Oat straw reeds for Louvre aulos

Marco Sciascia harvested the tallest wild oats growing around his house on a hill overlooking Orte in mid-June 2024. He left the oat straw to dry for three weeks, under his balcony out of the sun. In the evening of 4 July, he made the reeds that Barnaby Brown plays in this video.

They were first sounded on the morning of 5 July. After only 40 mins of playing and 5 wet-dry cycles (wetting, playing, capping, drying), Barnaby played them in the Tarquinia Archaeological Museum in three concerts with students and staff of the 6th Euterpe School.

On 8 July, Barnaby travelled to Orte where he harvested more oats before making this video on 9 July. The camerawork and finger are  Marco Sciascia's.

Starting point for making Louvre reeds from oat straw:
- external diameter 7-8mm
- internal diameter 5-6mm
- wall thickness 0.4mm
- tube length for a pair of reeds: 108mm
- distance between waists (before cutting in two): 58mm
- internal diameter at waists: 3.0mm

Marco and I squeeze the blades before cutting the "Theophrastian yoke" in two. A clothes peg and two strips of 3mm cork roll form the blades. Take care to make the "onion" as fat as possible and that your reed-caps form a concave slope from onion to tip.

The caps are the parents of your twins, forming their behavior. With aulos reeds, it is really worth taking trouble over the parenting! The secret is to use caps that fit beautifully and leave a concave slope. Otherwise you will be huffing and puffing, finding your reeds are too hard!