Some Mysteries of Ancient Greek Aulets
By Vladimir Kachmarchik
Donetsk, Ukraine
There is no exact
description of the
phorbeia's functional purposes in ancient written sources. Plutarch in
his Moralia 456 B.C. explained its functions like this "... air
pressure was introduced into [the instrument] through the phorbeia [its
holes], it gave the face a decent expression and hid its distortion"
(2). The meaning of the first part of the phrase is not quite clear,
probably the reeds of the instrument were put into the mouth through
the holes of the phorbeia and then the air pressure was directed into
them. The second part of the phrase is more exact and concrete "... it
(the phorbeia) gave the face a decent expression ..." so it is evident
that in time of while playing the aulos there arose an excessive
inflation of cheeks which distorted the performer's face. In this case
the phorbeia's functions may be commented two-digitly: Gesihy explained the purpose
of the
phorbeia little bit differently "... a leather bandage twining the
aulet's mouth not to tear his lip" (3). Probably he connected its
application with the providing of hermetically sealed lips. It is not
difficult to notice that as in the first case the matter is about the
considerable cheek inflation but at that case there could arise
"tearing a lip". It is necessary to emphasize
that the
description of the inflated cheeks while playing the aulos is often
found in ancient literary sources. J. Pollux in his
The problem of researching ancient Greek
aulet playing
technique is one of the most complicated questions in the history of
ancient musical culture. It is caused not only by the limited number of
preserved ancient manuscript sources but also by the lack of detailed
descriptions of performing process on the aulos in them. That's why
they are many unexplained things in ancient musicians' playing
technique. One of them is aulets' using of phorbeia* - a leather
bandage stretched tight around the mouth - which was also called a
torba - applied while playing the double aulos (1). The pictures of
aulets with the phorbeia are rather often found on the preserved
ancient vases, cups, frescoes, wall drawings and stone sculptures
(Pictures 1,2).
a) the phorbeia completely blocked the cheeks and did not allow their inflation;
b) nevertheless these arose a slight cheek inflation while using the
phorbeia but later on contracting "... it gave the face a decent
expression".
*
This term is used in latin spelling
"Onomasticum" described it rather minutely "... they play them (auloses) with blown, inflated, swollen and filled with air cheeks" (4). Swelling the cheeks which distorted the face is connected with Athena's refusal to play the aulos who "... was horrified and threw off the aulos aside, when she saw her reflection in the water" (5). Appolinary Sydony (6) and others also wrote about blowing the cheeks out.
The question is bound to arise if the cheek inflation of ancient musicians took place involuntarily just as it occurs to modern brass instruments' performers or whether it was connected with the definite playing technique. In order to answer these questions at first it is necessary to make clear the principles of sound producing as far as it is possible. Describing ancient aulos playing technique, K. Zaks wrote: "... one point is well known to us: Greeks blew out in the oriental manner so as the double reed could vibrate freely and not being pressed with the lips" (7). Such "untouched" way of playing has been preserved up to nowadays for oriental musicians playing the oboe-type instruments: - zurna, surna-which are constructively similar to the aulos. It would be interesting to mention that oriental performers also play often with inflated cheeks. In most cases it is connected with their using a specific unconventional type of breathing called - permanent or circular (permanent breathing, circular breathing, permanent exhalation [PEI).
The essence of this type of breathing is in creating uninterrupted exhaling stream of air achieved the following way: at the end of exhaling there occurs a reservoir or air in the mouth cavity by inflating the cheeks, and after that the mouth cavity is blocked (with the help of the soft palate and the mouth occlusion) and the nasal breath in and the cheek breath out are performed simultaneously (squeezing the air out of the mouth). Thus it is possible to play without pauses for inhaling. The playing technique of the musicians who are able to use such type of breathing may be compared to some extent with playing the bag-pipe.
Most likely ancient Greek musicians used permanent breathing while playing the aulos. Two terms "monoklonon" and "monokolon" which were employed for characterizing the playing process on the aulos by J. Pollux in his "Onomasticum" (8)
The second one is interpreted as ... an expression
meaning an indivisible unbroken movement like a complete instrumental passage (9).
or a performer using the permanent breathing the meaning of a complete passage is well known. Playing long continuous, passage like fragments with non-stop liga which may cover the considerable part of musical creation is rather spread and typical performing device while using permanent breath. It looks like playing with continuous breathing because the pause necessary for inhaling is absent. The performers who in the position are using the permanent breathing employ it rather often for playing unbroken legato; especially it is characteristic of oriental musicians (10). That's why the terms "monoklonon" and "monokolon" used by J. Pollux most likely could be interpreted as playing long fragments united by common liga using the permanent breathing.
The acknowledgement of using that complicated type of breathing by ancient Greek aulets is also the fact of applying the phorbeia.
Applying it for playing the double aulos the performers actually lost the possibility to inhale the air through the mouth because the leather phorbeia was tightened firmly against the lips. In that case only nasal inhalation effective for usual performer's breathing was possible obligatory for the PE, but was less. Because of too high air resistance in nasal passages the air volume inhaled through the nose per unit of time is three times less in comparison with the inhalation through the mouth. If you take into account that playing the double aulos was actually simultaneously playing two instruments and demanded an increased expenditure of air, using only the PE in that case becomes obvious.
What functions were set on the phorbeia, in that case? If it only hermetically sealed the mouth and "gave the face a decent expression" as Gessihy and Plutarch stated or whether its function, while playing the aulos, was quite different. In our opinion the principal function of the phorbeia was in mechanization of the process of "squeezing the air out" of the oral cavity, so is it was similar to function performed by the elbow while playing the bagpipe. In playing the aulos without the phorbeia all functions of squeezing the air out of the oral cavity were set on cheek muscles, while the phorbeia was only a device which greatly simplified that process and released the
muscles from excessive tension (Il). The phorbeia acquired special significance for playing the aulos over a long period of time when the lips' and cheeks' muscles were tired of prolonged tension. It is known that in Ancient Greece playing the aulos for a long time was rather spread. The example of it could be Olympic competitions of professional aulets in the open air when the musicians showed the art of playing the aulos during the long period of time. In that case applying the phorbeia was most expedient. At the same time using it for playing for aulos was not obligatory at all. The preserved pictures showing performers with and without the phorbeia can prove that fact. Only the aulets who were able to use that complicated type of performer's breathing - the permanent exhalation - could apply the phorbeia.
1. Antique Musical Aaesthetics. Moscow, 1960.
2. Arkadiyev P. Aurele Nicolet in Moscow Conservatoire.
- Club and amateur performances. 1975, N 16.
3. Bakhman V. Central Asian Sources on the Origin of Bow Instruments. - In book: Music of the Peoples of Asia and Africa. - Moscow, 1973. Issue 2.
8. Gertsman E.U. Instrumental Catalogue of Pollux. - In book: From the History of Instrumental Musical
10. Karomatov F. Performance Traditions of the Middle and Central East in the Present Time. - In book
Traditions of Musical Culture of the Peoples of the Middle and Central East and the Present Time.
15. Rahgava R. Menon. The Sounds of the Indian Music. Moscow, 1982.