[Fwd:Greek organ makes British debut after 2,300 years]

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

Pretty bitty, methinks..

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FWD: Greek organ makes British debut after 2,300 years
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 12:42:31 -0400
From: Donald Eastlake 3rd <dee3@torque.pothole.com>
To: interest@another.pothole.com


<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001210658,00.html> [For more
details, see <http://www.orgona.hu/orgonaink/tuzolto_orgona_e.html>.
Although people keep saying "water powered" it was really manually
powered and just used water as a pressure regulator. -dee3]

WEDNESDAY JUNE 20 2001

Greek organ makes British debut after 2,300 years
BY DALYA ALBERGE, ARTS CORRESPONDENT

THE first keyboard instrument ever made has been re-created by
archaeologists and musicians and will be heard in Britain for the
first time at a concert next week.

The water-powered hydraulis was invented by the Ancient Greeks; its
sound was adored by the Roman Emperor Nero and described by the
Emperor Claudius as "countless voices and deafening sound". The
instrument consisted of metal pipes of different sizes supplied with
air at a constant pressure through a hydraulic system.

Experts feared that they would never be able to reconstruct the organ
until the remains of one dating to the 1st century BC were dug up at
Dion in Greece in 1992. Using the remnants, ancient images and a
description in the 2nd century BC from Heron of Alexandria, the Greek
mathematician, engineer and historian, a modern copy was built.

The hydraulis was invented by Ctesibius, who lived in Alexandria
during the 3rd century BC and who is regarded as the most important
engineer of the ancient world after Archimedes. The instrument was a
simple but ingenious structure reflecting the sophisticated
technological knowledge in Hellenic antiquity.

Such was its popularity that it soon spread through the Hellenic and
later the Roman world, where it was played during games or other
activities in the forum. It became the favourite instrument of Nero,
who was so taken with it that he called a meeting in the middle of the
night to announce that he had discovered a way to make the instrument
sound louder and more melodic. Its output was so strong that Seneca
put it in the same group as horns and trumpets.

The concert takes place next Monday at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on
London's South Bank. The musicologist Panos Vlangopoulos will play the
hydraulis, accompanying the international baritone Spyros Sakkas. They
will perform contemporary and traditional Greek songs, including
settings of poems by Sappho and Cavafy, alongside music from the
Byzantine era. There will be music by Euripides, based on fragments of
papyrus.

Simon Williams, of the Royal College of Organists, said: "This is
bringing the textbooks to life. Every student of the organ, or anyone
who delves into organ history, is told the Greeks invented the organ,
that it was powered by water."

The process of reconstruction was so complex that it took more than
five years to achieve. The Dion find - which consisted of a row of
brass pipes in graduated sizes mounted vertically over the keys and a
horizontal decorated metallic support plate - provided the answers to
many questions about the hydraulis.

It had a row of 24 pipes, which produced sound when air flowed through
them. They stood on top of a wind chest connected to a conical wind
reservoir. An appropriate amount of air was produced through an air
pump. The air passed through the pipe towards a hemispherical air
chamber placed upside down in the bottom of a water tank, the water
covering the air chamber. Air was directed into the pipes by
drawer-like devices, controlled by the keys, which released or blocked
the airflow to the individual pipes causing them to sound or remain
silent.