Aulos

Introduction

The aulos is a wind instrument that was utilized in ancient Greek opera. It was also identified by the designations of the materials needed to create its components, a reed as well as a Libyan lotus plant, accordingly, the kalamos and libykos lotos. All festivities hosted in order to honor Dionysus in Ancient Greece incorporated the aulos as the main wind instrument.

In addition to the pipe, there are also a few holes in the side, similar to modern flute.

The beat was often furnished by performers who were commonly hired for a multitude of municipal functions.

Other duties for an aulos player included helping an army march, kneading bread, going fishing, and participating in sacrifices; lower-class people or slaves would have carried out these less honourable duties. In particular, the music of the embaterion melos, a hymn played for soldiers as they marched, was derived from the aulos. The words and the tempo were given by the soldiers' marching.

Mythic Origin

The aulos not only played a part in theatre and art but also in mythology.

The aulos is said to have been fashioned by Marsyas the Satyr, though it's also possible that he stole one from Athena as she chucked it away because it swelled her cheeks and impaired her elegance. The instrument is consequently not as strongly associated with her in contrast to Dionysus because of its use in Bacchic ceremonies. A satyr named Marsyas, who is said to have grabbed up the musical instrument after Athena hurled it away and later become a proficient musician, is also connected to the instrument.

After discovering it, Marsyas requested the god Apollo to perform with them in a duet. As stated by the examiners, the Muses as well as Midas, Apollo triumphed in the contest, and Marsyas was disembowelled for perpetrating Yvris, against the deity. The narrative demonstrates the continual conflict between a man's Apollonian as well as Dionysian temperaments.

Apollo was the victim, thus he was plagued with donkey's ears, according to legend. The tears of the Muses as well as the bloodshed of Marsyas were used to form the Marsyas River in Asia Minor.

Musical tournaments were held all around Greece as well as its colonies, but these might not experience the same disastrous outcomes as Marsyas' defeat.

Features

Aulos

Description: A flute player from Osuna

The main materials used to make these instruments were cane, bone or wood, along with bronze as well as a wooden mouthpiece. The twin cane reeds employed by way of the Greeks have been held in the pipes via bulbous sockets.

When playing duets, the instrument is held in each hand, blown at the same time in order to sound simultaneously . Because of the strong winds needed to blow the pipes, the Greeks often tied phobics or leather straps around their cheeks for extra support.An auloi might have one or two trupemata on the underside of the thumb, however this number could fluctuate. Metal bands that might be twisted to conceal or reveal certain holes according to the aulete's requirements for each concert were also a characteristic of performers who had more than 4 trupemata.

Considering two pipes must sound together in order to play in time with one another, it is difficult to locate historical auloi that were probably a part of the same playing duo.This is due to the fact that the two components might be out of harmony if they weren't manufactured from materials that were as equivalent in excellence as feasible.

The fragmentation of the leftover specimens makes it impossible to determine the average length of a bombyx. The size of the hupholmion as well as holmos added together, a pair of well-preserved auloi measure 41 cm overall and are maintained at the Louvre.

Calamaules were auloi fashioned completely of the calamus reed, a variety of monaulos. Reed auloi was able to consist of a single main structural section instead of a bone mechanism, that would've necessitated a minimum of one joint; preserved examples frequently contain two or more pieces. Reed sections may be lengthier than bone segments.

Surviving Examples

However, textual evidence reveals that reed was once the most common material for auloi. The majority of the auloi that already have survived to the current day are crafted of bone or ivory. Therefore, these have long since decayed.

Similar contemporary instruments include the Sardinian launedas, the single-reed triple whistle, and various double clarinets such as mizmar, alghur, and zamur, played in the Middle East as well as Mediterranean.

Conclusion

The view that the aulos is significant is supported by the large body of art that contains it as well as the large body of contemporary literary writings. The aulos was therefore the most significant wind instrument at the time, which sounds plausible.It is challenging to discuss the cultural context of Greek art without addressing the aulos, if only due to its frequent use in a range of social contexts, from anniversaries to cemeteries.

FAQs

Q1. An aulos makes what kind of sound?

Ans. Despite the fact that the word aulos is occasionally rendered as "flute," it was primarily a double-reeded piece with a tone more closely similar to the bagpipe music, with a chanter and drone. "Penetrating, relentless, and exciting" was used to describe it.

Q2. What materials make up aulos?

Ans. Early aulos were made of bone or wood, with metal reinforcement maybe placed over the joints. However, by the Hellenistic and, particularly, Roman Imperial eras, exceedingly complex design systems were being utilized and were made of a mix of metal, bone, as well as wood.

Q3. How are the reeds of Aulos made?

Ans. That material was selected using a special process: after being sliced, they were left outdoors for the wintertime until being thoroughly cleansed and polished in the springtime to remove their rind.