Physicists and Fipple Flutes At

I PHYSICISTS and FIPPLE FLUTES I at APL S. A. Elder I • Amateur chamber music groups instrument, used in the time of easiest instruments to learn to play, are springing up throughout the land Johann Sebastian Bach and George which perhaps accounts in part for as a result of the twentieth century Frederick Handel, has in its literature its growing popularity. revival of the recorder, or English some of the greatest music of the ages. Pictured in the accompanying illus fipple flute. This wooden end-blown I t is, at the same time, one of the tration (Fig. 1) are members of the occasional-Friday-l unch time chamber music group of the Applied Physics Laboratory. The APL Altkammer musikgesellschaft (the old chamber music society), or AKMG as it is familiarly known, has been function ing for about four years under the able and imaginative leadership of Martin Davidson. * There have been other recorder players at APL even before the formation of AKMG; for example, Dr. R. Herman, who publish ed an article on recorders in the Ameri can Journal of Physics. 1 Only within the last four years, however, has re corder playing become an organized activity at the Laboratory. The re corder group that meets in Parsons Auditorium has been augmented from time to time by other musicians, Dr. Samuel A. Elder, a physicist on the Rocket Tunnel Project staff of the Fluid Me chanics Group, is responsible for development of a new recording pyrometer, discussed in "Transistorized Pyrometer With and Without Feedback," APL T echnical Digest, 2 , May June 1963, 17- 18. * Assistant Supervisor, Radar Communica tions Project. Fig. I-Members of the Altkammermusikgesellschaft enjoy a 17th century quartet by Fresco 1 R. Herman, "Observations on the Acous baldi in Parsons Auditorium. Left to right, they are: R. P. Rich, soprano recorder; A. H. Dell, tical Characteristics of the English Flute," bass recorder; the author, alto recorder; and M. Davidson, teno recorder. Am. ]. Phys. , 27, 1959, 22-29. IfI11'll(lr), - F eb r u{I/")' J 9 6-1 15 including a summer bassoonist, a Baroque vocalist, and a chemist accompanist. t The latter has so far confined his art to the piano since the auditorium is not equipped with a WIN DWAY ~ CYLINDR I CAL harpsichord. I BOR E --;--------TA PERED BOR E---------/ Actually, the brief Friday noon get togethers represent only a small frac THUM B HOLE tion of the musical activities of the AKMG members. Martin Davidson has been heavily involved in the work of the Washington Chapter of the American Recorder Society (ARS ). Fig. 3-Recorders are usually made in three parts, the upper, or head, portion being cylindrical in bore, and the mid and foot sections being tapered. Early recorders of the Renaissance period Last year he undertook the task of had straight cylindrical bores. publishing a complete directory of the approximately 200 players in the greater loudness and dynamic range should use in designing larger instru Washington area. He also teaches of the former. This was the period ments." At the time, he was just the recorder. A number of Washing in which the piano replaced the beginning work on a Great Bass in F, ton ARS members are his former clavichord,2 the violin family won out the largest of the recorder family. pupils. over the soft-toned viols,3 and the This six-foot giant cannot be de Al Dell's home-workshop hobby, at modern orchestra was born. signed according to the same rules the moment, is making recorders and Dr. Robert Rich, director of the as can normal-sized recorders and wooden cross flutes (Fig. 2 ) . His University Computing Center of The still be playable by normal-sized peo one-key flutes, made after the style Johns Hopkins University and super ple. The large, widely spread finger of those used in Mozart's day, have visor of APL's Computing Center, is holes require an elaborate system of been played by experts and declared another member of AKMG who has keys and pads to extend the capa to be of high quality. The one-key instrument-making as a hobby. He bilities of the human hand. flute was historically the immediate has invented a new chamber music An even greater problem is the successor to the Baroque recorder as instrument that he calls the trecorda. breath volume required. Human a concert instrument. Composers of This is essentially a keyed version of vital capacity, or total exhalable air the Classical period that followed the the guitar, with a soft tone that volume, is about 4500 cc. A Great age of Bach favored the cross flute blends well with recorders. In out Bass designed according to the scal over the recorder because of the ward appearance it is easily mistaken ing laws of small instruments would for some obscure court instrument of demand some 500 cc/sec on its lowest the Renaissance period. As a matter note and as much as 1300 cc/sec in of fact, the trecorda could have been its upper range. Apart from the pro invented in Shakespeare's time! duction of occasional oom-pahs, it My own interest in the recorder is would be relatively useless as a musi both musical and scientific. Two cal instrument. What Mr. von summers ago I played with a trio of Huene wanted to know was how to strolling musicians at the Sylvan make it loud and still playable. Theater production of "The Taming Although I did a little thinking about of the Shrew." In spite of my cos the problem through the winter, the tume, I was recognized by a few of real impetus to research came last the APL personnel who were among spring. At that time Dr. Paul E. some 70 thousand visitors taking Clark, managing edit!Jr of the Digest, advantage of the free Shakespeare asked me to write an article on performances. "recorder playing as a physicist's During last year's vacation I visited hobby;" I immediately began a sur the New England workshop of vey of books and scientific papers re Friedrich von Huene, who is one of lated to the subject. Before long, I the foremost of modern recorder began to realize that the time was makers. When he learned that I am ripe fO.r the first fundamental treat a physicist, Mr. von Huene said: ment of recorder acoustics. Only Fig. 2-A. H. Dell poses with reproductions of an 18th century cross flute and several "Good, I have a problem for you. within the last decade has the basic 17th century recorders. Other "one-key" Tell me what scaling laws one knowledge become available to make flutes made by Mr. Dell are on loan to area musicians. such a task possible. 2 C. Welch, Six Lectures on the Recorder, Oxford University Press, London, 1911, There is still much to be done, but 128. t Respectively, D . Klausner, a summer assist since the beginning of the summer I ant in the Research Center in 1961, Miss 3 Carleen M. Hutchins, "The Physics of have made enough progress to be able Kathryn Froelich, associate engineer, and Violins," Sci. American, 207, Nov. 1962, Dr. E. J. Blau, senior chemist. 79- 93. to present a technical paper at the 16 APL Technical Digest November meeting of the Acoustical the orifice, that eventually becomes Society of America, in Ann Arbor, on large enough to shift the entire jet the subject of recorder voicing. My across the edge. The modulated flow wife Sylvia, an equally enthusiastic of air in the mouth of the pipe is advocate of recorder playing and a equivalent to a spherical radiator of former technical illustrator, did the sound, since the wavelength is much ink drawings for my slides. larger than any mouth dimension. "Voicing" is the name given to the This type of sound generator will fine adjustments of mouth geometry work with or without the presence and bore profile that make the differ of a resonator pipe, and is called an ence between a good recorder and a "edgetone." In 1961 Dr. Alan bad one. I t is, as the Englishman Powell, 5 a former British scientist Carl Dolmetsch told me, "a subtle who is now an American citizen, art." Mr. Dolmetsch, whom I met showed that the edgetone oscillator after one of his concerts in the U.S., is similar to an electronic-feed back is noted both as a virtuoso and as a amplifier circuit. In his model of the maker of some of the finest avail Fig. 4-Dr. W. M. Oler, internal medicine edgetone, amplifier gain corresponds able recorders. His father, Arnold specialist and owner of nearly 100 recor to the growth of the jet disturbance ders, helped take the data on which this ar Dolmetsch, is generally considered to ticle is based. Shown here are some Baroque resulting from hydrodynamic insta be responsible for the renascence of recorders from his collection. bility. Even when there is no reso the recorder. nator present, the resultant "dipole" Figure 3 shows the profile of the Friedrich von Huene. I was surprised source caused by the sloshing of the to discover that all well-voiced re alto recorder, an instrument about 42 jet triggers a new disturbance back em long. Very-low-pressure air is corders produce nearly the same at the orifice and thus provides posi blown through the narrow windway sound power, except for the extremely tive feedback to make the oscillations at the left, at a rate of about 100 to large types, which are slightly weaker.

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