Buccina

Buccina

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Bučina is name of several locations in the Czech Republic.

A buccina (Latin: buccina) or bucina (Latin: būcina), anglicized buccin or bucine, is a brass instrument used in the ancient Roman army similar to the Cornu. An aeneator who blew a buccina was called a "buccinator" or "bucinator" (Latin: buccinātor, būcinātor).

It was originally designed as a tube measuring some 11 to 12 feet in length, of narrow cylindrical bore, and played by means of a cup-shaped mouthpiece. The tube is bent round upon itself from the mouthpiece to the bell in the shape of a broad C and is strengthened by means of a bar across the curve, which the performer grasps while playing, in order to steady the instrument; the bell curves over his head or shoulder.

The buccina was used for the announcement of night watches and various other purposes in the camp.

The instrument is the ancestor of both the trumpet and the trombone. The German word for trombone, Posaune, is linguistically derived from Buccina.

In the final section of his orchestral work Pines of Rome (The Pines of the Appian Way), Respighi calls for six instruments of different ranges notated as "Buccine" (Italian plural), although he expected them to be played on modern saxhorns or flugelhorns.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Buccina.

• Buccina in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

See also

Military of ancient Rome portal

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