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TABLE 4.4.
Intervals on the Louvre auloi |
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had an upper register (holes I-IV) in which the thumb played a part, and a lower one (IV-VII, with I-III shut off and VIII as a vent; or V-VIII?) in which it merely supported the pipe, each register covering a fourth plus a septimal tone. Holes III-VIII are about level with holes I-V on the other pipe. |
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So far we have considered only the instrument's 'fundamental' notes, that is, those produced by the air column vibrating as an integral whole from reed to aperture. Another set of notes, 'harmonics', can sometimes be elicited from pipes by 'overblowing', a trick that causes the air column to break up into two, three, or more equal parts, resonating at twice, thrice (etc.) the frequency of the whole. With modern wind instruments overblowing is a normal part of playing technique, greatly extending the compass of the instrument. But was it so in Antiquity? |
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It certainly does not seem to have been commonplace. There are no clear references to the effect in ancient writers; and it is not used by those peoples who still employ reed-blown pipes in pairs. There is a good reason for this. Manipulating a reed mouthpiece so as to produce harmonics as desired is something calling for great skill. To achieve them and control them on two mouthpieces simultaneously would be particularly difficult.85 There would also be the problem of a sizeable gap between the fundamental and harmonic registers, because a cylindrical pipe normally overblows to the third harmonic, that is, at tripled frequency, an octave and a fifth above the |
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85 Schlesinger, 67. |
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