access the app via the following link: https://lynchtac.shinyapps.io/iAulos/)
access the app via the following link: https://lynchtac.shinyapps.io/iAulos/)
aPitch App
The aPitch app is designed to explore historical pitch standards (A=Hz) used in Europe between 1400 and 1840. The data is based on the comprehensive research undertaken by Bruce Haynes, and published in A History of Performing Pitch: The Story of 'A' (2002).
❧ Interactive features
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Dynamic Filtering: Use the sidebar to isolate specific instrument families, countries, or time periods.
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Visual Comparisons: Compare distributions across different instrument families and/or time periods, as well as the difference between local pitch standards like 'Chorton' or 'Cammerton'.
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Digital Auralization: Click on any point, density peak, or box plot to hear the corresponding frequency in Hz.
Summary of Pitch Trends
While the dataset reveals significant regional and chronological variability—reflecting a complex historical landscape and a number of localized pitch standards—a distinct organological trend emerges.Clarinets, Traversos, and Renaissance Flutes primarily inhabit the lower frequency range, centered around various 'Cammerton' standards (approx. 390–430 Hz).
Woodwind instruments with Greek parallels were, therefore, largely confined to lower concert pitches— a trend that is broadly consistent with the pitch standards suggested by the Koilē plagiaulos, as well as the Louvre and Berlin auloi.The Organ data, in contrast, exhibits a far more expansive and polarized distribution. Generally speaking,
Organs represent both the lower 'Cammerton' (with a cluster around 415 Hz) and the significantly higher 'Chorton' or 'Cornett-ton' standards (with a cluster around 463-66 Hz). Substantial variability, however, existed in different regions (see 'colour by country'), and over time (see 'Pitch over time').
❧ Data Sources
This project focuses exclusively on historical European instruments that possess a close structural or acoustical parallel in the ancient Greek world.
Criteria
The selected dataset features over a thousand measurements from surviving historical instruments. To ensure a valid organological comparison, this dataset includes:
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Clarinets (as rough parallels to the aulos, due to their cylindrical bores and overblowing at the 12th).
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Transverse Flutes: Traversos and Renaissance flutes (as parallels to the plagiaulos).
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Organs: Fixed-pitch pipe organs (as parallels to the hydraulis).
Exclusions
1. Instruments without direct extant Greek parallels have been intentionally excluded from this dataset:
2. Other instrument families are excluded by Haynes due to the inherent unreliability of their reference pitch (Haynes 2002, 22-44):
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Recorders and Cornets;
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Pitch forks;
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Pitch pipes.
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Stringed Instruments: Excluded because pitch is determined by varying degrees of string tension, as well as a number of physical features of the strings.
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Oboes/Hautboys: Excluded because the pitch is highly dependent on missing reeds and the player's embouchure technique, making extant instruments unreliable indicators of historical pitch standards (see also Haynes 2001, The eloquent oboe, 93-4).
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