says, “the kind of syrinx played by hand which we call hydraulis.” The fact that the syrinx was an assemblage of independent stopped pipes, which in their original condition could not be mechanically blown, since the movable lip of the player used to direct the air stream against the sharp edge of the open end of the pipe was a necessity, is no bar to the suggested derivation. Wind projected into a pipe can produce no musical sound unless the wind be first compressed and the even flow of the stream be interrupted and converted into a series of pulses. In order to produce these pulses in an organ-pipe, it is necessary to make use of some such contrivance as a reed, flute or whistle mouthpiece (q.v.).
In the earliest organs there is no doubt that the pipes consisted of lengths of the large reed known as κάλαμος used for the syrinx, but converted into open flue-pipes. Instead of cutting off the reed immediately under the knot, as for syrinx pipes, a little extra length was left and shaped to a point to form a foot or mouthpiece, which was placed over the aperture in the wind-chest, so that it caused the stream of air to split in two as it was driven through the hole into the pipe by the action of the bellows. A narrow fissure was made through the knot near the front of the pipe, and above it a horizontal slit was cut in the reed, the two edges being bevelled inwards. When the wind was pumped into the chest it found an outlet through one of the holes in the lid, and the current, being divided by the foot of the pipe, became compressed and was forced through the fissure in the knot. It then ascended the pipe in an even stream, as yet silent, until thrown into commotion by another obstacle, the upper sharp edge or lip of the notch, which produced the regular flutterings or pulses requisite for the emission of a note. The very simplicity of this process disposes of any difficulty in accepting the syrinx as an important factor in the evolution of the organ. The conversion of a syrinx pipe is, in fact, a simpler and more natural expedient than the more elaborate construction of a wooden flue-pipe.
In order to convert the syrinx into a mechanically played instrument, the addition of the actuating principle of the bag-pipe was necessary. It is probable that in the earliest attempts the leather bag was actually retained and that the supply of wind was still furnished by the mouth through an insufflation pipe. Such an instrument is described and illustrated by Father Athanasius Kircher,[1] but his drawing should be accepted with reserve, as it was probably only an effort of the imagination to illustrate the text. In the instrument, which he calls the Magraketha or Mashrokitha of the Chaldees, the bag is described as being inside the wind-chest, the insufflation pipe being carried through a hole in the side of the box. Little wooden sliders manipulated by the fingers formed a primitive means of controlling the escape of the wind through any given pipe.
We have two pottery figures of musicians playing on primitive organs in the next stage of development, namely with bellows, and a description in the Talmud. The quotation as given by Blasius Ugolinus states that the instrument known as the Magrepha d’Aruchin[2] “consisted, as the Schilte Haggiborim teaches, of several rows of pipes and was blown by bellows. It had, besides, holes and small sliders answering to each pipe, which were set in motion by the pressure of the organist; the vent-holes being open, a wonderful variety of sounds was produced.” The spurious letter of St Jerome to Dardanus might also be consulted in this connexion. At Tarsus in Asia Minor pottery and coins dating from c. 200 B.C. were excavated by W. Burckhardt Barker,[3] and amongst them is the fragment of a figure of a musician playing upon an instrument fastened to his breast, and having seven pipes set in a rectangular wind-chest, in the centre of which appear to be two bellows of unequal sizes. Unfortunately both drawing and description are somewhat vague: nevertheless, there is no room for doubt that this was an organ, perhaps without sliders or keys, the pipes being stopped at the open end, nearest the player’s mouth, by the fingers, supposing that there was only one bellows. Another piece of pottery from Tarsus, discovered in 1852, during excavations carried out at Kusick-Kolah by M. M. Mazvillier and V. Langlois,[4] and preserved in the Louvre, shows the back of an organ having fifteen pipes. Two models of organs of more recent date recall the construction of that found by Mr Barker. One found in Chinese Turkestan on the site of ancient Khotan[5] (fig. 1) represents a musician holding the instrument to his breast; both hands seem to be pressing what might be bellows; and there are seven pipes below the bellows. The other instrument (fig. 2) is of Roman origin, and forms part of the decoration on a medallion on a yellow pottery vase, which was excavated at Orange (Dauphiné, France), and is now preserved in the collection of M. Emilien Dumas de Sommières. The subject represented in the medallion is an amphitheatre, and in the centre a pneumatic organ with bellows is plainly visible (fig. 2).
 From Marc Aurel Stein, Ancient Khotan, by permis- |
 From Orange. |
| Fig. 1. |
Fig. 2.—Roman Pneumatic Organ. |
This brings us to a point in the history of the organ when the existence of the hydraulic organ can no longer be ignored. Some writers consider that the invention of the hydraulis in the 2nd century B.C. by Ctesibius[6] of Alexandria constitutes the invention of the organ, and that the pneumatic organ followed as an improvement or variety. Such an assertion would seem to be untenable in the face of what has been said above. It is most improbable that a man busy with the theory and practice of hydraulics would invent a highly complex musical instrument in which essential parts lying outside his realm, such as the flue-pipes, the balanced keyboard, the arrangements within the wind-chest for the distribution of the wind, are all in a highly developed state; it would be a case for which no parallel exists in the history of musical instruments, all of which have evolved slowly and surely through the ages. On the other hand, given a pneumatic organ in which the primitive unweighted bellows worked unsatisfactorily, an engineer would be prompt to see an opportunity for the advantageous application of his art.
There are two detailed and duly accredited descriptions of the hydraulis extant, both of which presuppose the existence of a pneumatic organ. One is in Greek by Hero of Alexandria,[7] said to be a pupil of Ctesibius,[8] and the other in Latin by Vitruvius (De Arch. lib. x. cap. ii.). In both accounts reference is made to drawings now lost. Mr Woodcroft states that in each MS. the diagrams are said to have been copied faithfully, and that on consulting four MSS. and three early printed editions[9] he found that the mechanical parts in all agree essentially, and that it is only the case of the organ and the arrangement of the pipes which vary according to the fancy of the artist.
The principle of the hydraulis, which remained a complete mystery until recently, is now well understood. Representations of Roman hydraulic organs abound, but they were not always identified as such.[10] As the front of the organ (the performer sat or stood at the back) was invariably represented, there had been no indication of the manner in which the pipes were made to sound. A clue was furnished by a little baked clay model of an hydraulus, and parts of the performer, excavated in 1885 on the ruins of Carthage and now preserved in the Musée Lavigerie, attached to the cathedral of S. Louis of Carthage. This little clay model, measuring 7116 in. by 234 in. (figs. 3 and 4), modelled by Possessoris, a potter working at the beginning of the 2nd century A.D., whose name appears on the front, below the ends of the sliders, is so accurately designed that it tallies in every point with the description of the instrument by Hero and Vitruvius. The number and relative sizes of the three
- ↑ See Musurgia, bk. ii. ch. iv. § 3, p. 3.
- ↑ or Eruchin. Treatise XXXIII. of Babyl. Talmud. See Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum (Venice, 1744–1769), xxxii. 11 and 21.
- ↑ See Lares and Penates (London, 1853), p. 260, fig. 69.
- ↑ See W. Froehner, Monuments antiques du musée de France (Paris, 1873), pl. 32; also Archives des missions scientifiques, iv. 64-67.
- ↑ See Ancient Khotan, detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan, carried out by H.M. Indian Government, by Marc. Aurel Stein (Oxford, 1907), plate xliii.
- ↑ Tertullian (De anima, 14) names Archimedes, which is probably an error. See in this connexion Hermann Degering, who devotes considerable space to the question, Die Orgel, ihre Erfindung und ihre Geschichte (Muenster, 1905).
- ↑ See The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria, translated from the original Greek by Bennett Woodcroft (London, 1851), with diagrams.
- ↑ Edward Buhle in Die musikalischen Instrumente in den Miniaturen des frühen Mittelalters, pt. i. (Leipzig, 1903), p. 55. Note 1 corrects this as an error, assigning Hero’s activity to the beginning of our era, in which case the description by Vitruvius would be the earlier in spite of the fact that the hydraulus, as he describes it, contains an improvement on that of Hero, i.e. registers, and two pumps instead of one, and that he omits to explain the purpose for which water is used. Buhle gives as his authority Diels, “Das phys. System des Strabon,” p. 291, in Berliner Monatsberichte (Feb. 1893).
- ↑ For an exhaustive and careful compilation of these editions, and of the literature of the hydraulus generally, see Dr Charles Maclean’s article, “The Principle of the Hydraulic Organ,” Intern. Mus. Ges. Sbd. vi. 2, pp. 183-237; also John W. Warman, Bibliography of the Organ, who, however, takes the erroneous view that the medieval editions of Vitruvius and Hero may be taken as evidence that the instrument itself was in use until about the middle or end of the 17th century. See Proc. Mus. Assoc. (1903–1904), p. 40.
- ↑ The present writer was apparently the first in England to draw attention to this identity by introducing the drawing from the Utrecht Psalter and the model of the Carthage Organ, &c. See Music (London, Sept. 1898), p. 438.
