I suoni di Paestum

All examples are played on a 3D-printed model in PA12 of the Paestum aulos, with reeds as described in the article, made of sections of arundo donax with an internal diameter matching that of the main bores.

1) Overlapping holes

The overlapping range of holes on both pipes, fully opened and closed sequentially.

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2) The central tetrachord in enharmonic shape

The core enharmonic tetrachord is produced starting from the lowest note for which both pipes have a fingerhole (barýpyknon, hypátē), half-opening the adjacent higher holes (mesopyknon, parypátē), fully opening the same holes (oxýpyknon, likhanós), and fully opening the next but one holes (mésē), keeping the intermediate fingerholes closed.

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3) The central tetrachord in diatonic shape

The core diatonic tetrachord is produced starting from the lowest note for which both pipes have a fingerhole (hypátē), half-opening the adjacent higher holes (parypátē), opening the next higher holes (likhanós), and fully opening the next holes again (mésē).

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4) The central diatonic tetrachord plus disjunctive tone above

This basic pentachord augments the diatonic tetrachord of (3) with the next higher holes, fully exploiting the range that the two pipes can play in unison.

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5) Aristides’ Syntonolydian scale on the higher pipe

Combining the central enharmonic tetrachord of (2) with the highest fingerhole produces the scale that Aristides Quintilianus identifies as the ‘taut Lydian’ Plato had in mind when writing the Republic.