[gothic-l] Ostrogothic or Visigothic Music

[Friþunanþs Ximeneiks - (Fernando E. Ximenez)]

Concerning musical instruments:
     Sidonius Apollinaris in his portrait of Theodoric written at about
455, possibly from Toulouse and addressed to the son of Avitus (under
whom Thodoric had studied Virgil and Roman law) here is writing
generally on the activities of the King and his palace and specifically
mentions the activities during supper, he states; --  "In any case no
hydraulic organs are heard there, nor does any concert party under its
trainer boom forth a set performance in chorus; there is no music of a
lutenist, flautist, dance conductor, tambourine girl, or female
guitarist; for the king finds charm only in string music that comforts
the soul with virtue just as much as it soothes the ear with melody."
Sidonius gives us a glimpse of the kinds of  musical instruments that
might have been employed in the Tolousan kingdom, the latter however
does not necessarily mean that the Goths had the "same" types of
instruments before their arrival into the empire though it is rather
certain that they had - and used instruments before their arrival.
     In the Institutionum Disciplinae, p. 557 Cf. Claude, Westgoten (as
n. 310). -- Isidore of Seville speaks of the "carmina maiorum" a
Visigothic chant said to be very ancient and sung in veneration of their
ancestors. The latter were said to be sung at Theodoric's death in
battle, unfortunately I have temporarily lost that reference.

More on this and the "Canto de la Sibila" on the next post.



kaoru666 at hotmail.com wrote:

> Heils!
> Another doubt is now clouding my mind; the question now is about
> music.
> I know that in their early times the goths used lyres, and abviously
> nothing can be found or reconstructed from that period. But I guess
> it must be something lest from the ostrogothic and visigothic
> kingdoms, or at least from the visigothic one; I've heard the
> visigoths wrote their music using the "visigothic neumes"; I can't
> confirm that since it is very scarce information on that matters; but
> I deduce that something must have survived. Also, in the surviving
> visigothic churches (both arian and catholic) there is always an
> elevated space for the chorus.
>
> What was that music like?
> what instruments apart from the voice they used? -Various sources
> affirm that visigoths produced and imported much of the organs that
> Bizantium utilized in the VI century-
>
> At least I want to know if there is any music preserved from that
> period that is played today.
>
> Thanks for taking the time.
> Alberto
>
>
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--
GIF89a_



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