In No. 4 we find other distinctions and an extended range:—

The
Pompeian
Flute.
1. Front View
Fig. 22.


2. Back View.

I have had further correspondence with M. Mahillon, and he out of his abundant courtesy has added to my obligations to him, by sending to me his two large photographs of the Pompeian flutes, taken as they are in the Naples Museum; and I have had these photographed in reduced size, and engraved. They show the closure rings in the position in which they were found (refer to final chapter for clearer outline drawings). The large expanded portion at the top of the pipe is made of ivory, and is cup shaped, and into this the reed was fitted for playing. Whatever the original reeds were, they perished in the heat of the lava and ashes that overwhelmed the city. The cup would have suitably held either Arghool reeds, or bulbed reeds, enclosing these or other kinds of reeds. When M. Mahillon first investigated these flutes, he supposed that the Arghool reed had been used by the players in their day; but he now tells me that, having in more recent years made the acquaintance of most of the pipes of the middle ages—the cromornes, the courtauds, the dolziana, racket and others—he has come to the conclusion that the Pompeian flutes were blown by some sort of double reed, but differing from the oboe and bassoon type, which are adapted on a short metallic tube of small bore; and he considers that probably they were of the sort now existing in the Japanese pipe called the Hichirichi, but I do not see how this could be, since such have a broad base, quite half an inch in diameter, to fit into a tube corresponding. Moreover this explanation or supposition leaves the chief part of the problem unanswered—what then was the utility and purpose of the three bulbs? The mystery is there still. Perchance the meaning of it is this—the era of the concealed reed has closed, and this Pompeian instrument announces a new departure in flutes, played by a broad double reed sensitive to a ligature pressed by the lips, the precursor therefore of all modern reeds that can be accommodated to pitch.

I have myself one of these interesting little Japanese instruments, and will in another chapter describe and illustrate it; and the curious thing about it is that, in the splendid work on Egypt got up by order of the great Napoleon, such an instrument is figured there complete in every detail of pipe and reed, full size, and is claimed as an instrument belonging to Egypt. Did Japan get it from that motherland? The plot seems to thicken.

You will notice a curious application of the closure in this last specimen, No. 4, there being no fewer than seven holes shut off from speaking, sections 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10; and we cannot well understand or suppose it likely that during the progress of the piece of music the setting of the rings was changed. The player on this was able to supply three notes beyond the compass of the other flutes.

In reference to specimen No. 3, there is one particular which we should not omit to refer to. The ring closing the a (section 8), has a second hole bored at a little distance lower, and so gives a note flatter than that which the chief opening emits. In fact, we have a second g♯, which is a little higher, and establishes two quarters of a tone between g and a, and the g itself it is remarked is too low by a quarter of a tone. The various skips fixed by the closed holes cannot be without meaning. In one instance, we find a skip of a fourth; and the minor or neuter third, which I remarked upon as common to the earlier flutes as a fixed interval, and for some reason or other preserved, is also exemplified; in No. 4, we have D♯ to F♯, and again all sounds closed for the fourth between F♯ and A♯; and in No. 1, all sounds closed between D and G.

One wonders whether we have not some reminiscence of an earlier pentatonic scale in these, some traits by inheritance and tradition. Travellers in Persia have remarked that the singers seem to have a custom of making a drop of a fourth in the two concluding notes of their song; and the people in that land of the rose and the bulbul are passionately fond of song, and gather together, sitting out half the night in the open air, listening to song following song. All national traits are worth studying, and very often simple things render true clear light to the investigator.

All the details respecting the construction, the scales, and the conditions of these Pompeian flutes, we owe to M. Charles Victor Mahillon, who, travelling with M. Gevaert, the Director of the Conservatoire of Music at Brussels, found these unheeded relics of the musical art in a corner at the Naples Museum; and, fired with enthusiasm, was able, by his recognized position, to obtain the necessary permission to fulfil his desire, which was to make copies of them for a full investigation of their musical nature. He made most exact copies, down to the minutest details, and so enriched the museum which has long been under his fostering care, and increased the world’s knowledge because enthusiasm was allied to practical skill.