Recent work on musical acoustics

Abstract

In this review the specific problems of musical acoustics, in particular the sometimes dominant subjective aspects, are first outlined, and then the perception of musical sounds from the physio/psychological point of view is dealt with. Turning to musical acoustics, wind instruments are the first to be dealt with, divided into woodwind, brass and the organ; this section also contains recent work on that other 'wind instrument', the singing voice. The following section in stringed instruments covers mainly bowed string instruments and the piano, since plucked string instruments appear to have received little attention. In dealing with percussion, both un-tuned instruments, such as drums, and tuned instruments, such as xylophones and bells, are covered. The final section deals with musical synthesis, leading perhaps to the ultimate freeing of music from nearly all instrumental properties and constraints.