subject: Teaching The Music History Of The Assyrians [print this page] When you are teaching the music history of the Assyrians you would need to mention to your students about the sculptures that are found in the ruins of the Nineveh. In these sculptures are found the representations of the musicians and the musical instruments that were used at that time. You should also mention to the students that the musical instruments of the Assyrians were artistically perfect.
The musical instruments used by the Assyrians clearly depict that the music of the Assyrians were of light nature. No loud music was using such as blaring of the drums and the large wind instruments. The music of the Assyrians on the contrary was actually an excellent combination of both music and the instruments.
If you go to the British Museum you would find an excellent illustration of the Assyrian musical instruments. This illustration is of a group of marching musicians who are going to meet a conqueror. Here you would see a man marching in the front with a harp and the harp is approximately about four feet high and has ten strings. Then you would find two men walking behind him one with a sort of dulcimer and another with a flute type instrument. Then walked others with instruments like flute and harp.
From this illustration you can come to a conclusion that the main instruments in the musical history of the Assyrians were flute and harp. The harps were the backbones of the orchestra and the other instruments which were there include double flute, dulcimers and drums. The flutes and the dulcimers were placed among the less pronounced instruments and the drums were pretty large in size-though not like the modern age, so that they can serve the purpose of making good sound combination. Along with the above mentioned instruments, the Assyrians also used bells, trumpets and tambourines.
