Flaccus was a
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
from the 2nd century BC, of whom little is known. He was either a
freedman
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...
or a
slave
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
of one of
Terence's patrons and wrote
musical scores for Terence's
comedies (playing or composing music was no occupation for a free
citizen
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
). Terence mentions him specifically in the opening
didaskalia to each of his comedies, and in addition mentions the type of double reed pipe to be used in each. Some further commentary on the musical
modes employed has puzzled scholars: it is not known whether Terence refers to melodies or musical metres.
Flaccus has the distinction of being the only composer of
Ancient Rome of whom any music is alleged to remain. A musical phrase accompanying a single line of Terence's
play ''
Hecyra'' was copied in the 18th century by
Italian composer
Arcangelo Corelli from a 10th-century
manuscript; however, musicologist
Thomas J. Mathiesen
Thomas James Mathiesen (born 30 April 1947) is an American musicologist, whose research focuses on Ancient music and the music theory of ancient and early music, early periods. A leading scholar of the Music of ancient Greece, music of Ancient G ...
comments that it is no longer believed to be authentic.
References
*
* Guenther Wille: ''Musica Romana: Die Bedeutung der Musik im Leben der Roemer'' (Amsterdam: Schippers, 1967), 158ff, 308ff
* Egert Pöhlmann, ed. ''Denkmäler altgriechischer Musik: Sammlung, Übertragung und Erläuterung aller Fragmente und Fälschungen'' (Nuremberg, 1970). (1971 edition)
: This book contains the single
neumed line of music.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flaccus
Ancient music composers
Republican era slaves and freedmen
Ancient Roman music
2nd-century BC Romans