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Some authors mention a part called the syrinx which could be bent either up or down to raise the pitch of the instrument above its normal range.23 This recalls what Theophrastus says about the reed 'taking down-bends'. But the syrinx cannot be either the reed or the main pipe, because we hear of a conservative aulete in the fourth century BC who, disdaining the special effects that syringes could produce, would not let the makers put them on his auloi.24 They were therefore a refinement not essential to the playing of the instrument, though customary by the fourth century. The name implies a tube of some kind, and a grammatical source defines the syrinx as 'the hole' of musical pipes.25 Perhaps it was a special form of connector between the reed and the main pipe. But there is nothing that can be identified with it among the remains of later auloi. We shall return to the problem later. |
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The main pipe was made of reed, bone (especially the tibia of a deer), ivory, wood, or metal; or bone or wood encased in metal. In the surviving examples (none of which is of reed) it is usually constructed from two or more sections socketed together. The bore was quite narrow, generally about 8-10 mm. The Classical aulos normally had five finger-holes; the second (counting from the mouthpiece end) was on the underside of the pipe, for the thumb, and might be slightly displaced to left or right away from the hand, according to whether the aulos was the left or right member of its pair. The location of the thumb-hole in the second position (instead of in the first, as in the modern recorder) is characteristic of Near Eastern and Asiatic reed instruments in general today.26 Sometimes there was a sixth hole lower down the pipe which was not fingered but functioned as a vent and (unless plugged) limited the effective acoustic length of the pipe.27 |
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23 Aristox. Harm. 1. 21, ps.-Arist. De audibilibus 804a14, Plut. Non posse vivi 1096b. |
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24 Ps.-Plut. De mus. 1138a. Also ps.-Aristotle distinguishes between squeezing the zeuge (the reeds) and bending the syringes down. |
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25 Hdn. i. 44. 5 Lentz (Epimerismi. Anecd. Ox. ii. 409. 23; Etym. Magn. 736. 28). |
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26 Baines, Woodwind, 202f. |
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27 Cf. Baines, Bagpipes, 22, 'Vent holes are common in reed instruments. . . . Their function is complex. Partly it is to equalize the tone of the lowest note with that of the others; partly it may be to permit a considerable extension of the tube-length to serve the purpose of an acoustic resonator; and partly it is to provide a means of tuning the lowest note Coy plugging or partially plugging a vent hole).' P. R. Olsen, Dansk Årbog for Musikforskning 1966/7 (1968), 3-9, describes a pair of bone auloi acquired by auction, each with five holes of which the third and fifth are on the under side. The |
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(Footnote continued on next page) |
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