The Acoustics of the Violin
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The Science of String Instruments
The Science of String Instruments Thomas D. Rossing Editor The Science of String Instruments Editor Thomas D. Rossing Stanford University Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) Stanford, CA 94302-8180, USA [email protected] ISBN 978-1-4419-7109-8 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-7110-4 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-7110-4 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer ScienceþBusiness Media (www.springer.com) Contents 1 Introduction............................................................... 1 Thomas D. Rossing 2 Plucked Strings ........................................................... 11 Thomas D. Rossing 3 Guitars and Lutes ........................................................ 19 Thomas D. Rossing and Graham Caldersmith 4 Portuguese Guitar ........................................................ 47 Octavio Inacio 5 Banjo ...................................................................... 59 James Rae 6 Mandolin Family Instruments........................................... 77 David J. Cohen and Thomas D. Rossing 7 Psalteries and Zithers .................................................... 99 Andres Peekna and Thomas D. -
Karlheinz Stockhausen's Stimmung and Vowel Overtone Singing Wolfgang Saus, 27.01.2009
- 1 - Saus, W., 2009. Karlheinz Stockhausen’s STIMMUNG and Vowel Overtone Singing. In Ročenka textů zahraničních profesorů / The Annual of Texts by Foreign Guest Professors. Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Filozofická fakulta: FF UK Praha, ISBN 978-80-7308-290-1, S 471-478. Karlheinz Stockhausen's Stimmung and Vowel Overtone Singing Wolfgang Saus, 27.01.2009 Karlheinz Stockhausen created STIMMUNG1 for six vocalists in one maintains the same vocal timbre and sings a portamento, then 1968 (first setting 1967). It is the first vocal work in Western se- the formants remain constant on their pitch and the overtones rious music with explicitly notated vocal overtones2, and is emerge one after the other as their frequencies fall into the range of therefore the first classic composition for overtone singing. Howe- the vocal formant. ver, the singing technique in STIMMUNG is different from It is not immediately obvious from the score whether Stock- "western overtone singing" as practiced by most overtone singers hausen's numbering refers to overtones or partials. Since the today. I would like to introduce the concept of "vowel overtone fundamental is counted as partial number 1, the corresponding singing," as used by Stockhausen, as a distinct technique in additi- overtone position is always one lower. The 5th overtone is identi- on to the L, R or other overtone singing techniques3. cal with the 6th partial. The tape chord of 7 sine tones mentioned Stockhausen demands in the instructions to his composition the in the performance material provides clarification. Its fundamental mastery of the vowel square. This is a collection of phonetic signs, is indicated at 57 Hz, what corresponds to B2♭ −38 ct. -
Sounds of Speech Sounds of Speech
TM TOOLS for PROGRAMSCHOOLS SOUNDS OF SPEECH SOUNDS OF SPEECH Consonant Frequency Bands Vowel Chart (Maxon & Brackett, 1992; and Ling, 1979) (*adapted from Ling and Ling, 1978) Ling, D. & Ling, A. (1978) Aural Habilitation — The Foundations of Verbal Learning in Hearing-Impaired Children Washington DC: The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf. Consonant Frequency Bands (Hz) 1 2 3 4 /w/ 250–800 /n/ 250–350 1000–1500 2000–3,000 /m/ 250–350 1000–1500 2500–3500 /ŋ/ 250–400 1000–1500 2000–3,000 /r/ 600–800 1000–1500 1800–2400 /g/ 200–300 1500–2500 /j/ 200–300 2000–3000 /ʤ/ 200–300 2000–3000 /l/ 250–400 2000–3000 /b/ 300–400 2000–2500 Tips for using The Sounds of Speech charts and tables: /d/ 300–400 2500–3000 1. These charts and tables with vowel and consonant formant information are designed to assist /ʒ/ 200–300 1500–3500 3500–7000 you during therapy. The values in the charts are estimated acoustic data and will be variable from speaker to speaker. /z/ 200–300 4000–5000 2. It is important to note not only the first formant of the target sounds during therapy, but also the /ð/ 250–350 4500–6000 subsequent formants as well. For example, some vowels share the same first formant F1. It is /v/ 300–400 3500–4500 the second formant F2 which will make these vowels sound different. If a child can't detect F2 they will have discrimination problems for vowels which vary only by the second formant e.g. -
Consonants Consonants Vs. Vowels Formant Frequencies Place Of
The Acoustics of Speech Production: Source-Filter Theory of Speech Consonants Production Source Filter Speech Speech production can be divided into two independent parts •Sources of sound (i.e., signals) such as the larynx •Filters that modify the source (i.e., systems) such as the vocal tract Consonants Consonants Vs. Vowels All three sources are used • Frication Vowels Consonants • Aspiration • Voicing • Slow changes in • Rapid changes in articulators articulators Articulations change resonances of the vocal tract • Resonances of the vocal tract are called formants • Produced by with a • Produced by making • Moving the tongue, lips and jaw change the shape of the vocal tract relatively open vocal constrictions in the • Changing the shape of the vocal tract changes the formant frequencies tract vocal tract Consonants are created by coordinating changes in the sources with changes in the filter (i.e., formant frequencies) • Only the voicing • Coordination of all source is used three sources (frication, aspiration, voicing) Formant Frequencies Place of Articulation The First Formant (F1) • Affected by the size of Velar Alveolar the constriction • Cue for manner • Unrelated to place Bilabial The second and third formants (F2 and F3) • Affected by place of articulation /AdA/ 1 Place of Articulation Place of Articulation Bilabials (e.g., /b/, /p/, /m/) -- Low Frequencies • Lower F2 • Lower F3 Alveolars (e.g., /d/, /n/, /s/) -- High Frequencies • Higher F2 • Higher F3 Velars (e.g., /g/, /k/) -- Middle Frequencies • Higher F2 /AdA/ /AgA/ • Lower -
A Comparison of Viola Strings with Harmonic Frequency Analysis
University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music Music, School of 5-2011 A Comparison of Viola Strings with Harmonic Frequency Analysis Jonathan Paul Crosmer University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/musicstudent Part of the Music Commons Crosmer, Jonathan Paul, "A Comparison of Viola Strings with Harmonic Frequency Analysis" (2011). Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music. 33. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/musicstudent/33 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Music, School of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. A COMPARISON OF VIOLA STRINGS WITH HARMONIC FREQUENCY ANALYSIS by Jonathan P. Crosmer A DOCTORAL DOCUMENT Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts Major: Music Under the Supervision of Professor Clark E. Potter Lincoln, Nebraska May, 2011 A COMPARISON OF VIOLA STRINGS WITH HARMONIC FREQUENCY ANALYSIS Jonathan P. Crosmer, D.M.A. University of Nebraska, 2011 Adviser: Clark E. Potter Many brands of viola strings are available today. Different materials used result in varying timbres. This study compares 12 popular brands of strings. Each set of strings was tested and recorded on four violas. We allowed two weeks after installation for each string set to settle, and we were careful to control as many factors as possible in the recording process. -
Measuring Vowel Formants UW Phonetics/Sociolinguistics Lab Wiki Measuring Vowel Formants
6/18/2015 Measuring Vowel Formants UW Phonetics/Sociolinguistics Lab Wiki Measuring Vowel Formants From UW Phonetics/Sociolinguistics Lab Wiki By Richard Wright and David Nichols. Introduction Vowel quality is based (largely) on our perception of the relationship between the first and second formants (F1 & F2) of a vowel in combination with the third formant (F3) and details in the vowel's spectrum. We can measure F1 and F2 using a variety of tools. A researcher's auditory impression is the most important qualitative tool in linguists; we can transcribe what we hear using qualitative labels such as IPA symbols. For a trained transcriber, transcriptions based on auditory impressions are sufficient for many purposes. However, when the goals of the research require a higher level of accuracy than can be achieved using transcriptions alone, researchers have a variety of tools available to them. Spectrograms are probably the most commonly used acoustic tool; most phoneticians consult spectrograms when making narrow transcriptions or when making decisions about where to measure the signal using other tools. While spectrograms can be very useful, they are typically used as qualitative tools because it is difficult to make most measures accurately from a spectrogram alone. Therefore, many measures that might be made using a spectrogram are typically supplemented using other, more precise tools. In this case an LPC (linear predictive coding) analysis is used to track (estimate) the center of each formant and can also be used to estimate the formant's bandwidth. On its own, the LPC spectrum is generally reliable, but it may sometimes miscalculate a formant severely by mistaking another formant or a harmonic for the formant you're trying to find. -
Musical Acoustics - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia 11/07/13 17:28 Musical Acoustics from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Musical acoustics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 11/07/13 17:28 Musical acoustics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Musical acoustics or music acoustics is the branch of acoustics concerned with researching and describing the physics of music – how sounds employed as music work. Examples of areas of study are the function of musical instruments, the human voice (the physics of speech and singing), computer analysis of melody, and in the clinical use of music in music therapy. Contents 1 Methods and fields of study 2 Physical aspects 3 Subjective aspects 4 Pitch ranges of musical instruments 5 Harmonics, partials, and overtones 6 Harmonics and non-linearities 7 Harmony 8 Scales 9 See also 10 External links Methods and fields of study Frequency range of music Frequency analysis Computer analysis of musical structure Synthesis of musical sounds Music cognition, based on physics (also known as psychoacoustics) Physical aspects Whenever two different pitches are played at the same time, their sound waves interact with each other – the highs and lows in the air pressure reinforce each other to produce a different sound wave. As a result, any given sound wave which is more complicated than a sine wave can be modelled by many different sine waves of the appropriate frequencies and amplitudes (a frequency spectrum). In humans the hearing apparatus (composed of the ears and brain) can usually isolate these tones and hear them distinctly. When two or more tones are played at once, a variation of air pressure at the ear "contains" the pitches of each, and the ear and/or brain isolate and decode them into distinct tones. -
Static Measurements of Vowel Formant Frequencies and Bandwidths A
Journal of Communication Disorders 74 (2018) 74–97 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Communication Disorders journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jcomdis Static measurements of vowel formant frequencies and bandwidths: A review T ⁎ Raymond D. Kent , Houri K. Vorperian Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States ABSTRACT Purpose: Data on vowel formants have been derived primarily from static measures representing an assumed steady state. This review summarizes data on formant frequencies and bandwidths for American English and also addresses (a) sources of variability (focusing on speech sample and time sampling point), and (b) methods of data reduction such as vowel area and dispersion. Method: Searches were conducted with CINAHL, Google Scholar, MEDLINE/PubMed, SCOPUS, and other online sources including legacy articles and references. The primary search items were vowels, vowel space area, vowel dispersion, formants, formant frequency, and formant band- width. Results: Data on formant frequencies and bandwidths are available for both sexes over the life- span, but considerable variability in results across studies affects even features of the basic vowel quadrilateral. Origins of variability likely include differences in speech sample and time sampling point. The data reveal the emergence of sex differences by 4 years of age, maturational reductions in formant bandwidth, and decreased formant frequencies with advancing age in some persons. It appears that a combination of methods of data reduction -
Catgut Acoustical Society Journal
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8gt5p1r Online items available Guide to the Catgut Acoustical Society Newsletter and Journal MUS.1000 Music Library Braun Music Center 541 Lasuen Mall Stanford University Stanford, California, 94305-3076 650-723-1212 [email protected] © 2013 The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved. Guide to the Catgut Acoustical MUS.1000 1 Society Newsletter and Journal MUS.1000 Descriptive Summary Title: Catgut Acoustical Society Journal: An International Publication Devoted to Research in the Theory, Design, Construction, and History of Stringed Instruments and to Related Areas of Acoustical Study. Dates: 1964-2004 Collection number: MUS.1000 Collection size: 50 journals Repository: Stanford Music Library, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94305-3076 Language of Material: English Access Access to articles where copyright permission has not been granted may be consulted in the Stanford University Libraries under call number ML1 .C359. Copyright permissions Stanford University Libraries has made every attempt to locate and receive permission to digitize and make the articles available on this website from the copyright holders of articles in the Catgut Newsletter and Journal. It was not possible to locate all of the copyright holders for all articles. If you believe that you hold copyright to an article on this web site and do not wish for it to appear here, please write to [email protected]. Sponsor Note This electronic journal was produced with generous financial support from the CAS Forum and the Violin Society of America. Journal History and Description The Catgut Acoustical Society grew out of the research collaboration of Carleen Hutchins, Frederick Saunders, John Schelleng, and Robert Fryxell, all amateur string players who were also interested in the acoustics of the violin and string instruments in the late 1950s and early 1960s. -
PVA Study Guide Answer
PVA Study Guide (Adapted from Chicago NATS Chapter PVA Book Discussion by Chadley Ballantyne. Answers by Ken Bozeman) Chapter 2 How are harmonics related to pitch? Pitch is perception of the frequency of a sound. A sound may be comprised of many frequencies. A tone with clear pitch is comprised of a set of frequencies that are all whole integer multiples of the lowest frequency, which therefore create a sound pressure pattern that repeats itself at the frequency of that lowest frequency—the fundamental frequency—and which is perceived to be the pitch of that lowest frequency. Such frequency sets are called harmonics, and are said to be harmonic. Which harmonic do we perceive as the pitch of a musical tone? The first harmonic. The fundamental frequency. What is another name for this harmonic? The fundamental frequency. In this text designated by H1. There is a movement within the science community to unify designations and henceforth to indicate harmonics as multiples of the fundamental frequency oscillation fo, such that the first harmonic would be 1 fo or just fo. Higher harmonics would then be 2 fo, 3 fo, etc. If the pitch G1 has a frequency of 100 Hz, what is the frequency for the following harmonics? H1 _100______ H2 _200______ H3 _300______ H4 _400______ What would be the answer if the pitch is A3 with a frequency of 220 Hz? H1 __220_____ H2 __440_____ H3 __660_____ H4 __880_____ Figure 1 shows the Harmonic series beginning on C3. If the frequency of C3 is 130.81 Hz, what is the difference in Hz between each harmonic in this figure? 130.81Hz How is that different from the musical intervals between these harmonics? Musical intervals are logarithmic, and represent frequency ratios between successive harmonics, such that 2fo/1fo is an octave or a 2/1 ratio; 3fo/2fo is a P5th or a 3/2 ratio; 4fo/3fo is a P4th, or a 4/3 ratio, etc. -
The Top, Bassbar and Soundpost
19281204.DOC The Top, Bassbar and Soundpost By Louis Kramer Innumerable experiments have been made to improve the tone of instruments by changing positions of bassbar and soundpost; but every attempted change in that direction has brought about negative and detrimental results, with the exception of change—and this is indeed an outstanding feature—the lengthening of the bassbar. This improvemcnt has since its innovation been recognized and adapted as a success; it may be mentioned here that thc adaption of a longer bassbar becomes even a necessity, with the gradually rising of the "Diapason," the accelerated string pressure caused by a higher pitch; the resistance of the old and short bassbar proved insufficient, hence had to be lengthened in order to establish the much needed support and This bassbar is of vital importance; not alone does it scrve as a reinforcement of the instrument when the string pressure proves to be the strongest, but also—and this mainly—for the gradual slackening of vibrations of that particular part of the upper plate where the lower strings require slower vibrations. lf the bassbar is too thin or too light, the "G" string will invariably sound dull; if too stiff and thick, it will not be responcive. The bassbar may be safely called the "Nerve System" and the soundpost the "Heart" of a violin. The most insignificant change in the position of either post or bar will change the tone of an instrument; and the best violin will not respond if bassbar and soundpost are not in their right place. Worth mentioning here -
Katrien Vandermeersch
Itzel Ávila (M.A. Univesité de Montréal) Itzel Ávila is a Mexican-Canadian violin maker and violinist who discovered the art of violin making as a teenager. She graduated with honours in violin performance from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and holds a Master’s degree in the same discipline from the University of Montreal. As a Violin Maker, Itzel further perfected her skills in Cremona, Italy, and San Francisco, United States, under the supervision of Francis Kuttner, as well as in Montreal, under the supervision of Michèle Ashley. She has worked at the workshops Wilder & Davis in Montreal, and The Sound Post in Toronto. In 2010, she established her own workshop in Toronto, where she resides. Very active in the international violin making scene, her instruments have participated in exhibitions in Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Canada and the United States. She is also a participant member of the annual Oberlin Violin Makers Workshop of the Violin Society of America. Thanks to her integral formation as an interpreter and violin maker, her instruments are characterized by an ergonomic and comfortable playability, reliable responsiveness, and a clean and clear sound. She is also a photographer and mother of two kids. www.itzelavila.com 2020 Virtual New Instrument Exhibit Gideon Baumblatt and Mira Gruszow The construction of a singing instrument has fascinated Gideon and Mira from the very beginning and brought them to Cremona at a young age. It’s their common starting point on a path that took them to very different places and experiences and eventually reunited them on this quest after many years.