New Article on Wind Instruments in the Oxford Classical Dictionary!

This is the second post of a brief series about five new articles on Music, Wind Instruments, Stringed Instruments, Harmonics and Rhythmics which are now available in the Oxford Classical Dictionary online.

This post focusses on the article about Wind Instruments, and presents high-res versions of selected images from the article, along with a short summary of the article's contents.

Enjoy!

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Summary

The Greek word for wind instruments—empneusta, lit. ‘instruments that are blown into’— accurately describes the basic principle at work: air (pneuma) enters into (en) the instrument and sets an air column in motion, producing a vibration.

Figure 4. Aulos players wearing a phorbeia. On the left: terracotta kylix attributed to the Antiphon Painter (ca 490 BC). On the right: *Bacchic procession (detail), MANN Naples, inv. nr. 6726. Source: On the left: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 96.9.36. On the right: Wikimedia Commons

Figure 3. Wooden auloi with reed caps and metal reinforcement bands, behind a tragic mask—Mosaic detail (2^nd cent AD). Musei Capitolini, Rome, MC0392. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

• Double-pipes (Greek auloi; Latin tibiae) were the most important instrument of this class, and came in different sizes and registers.

  
  

• Greek Auloi, and Roman tibiae, were not “flutes,” a common but misleading translation.

• Auloi were closed pipes played with double reeds, and were therefore similar to modern oboes. Auloi were, however, played in pairs and had cylindrical bores.

  
  

Figure 5. Virtual models of the Louvre aulos. Top: 3D model of the Louvre aulos alongside the original. Bottom: playable virtual model of the Louvre aulos. Source: Top: Tosca A.C. Lynch, eMousike: Ancient Greek Music online, “The Louvre Aulos”. Bottom: Tosca A.C. Lynch, iAulos App.

Figure 7. Late Roman aulos/tibia found in Syria. This instrument features silver rotating collars, side tubes and, exceptionally, two syrinx holes like modern oboes and bass clarinets. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 58.40, Public Domain.

• The Greeks also had flutes proper, including transverse flutes (plagiauloi, “side pipes”) as well as panpipes (syrinx).

Figure 8. Top left and middle: the Koilē plagiaulos and a modern replica by Chrēstos Terzēs. Bottom: basic scale played by the Koilē plagiaulos (A₄ ~ 432 Hz). Top right: mosaic detail (2^nd cent. AD), Archaeological Museum of Corinth, A610 MOS.Source: Top left and middle: Photographs courtesy of Chrēstos Terzēs. Bottom: Diagram by Tosca A.C. Lynch. Top right: George E. Koronaios, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0

Figure 9. Rectangular panpipes. On the left: detail of an Apulian red figure krater (mid 4^th century BC), Musei Capitolini, Rome, Inv. 164. On the right: Pan and Daphnis group, 2^nd-cent. copy of a Greek original (3^rd–2^nd cent. BC), MANN Naples, Inv. 6329. Source: Left: Wikimedia Commons; right: Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0

Figure 10. Panpipes with unequal reeds. On the left: Mosaic detail, Roman Villa of Saint-Rustice (4^th–5^th cent). On the right: Roman panpipes, Petrie Museum, UCL, nr UC33270. Source: On the left: , Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the right: Swift, Bosworth et al. 2021, Figure 7a-b, CC BY 3.0.

• The water organ (hydraulis) was invented in Hellenistic times, and became very popular in Roman settings.

Figure 13. Mariamin Mosaic, Syria (4^th cent AD), Hama Museum. On the left: Women playing bronze krotala and the organ, while two infants dressed as Erotes work the bellows. At the centre: Women playing the aulos and oxybaphoi (Latin acetabula)—bronze or earthenware bowls that were partly filled with water and hit with sticks (Anon. Bell. §18; Theon Smyrn. 59.7–60.6). On the right: woman about to play the kithara and woman playing the cymbals. Source: Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0

Figure 11. Top left: Hydraulis of Dion, ca 1^st cent. BC, Top right: a reconstruction of the Acquincum organ (228 AD)—in keeping with Pollux 4.70 and other sources, the pipes of these instruments are made of bronze or brass. Bottom right: detail of a Roman floor mosaic (2^nd-3^rd cent. AD), Nennig. Source: Top left: Wikimedia Commons; top right  Wikimedia Commons. Bottom right: Wikimedia Commons.

• Simple trumpets (salpinges; Latin tubae) and horns (kerata) were mainly employed as signal devices, especially but not exclusively in military contexts.

• A range of brass instruments were later used as musical instruments in their own right, especially in amphitheatres alongside the organ.

• Roman armies were also familiar with a large and intimidating martial instrument called carnyx—Celtic trumpets that had elaborate bells shaped in the form of wild animals.

Figure 14. Warrior playing the salpinx. Attic black-figure lēkythos (late 6^th–early 5^th cent BC). Palermo Archaeological Museum, accession nr NI 1853. Source: Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.5.

Figure 15. Top left: male horn player (cornicen). Osuna relief (early 1^st cent BC).  Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, nr. 38417. Top middle: Cornicen seen from the front, Ludovisi sarcophagus (250–260 AD). Palazzo Altemps, Rome. Top right: Bronze cornu found in Pompeii (1^st cent. AD). MANN, Naples, nr. 5653. Middle: Bronze lituus. Vulci (7^th cent BC). Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Inv. 12329.  Bottom: working reconstruction of the Tarquinia lituus. Source: Top, left to right:   Wikimedia Commons; Wikimedia Commons; Yair-haklai, Wikimedia Commons. Middle: Wikimedia Commons. Bottom: EMAP.

Figure 16. Left: Tingnac carnyx (1^st cent. BC), Top right: working reconstruction of the Tingnac carnyx. Bottom right: detail of the Gundestrup Cauldron (1^st cent BC–1^st cent AD); see also the base of Trajan’s column (113 AD). Source: Left:   Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0. Top right: EMAP. Bottom right:   Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0

to find out more, visit the Oxford Classical Dictionary - Wind Instruments: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.9169