Abstract
The MUSE project aims at mapping, studying, and valorizing the musical evidence relating to the civilizations developed in ancient northeastern Italy up to the 7th century C.E. Through the study of the realia, i.e. musical instruments and sounding objects found in the considered area, read and interpreted in the light of other sources, such as written and epigraphic documents and iconographic evidence, the project is meant to outline the sound ecosystems of those places, enhancing their biodiversity, in order to reconstruct the musical and therefore the cultural identities of their ancient inhabitants. MUSE proposes the use of shared methodologies in multi and interdisciplinary perspectives to enhance the indicators of activities related to sound and music in the archaeological record to systematically and extensively introduce the reading of the musical heritage as a constitutive and significant component of the archaeological findings considered. They are part of the musical identity of the peoples they belonged to, only apparently lost, but which is in danger of becoming irremediably meaningless. In line with the UNESCO Conventions for the Legal Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) and Faro (2005, ratified in Italy in 2020), the contextualized and comparative study of these findings allows us to restore their sound and their musical meaning, and to reconstruct, when possible, the ways of fruition and transmission/migration of the ancient musical cultures. MUSE benefits from the dialogue established with the institutions keeping the archaeological findings, superintendencies, museums, which have been already involved in the French-Italian RIMAnt (2018-2025) and the Italian TeMA (2020-2022) projects: the first project is focused on the mapping of musical instruments from the ancient Mediterranean peoples (Egyptians, Greeks, Romans) in Italian and other European collections, through the development of a digital cataloging record; the latter, led by the University of Padua and just completed, aimed at mapping the archaeological findings of musical interest in the Triveneto area. MUSE also foresees the constitution of a prototype of the bank of sounds from the past, conceived as a scientifically controlled repository. It is meant as the result of the sampling of sounds produced by selected sound sources, including the acoustic simulation of fragments of musical instruments 3D scanned and virtually reconstructed. This past sounds bank aims at becoming a reference tool for the museums and institutions attentive to the sound reconstruction of the contexts of excavation of their collections. They are already soliciting musicologists for a musealization of the musical interest findings, allowing the restitution of their full meaning, including sound reproduction. Such an evocative and emotional mediation is able to involve the community of visitors through an experience that is also inclusive concerning, for example, the visually impaired.
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Donatella Restani
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Beni Culturali
Coordinatore:
Università degli Studi di PADOVA(Italy)
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 77.160,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
17/10/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
