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The Search for a Microtonal Flute

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The Search for a Microtonal Flute Durham E-Theses The search for a microtonal Flute Grain, Rachel Victoria How to cite: Grain, Rachel Victoria (2006) The search for a microtonal Flute, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2937/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk The Search For A Microtonal Flute Rachel Victoria Grain Thesis for qualification for degree of Master of Science University of Durham School of Engineering Volume 1 of 1 A copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. January 2006 15 MAR 2006 Declaration I declare that this work is completely my own, that it comes from no other outside source and that no portion of this work has been previously submitted for a degree in this or any other university Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without her prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Abstract This thesis investigates the possibility of a microtonal flute and the practicality of playing such an instrument. Microtonality is concerned with the intervals between any two consecutive notes in a tuning system. Standard tuning is not considered microtonal, however, any other system can be. There are various tuning systems that are used throughout the world. These include Equal Tempered Tuning, Just Intonation, Chinese Pentatonic, and Javanese Slendro tuning. An instrument with the ability to change between any tuning systems would be considered fully microtonal. In this thesis the frequencies and spectrums produced by the Boehm flute are investigated prior to investigating the 'plunger' flute and the 'sieve' flutes. Within a given register the plunger can be considered as a fully microtonal instrument however, results from the plunger flute show that the instrument could not play the full range, and that the size of the bore greatly impeded the result. The Sieve flutes produced a clearer sound, which was more like the Boehm flute than the Plunger flute was. However, the results show that for the two sieve flutes produced, neither of them could play in any complete tuning system. Due to the tone hole positions not matching those on the Boehm flute the instruments were unable to play in 12-ET (Equal Tempered). However, the results were not entirely unsatisfactory and with the modifications suggested for the sieve flute it is believed that a tuning system other than 12-ET would be playable. This thesis examines some of the other possibilities that could be used to develop and subsequently produce a suitable playable microtonal flute. This thesis briefly considers how the ideas from the search for a microtonal flute could be used in the search for other microtonal woodwind instrument. Contents 1 Introduction . ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction to Microtonality ............................................................................................ 1 1.2 Issues to be considered .................................................................................................. 1 1.3 Objective of thesis ........................................................................................................... 1 2 Woodwind Acoustics and Construction ............................................................................ 4 2.1 General Acoustical Theory .............................................................................................. 4 2.1.1 Acoustic Impedance ................................................................................................ 5 2.1.2 Cents ........................................................................................................................ 6 2.2 The Flute ......................................................................................................................... 7 2.2.1 Flute History ............................................................................................................. 7 2.2.1.1 The Flute before Boehm ................................................................................... 8 2.2.1.2 Boehm's work on the flute ................................................................................ 8 2.2.1.3 The Flute after Boehm .................................................................................... 10 2.2.2 Flute Acoustics ...................................................................................................... 10 2.2.2.1 End Effects on a flute ..................................................................................... 11 2.2.2.2 Multiphonics .................................................................................................... 13 2.2.2.3 Production of the sound .................................................................................. 15 2.2.3 Flute Construction .................................................................................................. 17 2.3 The Clarinet. .................................................................................................................. 18 2.3.1 Clarinet's History .................................................................................................... 18 2.3.1.1 The Chalumeau and early Clarinets ............................................................... 19 2.3.1.2 Oehler and Albert Systems ............................................................................ 20 2.3.1.3 Boehm System ............................................................................................... 22 2.3.2 Clarinet Acoustics .................................................................................................. 23 2.3.2.1 Overblowing .................................................................................................... 24 2.3.2.2 The Reed ........................................................................................................ 27 2.3.3 Clarinet Construction ............................................................................................. 28 2.3.3.1 The Mouthpiece .............................................................................................. 29 2.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 29 3 Tuning Systems . ................................................................................................................ 30 3.1 Introduction to tuning systems ...................................................................................... 30 3.2 Just Intonation Tuning ................................................................................................... 31 3.3 Equal Tempered Tuning ............................................................................................... 32 3.3.1 Scale Systems based on 12-ET ............................................................................ 34 3.3.1 .1 Modes ............................................................................................................. 34 3.3.1.2 Major and Minor Scales and Arpeggios ......................................................... 34 3.4 Other Tuning Systems .................................................................................................. 35 3.4.1 Pentatonic .............................................................................................................. 35 3.4.1.1 Chinese Pentatonic ........................................................................................ 35 3.4.1.2 Javanese Slendro ........................................................................................... 37 3.4.2 Pythagorean .......................................................................................................... 38 3.4.3 Mean tone ............................................................................................................... 38 3.4.4 Well Tempered ...................................................................................................... 39 3.5 Commas ........................................................................................................................ 39 3.5.1 Syntonic Comma ................................................................................................... 39 3.5.2 Pythagorean Comma ............................................................................................. 40 3.6 Inherent Problems with current instruments ................................................................. 41 3.7 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................
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