Aulos

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Aulos player, approx. 480 BC BC (from the necropolis Gaggera near Selinunt / Sicily)
Aulos player, approx. 490 BC BC, Etruscan figure on a drinking bowl from the Vulci necropolis

The Aulos (from ancient Greek αὐλός AULOS , "tube", plural auloi ) is to wind instruments scoring reed instrument of antiquity . The player of this instrument is called aulet (Greek αὐλητής aulētḗs ).

The aulos usually had two cylindrical or slightly conical melody tubes that were not connected to each other and were held in a V-shape when played. The pipes were made of bone, reed or wood, later also made of metal or ivory. Between the play tube ( bombyx ) and the mouthpiece ( zeugos ) sat two egg or trapezoidal thickened sections, the holmos and the hypholmion . Auloi came in many types and sizes; the pipes that have been preserved measure between 30 and 55 cm, and ancient records also show that they are much longer.

In the oldest surviving instruments, each tube has five finger holes, including a thumb hole second from the top; in addition there was often a sixth hole that was not grasped. In the Hellenistic-Roman period, the number of holes was greatly increased. The holes could be opened or closed with wax or metal rings, which allowed the range to be varied.

Double reed instruments already existed in ancient Egypt under the name Memet . The Etruscans called these instruments suplu . In ancient Rome the type of instrument was called the tibia .

mythology

According to legend, the aulos was invented by Athena to imitate the lamentation of the Gorgons . But the goddess threw the instrument away when she noticed that the blowing into it disfigured her facial features. The aulos was lifted by the satyr Marsyas . He liked the game so much that he challenged Apollon , who played the lyre , to a competition. However, the Muses declared Apollo the victor. As a punishment for his arrogance, this Marsyas then hung up on a spruce (the sacred tree of Cybele ) and peeled his skin off while he was still alive.

Playing technique and sound

Aulos, demonstration at the gladiator festival in Carnuntum

Illustrations, written sources and archaeological finds show that the aulos was a reed instrument, even if the word is often incorrectly translated as "flute". It was played with a single reed or a double reed .

The game - probably with circular breathing , as encountered in the traditional instruments of the Mediterranean and in Asia today - was a mouth binding (Greek phorbeia , Latin capistrum ) supported. The necessary blowing pressure depends primarily on the reeds used and is generally higher with double reeds than with single reeds.

Preserved Auloi have different finger holes on both play tubes, which excludes unanimous play.

The sound of the instrument varied with the different constructions. With a cylindrical bore of the tube and single reed, it should correspond to the traditional single reed instruments. In the case of a cylindrical sound tube and double reed, the length and size of the reed correspond more to the Krummhorn than to the duduk often mentioned in this context . With a conical bore and double reed, the sound would be like a bowl ; However, instruments with a conical bore have not yet been found.

Drawing of a plagiaulos

Only duplicated instruments are shown in Greek illustrations. In literature and through found objects, however, making music on a single sound tube, the monaulos (“single tube ”), is documented. The individually blown monaulos was 25 to 45 centimeters long, had about eight finger holes and often - as in today's Japanese hichiriki - two thumb holes. Furthermore, copies of the plagiaulos ("transverse tube"), a transversely blown double-reed instrument , partly made of bronze , have been preserved.

The tone system of the aulos mode is named after the instrument , but its relevance for the ancient aulos is no longer represented today.

History and dissemination

Oldest testimonies

Egyptian memet around 1400 BC Chr.

From ancient Egypt ( 4th Dynasty , 2639–2504 BC) a statue with a double instrument was found in the necropolis of Giza . Since the fifth dynasty (2504-2347 v. Chr.) Found this Memet called reed instrument to pictorial representations. Archaeologically, specimens from the Middle Kingdom have been preserved (approx. 2010 BC - 1793 BC). Some reed specimens from the late period (664–332 BC) and the Hellenistic-Roman period (4th century BC - 4th century AD) are very well preserved. These instruments must have been played exclusively with single reeds. The double sound tubes were kept parallel. They are to be regarded as the direct forerunners of the instruments that are still widespread in the Near East and the Mediterranean. ( Compare Sipsi , Midschwiz and Launeddas ).

The aulos player and a harpist. approx. 2600 BC BC, keros

One of the oldest evidence is a Cycladic idol from the island of Keros from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. BC, showing an aulet playing a preform of the doubled aulos with relatively short, presumably conical tubes.

On Crete , from the Minoan period (middle of the 2nd millennium BC), there is a well-preserved image of a double aaulus, one of which has a play tube with an upwardly curved bell. The pipes are kept parallel and almost reach the player's arm length.

The oldest depiction of an aulist with a mouth bandage ( phorbeiá ) can be found on a Neo- Ethite orthostat from the 8th century BC. From Karatepe .

A Sardinian bronze statuette (approx. 1000 BC) documents a pre-form of the triple launeddas or benas that have been preserved there to this day . The figure, about 8 cm high, shows a player holding three cylindrical game tubes of equal length in his mouth, which are grasped at the lower end with outstretched arms.

A representation of a double horn whistle was found in Százhalombatta (Hungary) from the Hallstatt period . A figurine from the context of the eastern Hallstatt district (6th century BC) depicts a person playing two horn pipes in a V position. The tubes are shown about as long as an arm. The lower ends of the play tubes are inserted into the hollow curve of the horns, about a third of the horn length in front of the horn tip.

Classical antiquity

Since around 700 BC Copies of the Greek aulos, representations and literary evidence have survived. The use of thin ore for the instrument is mentioned as early as Pindar (died in the middle of the 5th century BC). The ancient hetaerae were professional aulos blowers . The aulos players Lamia of Athens and Aphrodite Belestiche became famous .

According to a description by Theophrastus , the game changed from the "unformed" ( aplastos ) to the "shaped" ( plasei ) game in the middle of the 4th century . The reeds were cut earlier in the year and were therefore more elastic. It could possibly also have been connected with the transition to the "lip-directed" game.

Etruscan flute player, Tomba dei Leopardi , early 5th century BC Chr.

The Etruscan instruments seem to have largely corresponded to the Greek auloi of the classical period. Pictures show the lower end of the sound tubes with a slightly funnel-shaped lintel. On a fresco in the Tomba Francesca Giustiniani (anaglotte) single reed leaves can be seen that would otherwise be hidden in the oral cavity. In the case of the instrument from the Tomba dei Leopardi , the upper ends of the play tubes are set off in red. This is to be interpreted as the first evidence of a metal ring that strengthens the tube at the point where the holmos is pressed into it. The Etruscans called the person playing the flute suplu , Latinized subulo .

From the Etruscans, the Romans took over the double reed instrument, which is called tibia in Latin . In the Hellenistic and Roman times, some of the instruments were made professionally. In addition to wood and reed, ore, silver and ivory are now also used. The number of drill holes can be increased up to 18. Some of these holes were opened or closed by lumps of wax or silver rotating rings in order to change the range. Holes below the tangible holes are to be regarded as sound holes. These could be fitted with removable tubular or funnel-shaped attachments that apparently influenced the timbre. In addition to the complex instruments, the simple ones persisted.

In Roman times, a distinction was made between “right” and “left” tibiae, the right one being longer and sounding deeper, the left one shorter or higher. The right one was the leading pipe, the left one the accompanying pipe. In addition to the interplay of the dissimilar tubes, that of two “identical” pipes, usually two right-hand ones, is also documented.

If the two tubes of the tibia had the same number of finger holes, although they were of different lengths, it was called the Serran or Lydian tibia. The Phrygian tibia had a different number of grip holes on both tubes. On one of the reeds (usually the left one) she carried a horn bell called elymos . The end of the pipe could also be bent upwards and drain into a small funnel. In addition to the ones mentioned here, there were other types of instruments that are only known by name.

The southernmost distribution area of ​​Hellenistic Auloi on the Nile is Meroe , where several specimens made of ivory and metal were found in the area of ​​the city and in the north cemetery, dating from around 15 BC. Until 2 BC To be dated.

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ So the interpretation of Heinz Becker: On the history of the development of ancient and medieval reed instruments. Hamburg 1966, p. 63; the exact attribution of the ancient terms is controversial.
  2. ↑ See the compilation in Psaroudakes, Aulos von Argithea.
  3. ^ A b Jürgen Elsner: Clarinets I. - Preliminary remark. In: Music in the past and present . (MGG) Sachteil, Vol. 5, Col. 178.
  4. ^ Giuliano Bonfante, Larissa Bonfante: The Etruscan Language. An Introduction. 2nd Edition. Manchester University Press, Manchester / New York 2002, ISBN 0719055407 , p. 219.
  5. ↑ Pindar , Pythian Odes 12.18 to 22.
  6. ↑ Melanippides , ask. 758 PMG; Bronze group by Myron , see Pliny , Naturalis historia 34,57, and Pausanias , Description of Greece 1,24,1.
  7. ↑ Already in Melanippides, included in Palaiphatos , Incredible Stories 47, Properz , Elegien 2,30,16-18, and Ovid , Fasti 6,697.
  8. ↑ First evidenced by red-figure pottery from the end of the 5th century BC. Chr .; Timothy Gantz: Early Greek Myth. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993, pp. 86-87 and 95; here p. 95.
  9. ↑ Take simple reed as the more common form: Wolfgang Boetticher: Aulos. In: MGG. Sachteil, Vol. 1, Col. 1039-1042 and Becker: Development History . Pp. 51-80. Archaeologically, however, only double-reed leaves have been documented (Byrne, Understanding the aulos).
  10. ↑ Vladimir Kachmarchik: Some Mysteries of Ancient Greek Aulets. ( Memento of March 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Journal Internationale Double Reed Society, No. 22, July 1994, pp. 93-99
  11. ↑ See Psaroudakes, Aulos of Argithea.
  12. ↑ Sound example (MP3; 487 kB) Phrygian tibia with single reed
  13. ↑ Sound example of a doubled aulos with simple reeds from Michael Atherton & Melismos , accessed on July 29, 2009.
  14. ↑ Select sound sample track 6 "Aulos et Hydraulis". This sound sample (MP3; 1.6 MB) of a reconstruction with metal tubes also sounds similar to a Krummhorn.
  15. ↑ This (MP3; 514 kB) audio sample of the reconstruction of a wooden aulos sounds similar to a duduk . For comparison a video with two duduk (one plays a drone).
  16. ↑ Sound sample (MP3; 259 kB), Aulos can be heard in the background.
  17. ^ Anthony Baines: Lexicon of Musical Instruments. JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2005, p. 12
  18. ↑ Helmut Brand, Ancient Greek Music
  19. ↑ Helmut Brand, Ancient Greek Music
  20. ↑ Monika Schuol : Hittite cult music. A study of instrumental and vocal music using Hittite ritual texts and archaeological evidence , Verlag Marie Leidorf, Rahden 2004 (Orient-Archäologie, Vol. 14) ISBN 3-89646-644-5 , p. 131
  21. ↑ Becker, History of Development, p. 111.
  22. ↑ Bronze statuette from Százhalombatta. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 13, 2016 ; accessed on September 4, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.albinpaulus.folx.org
  23. ↑ A sketch of the bronze statuette from Százhalombatta: Os Instrumentos Musicais na Tradición Galega »Gaita (Vilariño de Conso). Retrieved September 4, 2016 .
  24. ^ Hallstatt-Aulos (Albin Paulus 2003). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 13, 2016 ; accessed on September 4, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.albinpaulus.folx.org
  25. ^ Pindar, 12th Pythian Ode engl. translation
  26. ^ Eva Weissweiler: Women composers from the Middle Ages to the present. dtv, Bärenreiter, Munich 1999, pp. 28–29.
  27. ↑ Theophrast, Peri phyton historias 4,11,4-5.
  28. ↑ Becker, History of Development, pp. 58–62.
  29. ↑ Boetticher, Col. 1041.
  30. ↑ Becker, History of Development, p. 59.
  31. ↑ Becker, History of Development, p. 134.
  32. ↑ JT Hooker (Ed.): Reading the Past: Ancient Writing from Cuneiform to the Alphabet. University of California Press, Berkeley 1990, ISBN 0520074319 , p. 377.
  33. ↑ Boetticher, Aulos, Sp. 1042, illustration of an ivory Aulos tube found in Pompei (without a mouthpiece). Eyelets make it easier to twist the drilled rings, which opens or closes holes.
  34. ↑ Becker, History of Development, pp. 135–143.
  35. ↑ Wille, Musica, 171f
  36. ↑ Servius quote from Becker, Entwicklungsgeschichte, p. 146.
  37. ↑ Becker, History of Development, Wille, Musica, p. 171.
  38. ^ Wille, Musica, p. 175.
  39. ^ Nicholas B. Bodley, The Auloi of Meroë: A Study of the Greek-Egyptian Auloi Found at Meroë, Egypt. In: American Journal of Archeology . Volume 50, No. 2, April-June 1946, pp. 217-240.

literature

Web links

Commons : Aulos  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Aulos  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
  • Sound samples of reconstructed Greek instruments (Austrian Academy of Sciences)