Megara aulos: composing for the 2019 Bradfield Greek Play

[@ethnichellenismincaliforni8215]

As one of the best preserved tools from Ancient Greece, the Aulos is of culturally vital for many reasons. I am hopeful that this pipe arrives on world states once again.

[@Hecatonicosachoron]

The speech in the end is really inspiring! ...Although I am coming to the crushing realisation that watching a musician practice is not the same as practicing ^^'

[@hellscreatures7139]

Today i got my first Aulos on E tone. The sense of playing this instrument is unbelievable, although i dont know how to play it yet. I could say, its like playing a flute on steroids....

[@geompon6505]

Can I ask where did you get it from? I ve found 3 constructors in Europe so far but they only make the Louvre Aulos.

[@hellscreatures7139]

@@geompon6505 I have 2 of them. One is on E tuning and the other one is the Ionian Aulos made from Anton Platonov from Russia. (Antplat instruments). The first ''E tuned'' aulos i got it from the symposion eshop from the island Santorini www.symposionsantorini.com/gift-shop

[@geompon6505]

@@hellscreatures7139 Plantonov's are not based on the authentic found instruments though, they are his own designs. They might be good and tuned but they don t have anything to do with historical founds. Edit: just checked the ones from Santorini as well. Hate to be that guy but those are also single reed and have nothing to do with the aulos demonstrated in the video nor with any of the archaic ones. Those are folk instruments that are used in several traditional musics from various greek regions bur are not academic reconstructions of any aulos.

[@hellscreatures7139]

@@geompon6505 Now i see.....You want 100% replicas. Im looking for them too. I dont know anyone who makes them :(

[@geompon6505]

@@hellscreatures7139 so there are actually 6 manufacturers. Their adresses are on a symposium prospectus that you can find in the double pipes site. Pretty hidden, found it because someone asked Barnaby in youtube and he told him so. The aulos community needs some organising that s for sure.

[@fendriken9]

The aulos is such an interesting instument! I don't think I would be any good at playing it, but I really enjoy listening to it and learning about it!

[@aarisz94music91]

great work!!!

[@MrCantStopTheRobot]

Those twelve minutes went by quickly!

[@Dreileben]

Richtig cool. Sie sind vielleicht ein Experte. Also seit dem Film Agora über Hyperia, als Orestes ein Lied für sie spielte, bin ich begeistert von den Tönen dieses Instruments. Sehr schön, dass Sie das machen. Push the bonderies of knowlegde. True.

[@ceciliavaughan9824]

Guys, he was playing at the school for a version of Alcestis by Euripides. I played Alcestis lol

[@arno-luyendijk4798]

Geez. How exciting to see that levers on pipe instruments were already known before the 16th century. The ancient Greeks were advanced far more in their technology, I keep on discovering each time.

[@ThomasRC0ck]

I have met this guy

[@BrookelynJane64]

This is so fascinating, I will tell all my friends about this! Especially those who follow Hellenic spirituality!

[@stef1147]

If you want to find people who would learn the aulos, I'm one of them But: Where? I just don't know where and with who

[@RexConstenla]

Hi Stéphane! Sorry for the delay! I recommend you to regularly the website : www.doublepipes.info We are currently in the process of getting the site updated ! You can also check the facebook group : "Aulos - a group to share about this fascinating ancient music instrument" there you can find all the information you may search, ask questions, and be noticed for the regular zoom meetings on aulos technique and informal discussion we organise! Cheers!

[@derfalschejunge]

I am surprised how medieval this instrument sounds. As a reed instrument, it alsmost sounds like a Rauschpfeife. My expectation was obviously based on false premises, but I somehow expected ancient greek instruments to sound more delicate.

[@NicholasKonradsen]

this particular aulos is loud and brash, great for outdoors. the berlin and louvre aulos examples are more delicate in sound.

[@JFroTheMusician]

Do you recommend any makers and resources for learning the aulos? I've seen a couple places here and there, but I'm not sure how legit they are, or even if they're copies to begin with.

[@chehotrao]

I play instruments by Robin Howell, Chrestos Terzes, Marco Sciascia and Thomas Rezanka, and reeds by Robin Howell. You can find their email addresses in the Euterpe 2018 prospectus at www.emaproject.eu/events/euterpe.html. It is worth paying good money to get wonderful reeds. The reeds make all the difference, but you do need to take good care of them, like a mother protecting her babies, and also to be prepared for reeds to misbehave like toddlers. Both Callum Armstrong and I give lessons by Skype and there are a couple of Facebook groups you can join for support.

[@curingd]

Hi Barnaby, this is all fascinating! Just one question, in another video, you mentioned that the pipes are a perfect 4th apart but that each pipe is tuned to 7 equal subdivisions of the octave. Am I missing something, or does this mean that the pipes will never be "in tune" unless it's a perfect 4th from fingering the same thing? Just don't understand why the insistence on tuning (/lipping) to modes that the instrument isn't built for...

[@chehotrao]

Good question. My current understanding is that the makers bored holes to give players maximum capacity to modulate. 7-FEDO hole boring (Functionally Equal Divisions of the Octave) means nothing is in tune without subtle adjustments by the player. Auloi don't behave like orchestral instruments, which have evolved to be pitch-stable. The aulos is inherently pitch-flexible. The penny dropped for me when Kalia Lyraki explained that the hole boring of the Turkish ney drifted during the twentieth century, away from a multi-mode compromise, to meet Western expectations: expectations that post-date the nineteenth-century keywork on orchestral woodwinds. Classical ney playing, on an unkeyed instrument that has barely changed in 5000 years, involves a completely different cultural conditioning. It is very much about bending the instrument into tune for each different mode: one instrument, many modes. The holes are bored so that if you need an F sharp in one makam and an F natural in another, you lip a quartertone up or down and can play in both modes equally easily. It is not built for one makam: that would make it harder to play in another. A compromise tuning is essential for easy modulation without all that nineteenth-century keywork. A 7-FEDO keyless aulos is likewise, I suggest, built for multiple modes and a cultural conditioning closer to that of classical nay players than classical oboists.

[@curingd]

@@chehotrao ah I see, thanks for this!

[@robabnawaz]

I think not only 6 people watched it :-)