowed new approaches to the subject to develop. One great step forward was the wider application of carbon 14 dating in all manner of archaeological investigations. Although developed in the 1940s, it was only post war that it became more-widely available. It became another tool, another analytical technique, to add to the armoury. Also at this time, electronics was developing rapidly, spurred on by the demand os the second World War. In 1946, Hans Hickmann producted his book, La Trompette dans l’Égypte Ancienne. In this, he used modern analogues of the Tutankhamun Trumpets to carry out acoustic analysis of their output. While I feel that such an analysis of simple open-aperture brass instruments is likely to yield little information, his study was a model for such an investigation on a particular instrument genre. Many modern scientific techniques offer the opportunity to gather masses of data but also raise the possibility that such data, in all its apparent precision, may well create false illusions of scientific veracity.
The Emergence and Offerings of EMAP
In 2010, a small group of EU-based music archaeologists came together to create the European Music Archaeology Project (EMAP). Our aim was to identify and present to the European public the interconnectedness of ancient European musical experience. This was to be achieved by means of a travelling exhibition featuring modern analogues of ancient instruments along with accompanying workshops and performances. A book would accompany the exhibition and a series of CDs would highlight the instruments and performances featured in the project. The application was submitted to Strand 1.1 of the EU’s Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agengy (EACEA) in 2012 and ranked first out of the 80 projects entered for this award.
Individual music archaeologists were were given the task of looking after particular instrument genres or themes, my remit being to define and manage the brass instrument component. This entailed specifying, designing where necessary and commissioning instruments for display and performance. I, together with my colleague Martin Sims made a number of these instruments and I added instruments from my collection which I had made earlier.
The exhibition toured in seven different countries and this and the associated performances and workshops attracted tens of thousands of visitors during its two years of touring. The book and the CDs were produced but, to my mind, were less successful in achieving the aim defined in the original proposal: that of broadening understanding among the general public.
The book was more of the same, a series of ‘academic’ articles of a type which had appeared in many journals over the past decade. It is an excellent music archaeological work but, to my mind, should have been focussed much more-directly on the people who chose to get dressed, go out and pay to see the exhibition or a performance. I am not aware of the content of the CDs other than the brass one as I was not included in the list of recipients so am unable to comment on these. The brass CD, however, features only a small subset of the instruments developed for EMAP plus one that had no relationship with EMAP at all. The sleeve of the CD made reference only to the Giant Celtic Horns of Ancient Europe, ignoring the majority of the vast range of instruments used by the Native European peoples as well as those of the Etruscans and Romans and other peoples of the continent. Equally importantly to my eyes, it missed the opportunity to present ancient brass instruments as a whole to a new audience. Of course, in making that statement, I am revealing a desire of mine to spread the cause of music archaeology to a wider audience. Perhaps in the first instance this might only include the current concert-going audience but that would be a start.
In making this statement, I accept that not everyone in the music archaeology community shares my view but I see the two aims of music archaeology, serious research and informing/educating beyond academia as going hand in hand. At the end of the day, those who have received financial support from the public purse, either directly or indirectly have a moral duty to disseminate the results of their endevours in a way which benefits their ultimate paymaster, the general public. Here also I have to declare a position in that the vast majority of my research endeavours have been funded by myself – but I still have no desire to hide them.
The Work of Present-day Music Archaeologists
Following this diatribe, I have to reign back my comments by stating that, in my view, there are some examples of excellence in present-day music archaeology. The group of music archaeologists currently working with the Ancient Greek and Roman tibia, for instance exhibit an enthusiasm which is infective. The scientific investigations of Stefan Hagel are an example to us all. His philological background and all-embracing knowledge of the literature helps enormously but his self-developed software modelling tools and understanding of the organological basis of these instruments completes the circle. Coupling his playing skills with those of Barnaby Brown and Olga Sutkowska they have circular-breathed new life into these ancient instruments.
Once again I have to declare that I have worked with these three musician researchers as I have with Cristina Majnero and Roberto Stanco. This latter pair formed their group, LVDI SCÆNICI, a small performance ensemble recreating ancient Greek and Roman music for performances all over Italy. While much of their performances may be speculative, they are underpinned by research and great performance skills and provide a flavour of the live performances of the ancient world for a modern audience. I can see no way in which their efforts can be anything but beneficial to music archaeology. In commenting upon the efforts of these few people, I do not in any way wish to minimise the excellent work done by so many other people in this field. It just so happens that these are colleagues with whom I have interacted.
Field Archaeology and Music Archaeology
Field archaeology rarely raises its head in music archaeology but, when a fitting which could be that of an Anglo-Saxon lyre was found in a recent dig, another colleague, Graeme Lawson was called in, him knowing a thing or two about Anglo-Saxon lyres. Being constructed principally of wood, and given the nature of the deposits, fittings such as the one first identified were likely to be all that had survived the ravages of time. The decision was made, therefore, to lift the block of soil which contained whatever remained of the lyre and to investigate the deposit further in the laboratory.
A subsequent CT scan of the block of deposit showed the shape of the lyre, along with its other silver fittings in place. This information provided the archaeologists with the confidence to begin the careful excavation of the block of deposit. Their methodical paring away of the soil eventually revealed the other fittings which had been revealed on the scan but the outline of the instrument which had been seen on the screen was never found. It turned out to have been a ghost but one which was created by material which the scan could detect but which was undetectable by human eye.
This brilliant piece of modern science had seen the ghost of the lyre which had been hidden from human eyes but was rescued from oblivion by the science.
Another piece of field archaeology in which music archaeologists were involved happened in Ireland when, during a rescue dig, several wooden pipes were found in a fulacht fiadh or burnt mound. The excavators asked Simon O’Dwyer to take a look and he invited me over to Dublin to cast an eye over these. The pipes were, to my eyes, undoubtedly parts of some form of musical instrument and Simon and my enthusiasm for the find clearly fed back to the excavation team. They returned to the dig site and went over the excavated material with a fine tooth comb, revealing several other pieces of similar pipe. Our co-operation with the field archaeologists enabled a much more-comprehensive suite of material to be recovered, adding much to the possibilities of interpretation. Scientific work further enjanced the find as carbon-14 dating revealed that the timber dated to just before 2000 BCE which was right at the beginning of the Bronze Age in that location. To date, the find remains unique, adding to the difficulty of interpreting its performance characteristics, a situation which is not uncommon in the music-archaeological world. Neverthess, I was able to recreate a modern analogue of this find and incorporate into an instrument which Simon still plays very beautifully to this day.