Music in Italy

The Etruscans were the earliest people of Italy to cultivate art, which they adopted from the Greeks of Asia Minor. Of Greek instruments, the flutes, single and double, were especially in vogue, figuring at sacrifices, funerals, and feasts, as early as 167 B.C. The Romans, whose genius was practical rather than ideal, early borrowed Grecian instruments; and after the Roman conquets, and the establishment of the Empire, all kinds of alien music were introduced. Dionysian troupes of actors came from Greece, pantominists from Egypt; while large and blatant orchestras were organized. Trumpets, introduced by the Lydians, especially attracted Roman martial spirit, and were constructed in many forms. Roman emperors affected art, notably Nero (r. 54-68 A.D.), in whose reign the organ, invented in the third century B.C. by an Alexandrian mechanic, became popular. In these "hydraulic organs" wind was forced into the pipes by means of water pressure.

Thus the Romans performed for music a service similar to that which the did for other arts; namely, while contributing little that was original, they yet disseminated broadcast muscial eideas hitherto peculiar to individual nations. A Roman who especially contributed to this result was the theorist Beothius, who improved tuning and notation, and laid down rules in his "Art of Music" which sought to reconcile the science of Pythagoras with the astheticism of Plato and Aristotle. His book had wide influence, and was regarded as an authorized guide for composers up to the sixteenth century.