Abstract
The standards for design and evaluation of Chinese concert halls have followed that of western music and western concert halls all the time. In recent years, studies on the sound characteristics of Chinese traditional musical instruments have been conducted. Wind instrument is an important type of traditional national musical instruments of China. The Chinese flute (Di) is the most representative one among them, the oldest type with a history almost 9000 years, and it is still one of the most widely used instruments now. So the study of Qudi (a main kind of Di) can be seen as a representative research work of traditional national wind instruments of China. The measurement presents the sound power level, dynamic range and frequency characteristics of Qudi when single notes, a music scale and a typical melody are performed at various dynamics. This is the first time a research measures the sound power of Qudi by multi-channel real-time analysis method in a reverberation room according to ISO and Chinese national standards. It shows that, Qudi has higher sound power level and a limited dynamic range when compared with Chinese traditional stringed and plucked instruments. The main energy radiation of Qudi is in the alto (middle) range and soprano (high) range. Here, we use sound power level of the music scale performed at forte dynamic as the representative value of Qudi’s SWL, and it is 96.2dB.
Highlights
Wind instruments as an important kind of traditional instruments in China appeared very early in the Chinese history
The following conclusions can be drawn in accordance with the analysis based on the Qudi measurement data: 1. The sound power level (SWL) of Qudi generally maintain in a high level
The minimum dynamic range of 3.1dB occurred when the note a1 was performed on Qudi II, which presents a relatively smaller dynamic range from 3.1dB to 7.6dB in all measurement contents; compared with Qudi II, Qudi with years (Qudi I) demonstrates a larger dynamic range from 7.1dB to 13.6dB in all measurements
Summary
Wind instruments as an important kind of traditional instruments in China appeared very early in the Chinese history. The oldest ancient musical instrument still in existence today is “Wuyang Jiahu Bone Flute” According to archaeologists, it appeared in the early period of the Neolithic China about 9000-7800 years ago [1]. Dizi often leads and accompanies in Chinese national orchestras It can produce various vivid sounds in nature, such as birdsong, sounds of running water, wind and rain. This paper introduces the systematic measurement of the sound power of Qudi according to international and Chinese national standards. In acoustic research and practice, sound power is an important parameter of sound source It is a significant indicator of sound source in the application of sound insulation; in any case, in the judgment of the quality and characteristics of a musical instrument, the radiated sound power is an important factor. More attention have been paid to the studies of traditional musical instrument’s characteristics in China, and the authors of this research have conducted much research to investigate the SWLs of typical Chinese traditional instruments [8,9,10,11], which lays a solid foundation for this further exploration
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