The waterorgan
Components of the Aquincum hydraulis (water organ) after the excavation of 1931
The instrument of Ktesibios has not survived, but parts of an instrument of a similar structure, which had been called hydraulis by Cicero (hydraulum organum, water organ), were traced in 1931 in a Roman village. Aquincum* lies exactly on the area of present-day Budapest in Hungary. (Picture 1) According to the plate of the organ it was donated in 228 AD. At that time they already used four stops, which means four specified sound characters, and the wind supply was regulated by two different kinds of slides, one provided air for the stops and the other for the keys. At first the water container and its boiler had not been found next to the completely intact excavated components, so many experts thought it was probably an organum pneumaticum, which is a wind operated organ. Anyway, if not in Rome but surely in Constantinople the hydraulic press was replaced by air-tubes. Later, however, certain components of the container were discovered a bit further from the organ parts, and at the end of the 20th century it was possible to reconstruct the wind supply system of the water organ.
*The archaeologists found the components of this instrument in 1931 and one year later they announced it at the organ congress of Strasbourg. Several reconstructions were made from the archaeological pieces. In 1935 József Geyer and Viktor Sugár led the reconstruction of the instrument in the factory of József Angster and later in 1997 the Organ Manufacture of Pécs rebuilt this structure. (Picture 2) Due to finding this ancient organ we have information about the first lady organist of Aquincum. Her name was Aelia Sabina and her epitaph says: Her figure is always in the memory of people because she often played her organ gracefully.