TI´BIA
TI´BIA The word
αὐλός though it is commonly translated “flute,”
denotes any kind of wind instrument, with the exception of trumpets and
horns. As a rule, however, it is used in a more restricted sense for the
double oboe or clarinet, which is familiar to us under the misleading name
of the “double flute.” This is quite wrong, for the
αὐλὸς had a mouthpiece (
ζεῦγος) in which a vibrating reed (
γλῶττα) was fitted, whereas in the flute the sound is
produced by blowing a stream of air across a plain hole in the pipe of the
instrument. The true Greek representative of the modern flute is the
σῦριγξ μονοκάλαμος (fistula), as
distinguished from the
su=rigc poluka/lamos or Pan's
pipe. Both forms--the
σῦριγξ or flute, and
the oboe or
αὐλὸς proper--are, it would
seem, as old as Homer, who tells us that Agamemnon, unable to sleep, heard
afar off in Troy
αὐλῶν συρίγγων τ᾽
ἐνοπήν (
Il. 10.13). The flute,
however, was held in but low esteem, and was thought a fit instrument for
shepherds and other country folk. The art of playing the
αὐλός or
αὐλητική was on the other hand a necessary part of education.
In Boeotia it was the national instrument, and as such the Athenians
affected to despise it in comparison with the lyre (cf. Böttiger,
Kl. Schriften, 1.14), though as a matter of fact they
used it as much as the other Greeks. It is very frequently seen in works of
art, especially vase-paintings, and with the aid of these and the many
notices in literature we are able to form an accurate idea of its structure.
It consisted of a pipe (
βόμβυξ, Poll.
4.70), which in the simplest form was made of reed (
κάλαμος βομβυκίας, Theophr.
H. P. 4.11, 3),
but might be of bone, metal, or even ivory. To this was attached by means of
a socket of bone (
ὅλμιον or
ὑφόλμιον) the mouthpiece (
ζεῦγος), in which was fixed the vibrating reed (
γλῶττα). Theophrastus (
l.c.) says that the sound is best when the mouthpiece and pipe are
made from the same length of reed. The instrument thus formed does not seem
to have been played alone, but always in pairs. There are, it is true, a few
monuments, such as a Roman wall-painting in the British Museum, in which the
player has. only one pipe in his mouth, but then the other is always to be
seen in his other hand in a way that shows he is only preparing to play. The
difficulty of playing two instruments at once was obviated by a leather
strap which covered the mouth, ran under the ears, and was fastened at the
back of the head by a knot or buckle. This curious piece of gear served to
prevent a loss of wind and to keep the two mouthpieces in the proper
position. It was called the (
φορβεία,
στομὶς or
χειλωτήρ (cf. Arist.
ϝεσπ. 582): in Latin, the
CAPISTRUM
The notes were given by holes (
τρυπήματα);
and as both pipes were played at once, there can originally have been only
four or at the most five of these on each. However, it would seem, from a
remark of Proclus in his commentary on Plutarch's
Alcibiades (
c. 68,
ἕκαστον γὰρ τρύπημα τῶν αὐλῶν τρεῖς φθόγγους. ὥς
φασι τοὐλάχιστον ἀφίησιν), that two overtones at least
could be blown on each of these. The, compass was still further extended by
the use of additional holes with stops (
παρατρυπήματα), an invention which was apparently in use by the
time of Pronomus, who played in the Dorian, Lydian, and Phrygian keys on the
same instrument (
Paus. 9.12,
4). The simplest form of stop shown on the Pompeian
wall-paintings consists of a peg, which could be withdrawn when the hole was
needed. More complicated is the device in which extra notes are given by
short cylinders attached to the pipe near the end. This kind of instrument
is frequently seen in late representations of Euterpe, especially on Roman
sarcophagi. Yet another
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Tibia. (From a relief at Naples.)
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invention was to cover the extra holes with movable rings, which
the player could slide
[p. 2.841]over or off them as he
wished. Both the small cylinders and the rings, with the hooks by which they
were pulled round, are well shown by a relief in the Naples Museum
(Baumeister's
Denkmäler, fig. 596). Such no doubt,
or something like, was the new-fangled
tibia,
which Horace describes as “orichalco vincta tubaeque aemula,”
contrasting it with the old-fashioned one, with its few notes, “tenuis
simplexque foramine pauco” (
A. P. 202-3). The two
pipes were tuned so that the melody played on one could be accompanied an
octave lower on the other.
As the use of the clarinet and oboe became more extended in Greece, various
forms giving notes of widely different keys were either introduced from
abroad or invented. Aristoxenus, in a quotation given by Didymus (
Athen. 14.634 e), divides the
kinds of instruments (
γένη αὐλῶν) used in
his day into five classes: (1) The maiden's (
παρθενίοι), (2) the boy's (
παιδικοί), (3) the lyre-player's (
κιθαριστήριοι), (4) the perfect (
τέλειοι) and (5) the more than perfect (
ὑπερτέλειοι) instruments. Didymus tells us that
the “perfect” and “more than perfect” varieties
are the man's (
ἀνδρεῖοι), which shows that
the classification is intended to proceed on the same scale as the human
voice they were made to accompany, rising from the shrill soprano to the
deep bass. As this is the case, the list evidently aims at being exhaustive;
and Gevaert, in his
Histoire et Théorie de la Musique dans
l'Antiquité (vol. 2. § ii. pp. 271-307), has
catalogued the known varieties under these heads as follows:--(1)
παρθένιοι--the
γίγγρας of the Phoenicians, the
φῶτιγξ or cross-flute, and the Phrygian funeral
αὐλός; (2)
παιδικοί--the
αὐλὸς
ἐμβατήριος, the
αὐλὸς
δακτυλικός, and the Roman
tibia chorica;
(3)
κιθαριστήριοι--the
μόναυλος (sc.
κάλαμος) and the
αὐλὸς
μεσόκοπος; (4)
τελεῖοι--the
αὐλὸς Πνθικός, the
αὐλὸς ἔλυμος of the Phrygians, the
αὐλὸς βόμβυκος of the Bacchic worship, the
funeral pipe of the Greeks and Romans; (5)
ὑπερτέλιεοι--the
αὐλὸς
σπονδειακός. These varieties, it will be noticed, include all
sorts of wind-instruments, some of which are fifes like the
γίγγρας, flutes like the
φῶτιγξ, or horns like the
ἔλυμος. The lastnamed deserves special mention, since it was
used in the worship of Cybele, and was also known as the
tibia
Berecynthia to the Romans
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Pair of Tibiae and Syrinx.
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(cf. Hor.
Od. 3.19,
18;
4.1,
22). It ended in a curved horn mouth, and was of great power.
Originally and in its proper use it was played alone, but it apparently
became the fashion to use it as the left pipe in a pair, or perhaps, to,
speak correctly, to convert the left pipe into a Berecynthian by adding a
curved horn mouth. Such a pair is well shown above by a bas-relief from
Zoega,
Bassiril. 1.14.
The invention of the
αὐλός even if one
refuse to take Homer's Trojans as evidence for the Greeks of his time, must
have been an exceedingly early one, and was indeed by the Athenians
attributed to the goddess Athene. She, however, was disgusted with the
distortion of her face when playing, and threw it away. It was picked up by
the Satyr Marsyas, who met an evil end when he contended on his new
instrument with Apollo on the lyre. His art, however, did not die with him,
but was carried on by Olyrnpos, who brought it to Greece. The myth points in
Marsyas to Phrygia as the original home of the instrument, which even
nowadays, in a somewhat debased form, is played in both Arabia and Egypt.
From whatever land it came, it certainly was firmly established in Greece
when History begins. It was indispensable in religious rites not only to
accompany hymns and provide music for the, dance, but to hallow the libation
at every sacrifice. It was equally popular in private life, whether at
dinner-time when a flute-girl played, or in the leisure hour, or again in
the time of mourning when elegies were sung to its music. Small wonder,
then, that its playing became quite a profession, which in Solon's time was
recognised officially at the Pythian games. Sacadas at Argos had at that
time shown that the
αὐλητὴς could express
with quite as much effect as the harper the story of Apollo's fight with
Python, and a contest for
αὐληταὶ was
thereupon founded by the Amphictyons (
Paus.
10.7,
3). The vasepaintings of the best
Attic period have many representations of such contests. One of the, best is
in the British Museum, and shows the player mounted on a small platform
competing for the prize. [A cut of this is given in Vol. I., p. 358, under
CAPISTRUM] On another
vasepainting (Benndorf,
Wiener Vorlegeblätter,
100.4) a master giving a lesson on the
αὐλὸς depicted. On the wall behind hangs the case in which the
instrument was carried. It is the
συβήνη or
αὐλοφήκη, and is made of a spotted
skin, perhaps a lynx (cf. Stephani,
Compte Rendu, 1869, p.
221); but, to judge from an Attic treasure list, where one of ivory and gold
(
συβήη ἐλεφαντίνη κατάχρυσος,
C. I. A. 1.170, 172, 173) is catalogued, was often of more
splendid materials. To its side is attached a little box, the
γλωσσοκομεῖον, in which a change of mouthpieces
was kept. A similar lesson (where, however, the teacher is playing) is shown
in the cut from the Duris Vase under
LUDUS LITTERARIUS p. 96: the flute-case is seen
hanging on the wall in the lower portion.
At Rome the
tibiae held even a more important
place in ritual than in Greece, and the
tibicen who
played it was for most ceremonies quite indispensable. This is especially
true of funerals, for so great was the desire to have a large number of
tibicines to mourn the dead that the tenth
of the laws of the Twelve Tables restricted their number to ten (
Cic. de Leg. 2.2. 3, 59; Ovid,
Fasti, 6.654).
[p. 2.842]They were also called in to enliven feasts (Quintil.
Inst.
1.10, 20) as well as to take part in the libation (Plut.
Quaest.
Conviv. 7, 8, 4.6).
Besides these uses, the
tibiae were as necessary
to the drama at Rome as in Greece, both to accompany the singers and to
amuse the audiences in the interludes (cf. Hor.
A. P. 204-6).
From the
Didascalia to Terence's comedies, we learn that no
less than four different varieties were used in the theatre: (1) the
tibiae pares, in which both pipes were
equal; (2) the
impares, in which they were
unequal; (3) the
duae dextrae, in which the
right was identical in key and note with the left; and (4) the
Serranae. Varro (
R. R. 1.2, 15, 16) tells
us that the melody was played on the right instrument, which he calls the
incentiva, and the accompaniment on the
left, or the
succentiva; so that the
differences in size and character of the
impares and
duae dextrae were
intended to make fresh harmonies.
(See an excellent article by K. von Jan, in Baumeister,
Denkm.
s. v.
Flöten; Gevaert,
Histoire et
Théorie de la Musique dans l'Antiquité,
Ghent, 1881, ii. pp. 270 ff. and 647 ff.; Hermann-Blümner,
Privatalterthümer, p. 318; Iwan Müller,
Handbuch der Kultiusalterthümer, pp. 59, 145;
Id.
Bühnenwesen, p. 262; Marquardt,
Privatleben, pp. 337, 345, 352; Blümner,
Leben und Sitten, 2.148 ff.)
[
W.C.F.A]
