Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: Brass instruments



Wandering a bit more, while as Michael points out, there is a lot of
physics behind musical instruments, the best musical instruments in
all the categories of which I am aware got that way without benefit
of application of sophisticated physical theory. Sure, Bohm made the
holes on a flute bigger by fitting valves, but it was already known
that big holes were better because big-holed flutes had been made for
big-fingered flautists. Engineering has made significant mechanical
contributions to musical instruments, but to my knowledge very little
or no contribution has been made to acoustics of instruments by
application of physical principles, and not through lack of effort,
either. The Catgut Acoustical Society in New England (Carleen Mayley
Hutchins et al.) have done some excellent exploration in violins,
but they haven't made an impact on music. (their work has been seen
in more than one article in Scientific American. Let me also refer to
the Article "The Physics of Brasses" by Arthur Benade in the July
1973 Scientific American. I'm sure Michael and/or Mel have seen this
article.)

I feel the bottom line is this: while musical instruments are, to a
limited extent, understood physically, they are evolved instruments,
largely uninformed by the scholarly effort that has been devoted to
their improvement. It is interesting to me that bicycles are in the
same category of technology. They, too, are largely evolved, and only
a limited understanding of the system has been attained by science,
and I believe that is for the same reason that musical instruments
are not yet fully understood. There are subjective elements in every
such system which have not yet been recognized or quantified.

These are very complex physical systems. Mistrust all simple answers.

To bring this wandering full circle let me mention that when I was in
Burnside Avenue Elementary School I appeared in a talent show playing
a found instrument, the bicycle handlebar. In those days the popular
bar was what we called a "longhorn" and one could get several notes
out of it. The result wasn't particularly musical, but I have no
musical talent, and I didn't fit a mouthpiece to the bar. I didn't
understand the physics at that time, but there was a physicist
(Backus) nearby at USC who, I found out many years later, was doing
research on such things at the time.

But I digress - again.

Leigh