Ram’s horn and trumpets

The shofar, a ram’s horn, is mentioned about 72 times, more than any other instrument, and it is the only instrument of ancient Israel still in use in its original form: it is blown in synagogues at the Jewish New Year and at the close of the Day of Atonement. It gives only two or three notes, so it was used for signals rather than tunes. It sounded at Jericho and with Gideon’s men, when the ark was brought up to Jerusalem, at the making of kings — “blow the ram’s horn and declare, ‘Long live King Solomon!’” (1 Kings 1:34) — and on the Day of Atonement to begin the Jubilee year.

The trumpets were a different instrument. Moses was told to make two trumpets of hammered silver to call the people together and to set the camps moving (Numbers 10:2), and the priests, Aaron’s descendants, blew them. They were straight and narrow, about a meter long, with a flared bell. Two such trumpets are carved among the spoils of Jerusalem’s temple on the Arch of Titus in Rome. At the dedication of Solomon’s temple, Chronicles counts 120 priests sounding trumpets.