The acoustical engineering of brasswind instruments 1779–1929

Abstract

At the start of this 150-year period, brass musical instruments were made to traditional designs, which were developed by trial and error, the fittest surviving. Mechanical inventions (most importantly the valve) greatly widened the possibilities for bore engineering. Increasingly through this period, instrument designers were influenced by the developing science of acoustics. By 1929 most of the range of instruments in use today had been developed and acoustical tools were in use in optimizing the design of instruments. Considering the factors of greatest importance in determining the acoustical response of a brass instrument to be bore profile, bell flare (cutoff frequency), and mouthpiece geometry, landmarks in the development of existing instrumental types and the creation of new models are surveyed. The contributions of Stoelzel, C.M. Pace, Sax, Bayley, Blaikley, Webster, and Couturier are discussed. This paper is based on research involving direct examination of several hundred instruments from 1779–1929 located in museums worldwide.