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fundamental. As the fundamental scale on the earlier aulos does not seem to have exceeded an octave or so, there would be a gap of a fifth between the highest fundamental and the lowest harmonic. The harmonics therefore could not conveniently serve to extend the melodic range upwards, but only to provide some sort of high echo effect in regions where a singing voice would find it hard to follow. Further, Aristoxenus' statement that to span three octaves you would need to go from the highest note of the soprano aulos to the lowest note of the bass one rather implies that each instrument had a range of an octave or thereabouts, the bass being some two octaves below the soprano. If harmonics had been in regular use, the tenor and bass auloi should have comfortably covered three octaves between them.86 |
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On the other hand we must reckon with the possibilitysome might say likelihoodthat virtuosi did employ overblowing to increase the range of effects in instrumental solos. Aristoxenus adds to the remark just cited, as if by way of an afterthought, 'yes, and when the syrinx is pulled down, the highest note of him who syrittei (whistles, or plays the syrinx), compared with the lowest of him who aulei, would exceed the stated limit'. I have already mentioned this and other passages referring to the mysterious syrinx that raised the pitch of an aulos. Most of them do not make it clear whether the rise is of the order of a tone or of more than an octave. But Aristoxenus could be understood as referring to a quite distinct high register, to play in which was called syrittein as opposed to the aulein of ordinary piping. 'Whistling', syrigmos, was a traditional element in the programme pieces performed at the Pythian auletic contest; it represented the dying hisses of the serpent shot by Apollo.87 The same term was applied to a special effect on the kithara which sounds as if it was an octave harmonic (above, p. 69). This all suits the idea of overblowing being used by experts for certain purposes. Yet it seems that it required a special feature incorporated in the auloi. One thinks of the 'speaker hole' of modern woodwind instruments, a very small hole strategically placed on the tube, which, when opened by means of a key, facilitates the production of harmonics.88 If this is |
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86 Aristox. Harm. 1. 20; Becker, 74, cf. 51. |
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87 Xen. Symp. 6. 5, Strab. 9. 3. 10 p. 421. The Megarian aulete Telephanes, who disliked the syrinx and would not have it on his pipes, stayed out of the Pythian contest for this reason in particular (ps.-Plut. De mus. 1138a). |
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88 Howard, 30-5, interprets the syrinx in this way. The small holes found in some aulos bulbs (p. 85) do not seem to be suitably situated to serve as speakers. |
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