This recording reflects Armand D’Angour's latest thinking on Greek pronunciation in the 2nd-century BCE. It also reveals the pitch accents which are the primary basis for reconstructing the missing sections of melody. For more info, see www.doublepipes.info/athenaios-paean.

The Athenaios Paean spoken by Armand D’Angour (24 April 2017)

Stefan Hagel argues that because this paean is high-brow cult music, performed by a conservative upper class, the pronunciation is likely to be old-fashioned. In this case, ph, ch, and th would be hard: an aspirated p/k/t, rather than fricatives that they had become by the time of Christ. In this recording, he recites the paean first slowly, then faster. After giving an alternative opening supplement (Promoleth' instead of Kekluth'), he points out how a modulation marks the moment when Apollo enters his sacred precinct, summoned by the Muses. For more info, see www.doublepipes.info/athenaios-paean.

The Athenaios Paean spoken by Stefan Hagel (13 May 2017)

This version of the Hymn to Apollo by Athenaios Athenaiou (127/8 BC) is based on a reconstruction of the melody by Armand D'Angour. The accompaniment for Louvre aulos is composed and performed by Barnaby Brown. For more information and musical notation, see www.doublepipes.info/athenaios-paean. Recorded at the 29th Mednarodni Festival "Noči v stari Ljubljani" on Saturday 26 August 2017 in Stari Trg, Ljubljana. Supported by the European Music Archaeology Project and introduced by its Artistic Director, Emiliano Li Castro.

The Athenaios Paean sung by Miriam Andersén in Ljubljana

This version of the Hymn to Apollo by Athenaios Athenaiou (127/8 BC) is based on a reconstruction of the melody by Armand D'Angour. The chorus directed by Tosca Lynch comprises members of Oxford Classics and Music faculties; alumni of Caius Choir, Cambridge; and MOISA members. The accompaniment for Louvre aulos is composed and performed by Barnaby Brown.  For more information and musical notation, see www.doublepipes.info/athenaios-paean. Recorded at the 10th MOISA Meeting on 28 July 2017 in the Randolph Sculpture Gallery, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

The Athenaios Paean: Armand D'Angour's reconstruction at the 10th MOISA Meeting, 2017

See http://www.doublepipes.info/louvre-deluxe-by-robin-howell/ ‎for images, links and more info on this track.

While testing this deluxe instrument, a couple of new insights came to me:

1) While circular breathing, you can't keep diaphragm vibrato going; however, with lip vibrato you can. I also prefer the sound of lip vibrato; you can be so much more expressive with it and you have greater control.

2) The Louvre could potentially be a polymodal instrument, in the sense that one can bend the pitch of every note to overlap with the pitch range of the neighbouring fingering, without any half-holing, i.e. purely using the embouchure.

Conclusion: These reeds are marvellous, a delight to play. The timbre and response of the instrument are absolutely gorgeous. Congratulations Robin!

Testing a Louvre aulos by Robin Howell

This is the first recording in which I explore the three genera: enharmonic, diatonic and chromatic. It is a practise session, painful to listen to, shared for research purposes and to make the hill feel less steep for other Pydna learners. It marks a turning point in how I interpret auloi that do not fit a system of 12 semitones. Until now, I was imposing a 12-tone conception of tonal space on the Pydna and Poseidonia auloi. It has taken me a year to shed that preconception and go with how these instruments want to behave naturally. Provisionally, I would call this a cyclic 7-tone system, or three Unmodulating Systems spaced an equi-heptatonic tone apart.
Recorded in Cambridge, 23 March 2018

Descending Equi-heptatonic Circuits 1 - practising on Pydna aulos

Recorded in Ystad Abbey, Sweden, 6 June 2016
A composition by Barnaby Brown inspired by the Hebridean psalm singing of Murdina and Effie MacLeod, particularly the recording Thorkild Knudsen made of these sisters singing Psalm 118, embroidering the melody Coleshill. This recording was made in their kitchen on the Isle of Harris in 1965, thanks to an introduction by John MacInnes, son of the minister in Stornoway, who persuaded the sisters' mother that the young Danish ethnomusicologist, Knudsen, was a man of God. This recording is available at www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/67880/7

Barnaby Brown & Miriam Andersén - Psalm 150 at the opening of Archæomusica, Ystad 2016

Recorded live at the BBC in London, 18 January 2018
Broadcast on The Early Music Show, BBC Radio 3, 28 January 2018. Presenter: Lucie Skeaping

For this recording we used a reproduction of the Pydna aulos by Robin Howell. Our realisation modulates between the Dorian and Mixolydian scales transmitted from 'distant antiquity' by Aristides Quintilianus (? 3rd c. BCE); these scales form an 'Unmodulating System', or single key defined by the contrast between them. We are grateful to Armand D'Angour for elucidating the pitch profile and rhythm embedded in the words.

Pindar's 12th Pythian Ode realised by Stef Conner and Barnaby Brown (January 2018)

Performed on 21 July 2018 in Christ Church, Reading, UK, for the MOISA 11th International Conference, ‘Music and Materiality’.
Performing materials available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6885089

The Euripides Orestes Chorus performed by Stef Conner & Barnaby Brown

For the edition I am singing from and further discussion, see http://altpibroch.com/learning/end-of-the-little-bridge-1

Testing a Louvre aulos by Robin Howell

Siubhal