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Aquincum organ had four ranks, with thirteen pipes in each; the pipes of one rank were open at the top, the rest stopped. Each rank could be closed off separately by means of sliding shutters operated from the side. The function of the different ranks is debated. Some think that they were tuned to different modal scales, since some sources refer to the organ's ability to play in various modes.154 In some cases the ranks may have played in different registers: the stopped pipes of the Aquincum organ would have given notes an octave lower than open ones of the same length and diameter, and in a lamp from Carthage modelled in the form of an organ the front rank has about half and the second rank two-thirds of the height of the third, suggesting registers an octave and a fifth higher.155 |
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Organ pipes seem usually to have had flues, not reeds. This is true of the Aquincum organ's pipes, and flues are often represented in the works of art. It was, after all, the panpipe that provided the obvious model for the array of tuned pipes, and Philo of Byzantium, a pupil of Ctesibius, refers to his organ as 'the panpipe that is played with the hands, which we call hydraulis'.156 On the other hand, Vitruvius speaks of the pipes as having lingulae, 'tongues', which should mean 'reeds', and it is perfectly plausible that reed pipes were sometimes used.157 |
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Under the pipes there were perforated sliders operated by the keyboard, and under them a horizontal wind canal (one for each rank of pipes). When a key was depressed, a slider was pushed into position so as to release pressurized air from the wind canal into the pipe. When the key was released, a spring pulled the slider back again and shut off the air. |
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The wind canals were supplied from a dome-shaped chamber lower down. The upper part of the dome contained air which was being pumped in through another duct. The lower part contained water which was admitted at the base from a surrounding cistern. |
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154 Tert. De Anim. 14. 4, Anon. Bellerm. 28. Cf. Walcker-Mayer, op. cit. 54-79; NG viii. 834, xiii. 725. |
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155 Perrot, op. cit., pl. XI.6, XII, and p. 131. |
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156Belopoiika 61 (Berl. Abh. 1918 no. 16, 66). |
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157 Vitr. 10. 8. 4. However, Simpl. in Phys. p. 681. 7 (Comm. in Arist. Graeca, ix) refers to the organ as having 'tongues' of trumpets or auloi fitted into the holes of the casing; trumpets do not have reeds, so the meaning here is presumably just 'mouthpieces' (cf. Heron Pneum. 1. 16, Poll. 4. 85). Nothing can be inferred from the fact that organ pipes are called auloi, and that the verb aulein is several times used of the organ's sound by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (De Caerimoniis 1. 5, 44; 2. 48, 50, 73, 79). |
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