Deductions about the music of the ancient Celts of the La Tène period and their Gallo-Roman and Romano-British descendants of Late Antiquity rely primarily on Greek and Roman sources, as well as on archaeological finds and interpretations including the reconstruction of the Celts' ancient instruments. Most of the textual information centers on military conflicts and on maybe the most prominent Celtic instrument of its time, the carnyx.
The Celts and Greco-Roman music In 54 BC Cicero wrote that he "did not fancy" there were any musically educated people on the British isle.Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters to Atticus 4.17.6. Independent of the validity of Cicero's remark, the situation was different for the Gallic regions. By the time of Augustus, musical education had widely gained ground in Gaul, as Iulius Sacrovir used the erudite Gauls as a decoy, after Sacrovir and Iulius Florus had occupied the city of Augustodonum during the Gallic insurrection in 21 AD.Tacitus, Annals 3.43 The Gauls took great pride in their musical culture, which is shown by the remark of Gaius Iulius Vindex, the Gallic rebel and later senator under Claudius, who shortly before the arrival in Rome called emperor Nero a malus citharodeus ("bad cithara player") and reproached him with inscitia […] artis ("ignorance of the arts").Suetonius, Nero 41.1; Cassius Dio, Roman History 63.22.4–6. Nero however was himself so proud and self-absorbed that such criticism didn't bother him anymore. However, Celtic music culture was spread inhomogeneously over Europe: Maximinus Thrax, the Thracian-Roman emperor of Gothic descent, annoyed his fellow Romans because he was unable to appreciate a mimic stage song.Historia Augusta: "The Two Maximi", 9.5
The Carnyx
The carnyx (plural: carnyces; Greek: κάρνυξ—"karnyx"—or rarely: καρνον—"karnon") was a Celtic-Dacian variant of the Etruscan-Roman lituus and belongs to the family of brass instruments.The classification is based on the method of sound production, not on the instrument's construction material. It was an ſ-shaped valveless horn made of beaten bronze and consisted of a tube between one and two meters long, whereas the diameter of the tube is unknown.The length of the instrument is deduced not from archaeological excavations but from depictions of the instrument, which have to be taken with a grain of salt, because they could have been created as an artistic exaggeration. Usually the carnyx's length is given as lying between 1 and 1½ meters, although some archaeologists assume that the instrument was sometimes "man-high". (Christophe Maniquet & Martine Fabioux, Decouverte à Tintignac Naves en Corrèze. Un dépôt exceptionnel d'objets gaulois ) Archaeological finds date back to the Bronze Age, and the instrument itself is attested for in contemporary sources between ca. 300 BC and 200 AD. The carnyx was in widespread use in Britain, France, parts of Germany, eastward to Romania and beyond, even as far as India, where bands of Celtic mercenaries took it on their travels.Two carnyx players are e.g. depicted on the frieze of the Great Stupa in Sanchi, India.
Gallic coins show the carnyx behind the head of the goddess Gallia or held by a chieftain, a charioteer or a Gallic Victoria. On British coins the instrument is seen swung by mounted Celtic warriors or chiefs. Roman coins, e.g. those heralding Caesar's victory over Gaul, depict the carnyx on Roman Tropaion as spoils of war. Other depictions are known from the Augustus statue of Prima Porta.Gymnasium 63, 1956, 349 In addition several instruments are illustrated on Trajan's Column, carried by Dacian warriors. The carnyx's most prominent feature is the bell, which was constructed as an animal head, either as one of a serpent, a fish, a bird, a wolf, a horse, an ass or a wild boar. The earliest depiction shows the head of a dragon and was found on Aetolian victory coins from the 3rd century BC, which commemorate the expulsion of the Gallic warriors, who had marauded the Delphi sanctum.Head, Hist. Num., Oxford 1911, p. 334, quoted in: Gerold Walser: "Römische und gallische Militärmusik". In Victor Ravizza, Festschrift Arnold Geering, Bern 1972 Behn (1912) interpreted the many bell types as distinguishing features of the various Celtic clans and chiefdoms.Friedrich Behn, "Die Musik im römischen Heere", Mainzer Zeitschrift 7, 1912, pp. 36–47 Others have suggested a mythological component,Heike Zechner: Wenn Troubadix die Karnyx bläst which is the most logical explanation, since the Deskford Carnyx in Scotland was a sacrificial offering, of which the possibly dismantled head could have been the key element.John Purser & Fraser Hunter, About the Carnyx Based on this independent development of the bell an attempt was made to derive the Etruscan lituus from the carnyx, but without success.Curt Sachs: "Lituus und Karnyx"; in: Festschrift für Rochus von Liliencron, Leipzig 1910, pp. 241–246. Contra: Günter Fleischhauer, "Bucina und Cornu", Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift Halle-Wittenberg 9, 1960,
Playing techniques and features The sound of the carnyx was described as lugubrious and harsh, perhaps due to the loosened tongue of the bell,Diodorus Siculus 5.30.3 = Poseidonios FGr Hist 87 F 116; see also below. which shows that the instrument must have been a discrete enhancement of the Etruscan lituus, the sound of which was mostly described as bright and piercing.Quintus Ennius, Annals 530; Silius Italicus, Punica 13.146; Quintus Horatius Flaccus Carmina 1.1.23; Publius Papinius Statius Thebaid 6.227–230; Lucius Annaeus Seneca Minor Thyestes 574 et al. The carnyx was held vertically so that the sound would travel from more than three meters above the ground. Reconstructions have shown that the instrument's embouchure must have been cut diagonally as an oval opening, so the carnyx could be played in a similar fashion as a modern-day trumpet, i.e. with vibrating lips, however blown from the side.Proposed by Axel May and Heike Zechner; the original reconstruction however featured a bent tube toward the mouthpiece. Due to the absence of valves and crooks, melodies were created by producing harmonics with overblowing techniques, as the reconstructional work by John Kenny has convincingly shown (see External links for a recording sample).John Kenny, Reconstruction of the Deskford Carnyx ; it is also possible to produce bends and multiphonics. However, the zoomorphic restriction to boar-inspired sounds should only be applied to the Deskford Carnyx, because it featured a boar head in contrast to many other carnyx bells, which were inspired by different animals (see above). The fairly wide bell guaranteed a very high playing volume, and the instrument itself must have had a considerable dynamic range. The best surviving bell of a carnyx was found in North East Scotland as part of the so-called Deskford Carnyx and featured a movable tongue. In addition the bronze jaw of the animal head may have been loosened as well in order to produce a jarring sound that would surely have been most dreadful when combined with the sound of a few dozen more carnyces in battle.Steve Piggott: "The Carnyx in Early Iron Age Britain". In: The Antiquaries Journal 39 (1959), pp. 19–32 The demoralizing effect of the Gallic battle music must have been enormous: When the Celts advanced on Delphi under Brennus in 279 BC, the unusual echoing effects of the blaring horns completely overawed the Greeks, before even a single fight could commence.Marcus Iunianus Iustinus, Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi, 24.6.8
Use of the carnyx Since most ancient Roman sources are based on bellicose encounters with the Celtic chiefdoms, the carnyx is today mostly seen as an instrument used during warfare, as Polybius e.g. reports for the battle of Telemon, Gallia Cisalpina, in 225 BC, where the Gauls used the instrument together with other brass instruments to frighten the Roman enemy.Polybius 2.29.5 The limitation to acoustic or psychological warfare is however erroneous. Brass instruments were regularly used as a means of communication during battle, relaying orders for troop positioning, movement and tactics, also by the Gauls.Cf. Gaius Iulius Caesar: Commentaries on the Gallic war 7.81.3 & 8.20.2; see also below. Other sources confirm that the Gauls kept their military order even in situations of military mishaps. The musicians of their army camps played their horns to ensure a cohesive and controlled retreat.Ammianus Marcellinus 19.6.9 After the victory of Marius near Vercellae, his Roman rival Catulus Caesar reserved a Cimbrian signaling horn from the loot for himself.Suetonius: Life of Marius 27.6 Music, musicians and instruments were strategically important elements for the Roman and Celtic armies alike.
Furthermore, the instrument can be seen in action on the famous Gundestrup cauldron in the depiction of a warrior initiation ritual (2nd or 1st century BC), a clear evidence for the use of the instrument outside of the purely military realm.The Etruscan-Roman lituus was also a multi-functional instrument, used in the army as a signaling horn, during funeral processions and other religious and civil ceremonies. The ritual use of the instrument is further supported by the Deskford Carnyx, which was shown to have been a sacrificial offering to an unknown god.
Archaeological finds Apart from the Scottish Deskford Carnyx found in 1816 on the shores of Moray Firth in Aberdeenshire, fragments of only four other carnyces had been found (e.g. the Glanum Carnyx in the Bouches-du-Rhône region), until in 2004 archaeologists discovered a foundation deposit of five well preserved carnyces from the first or second century AD under a Gallo-Roman fanum at Tintignac (Corrèze, France), four of which feature boar heads, while the fifth exemplar appears to have a serpent bell.Christophe Maniquet & Martine Fabioux, Decouverte à Tintignac Naves en Corrèze. Un dépôt exceptionnel d'objets gaulois The fact that the carnyces were deposited on a holy site underlines the sacrificial importance of the instrument in Gallic culture.Cf. also Gaius Iulius Caesar: Commentarii de Bello Gallico 7.17 The archaeologists responsible for the Tintignac excavation assume that the carnyces were offered to a deity identified with the Roman god Mars. There is still debate on the dating, because parts of other finds discovered in the deposit seem to be older than the first century, possibly dating to the first century BC, which means that some of the musical instruments may have been stored inside the sanctuary long before being buried.
Other Celtic instruments
Brass instruments In his accounts of the battle of Telemon, Polybius clearly distinguishes between horn- and trumpet-like instruments played by the Gallic warriors.Polybius uses graecized names for the instruments; literally: "players of the bykane [βυκάνη, Greek name for the Latin bucina, a simple Roman horn] and the salpinx [σάλπιγξ, either a smaller, distinctive Greek trumpet or alternatively used as the Greek name for a war trumpet, e.g. the Roman tuba]." In general the Celtic peoples had a variety of instruments at their disposal. Aside from the carnyx, at least two other brass instrument types are known from Roman and Greek depictions.
The Celtic horn