You know that harp-like instrument you always see nymphs and satyrs playing when you look at the illustrations in a book of Greek myths? It’s not actually a harp. It’s called an epigonion. (Well, the smaller ones are typically lyres, but when you see a nymph with a larger harp-like instrument, that’s an epigonion.)
No one knows when the last of them was made. It was certainly many centuries ago.
Modern scholars, thus, never really knew what sounds these oft-depicted instruments produced — until now.
No, scholars haven’t built a physical replica of the instrument. They’ve built a virtual replica, the New York Times reports, one that uses processing power rather than string tension to make music:
The members of the Ancient Instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application, or ASTRA, project used historical records to simulate the instrument. They then set a powerful personal to work on a digital audio rendering application to produce the sounds.
You can listen to the half-minute sample they composed. I’m no music connoisseur, but two things jumped out at me when I listened. First, it really does sound like something produced by string instrument rather than a computer. Second, something about the sound seems vaguely Asian rather than European to me.
This is not the only instrument that ASTA plans to reproduce. To the contrary, the group plans to bring dozens of extinct musical devices back to life. Its next project will be the eight track tape.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Entries (RSS)