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Our final 'wind' instrument, the only one that is not blown, has even less in the way of musical credentials than the cow-horn and the conch. It is what is known to anthropologists as the bull-roarer, and to the Greeks as the rhombos. It consists of a shaped piece of wood whirled round on the end of a string to produce a demonic roaring noise, and it is widely used in primitive initiation ceremonies.198 In Greece it was used in some mystery cults, especially those of Dionysus and Cybele, in association with drums and cymbals.199 It also had magical uses, and it could be a child's toy.200 |
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Percussion instruments played a comparatively slight part in ancient Greek music. It is important to distinguish between two categories of percussion. On the one hand there are instruments whose function is to provide a sharply defined rhythm; these are essentially clappers with a dry, non-resonant sound. On the other hand there are those whose function is to make an exciting noise, like drums, cymbals, and jingles. The first category did have a limited role in support of the auloi and the lyre, but the second was restricted to orgiastic cults. |
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An ancient urge drives men to respond to music and song with bodily movement, and to accentuate the rhythm by stamping, clapping the hands, or slapping the buttocks or some other fleshy area. Clappers of inanimate material, widely found in early cultures, represent an extension of these natural means of beating time.201 The most primitive type consists simply of sticks beaten together. Hinged clappers that could be operated with one hand are attested from the early third millennium in Sumer, and were used by dancing-girls both there and subsequently in Egypt.202 |
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198NG iii. 450-1; I have cited other literature in The Orphic Poems, 157 n. 59. |
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199 Aesch. fr. 57. 8f., Eur. Hel. 1362, Eup. fr. 83, Flaccus(?) Anth. Pal. 6. 165 (FGE 167); Diogenes, TrGF 45 F 1, Ap. Rhod. Argon. 1. 1139, Philod. Mus. p. 106 Kr. |
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200 Ar. fr. 315, Theoc. Id. 2. 30 with Gow, Leonidas, HE 2248; The Orphic Poems 157. |
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201 Sachs, HMI 25f., WM 112f.; Kunst, 50-2; NG iv. 427f. |
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202NG vi. 72f., xii. 197. |
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