Bass Strings Research Articles

Phasic Dissonance, Timbral Contrast: Analysing 20th‐Century Guitar Harmonies with Discrete Fourier Transform

ABSTRACTOne of the six‐string classical guitar's most distinctive features is its unbalanced timbre. That is to say, only four pitches of the chromatic aggregate are overtonally supported by the resonances of the guitar's three bass strings. A common pitch‐ and structure‐generating strategy, exploited by twentieth‐century composers who wrote for the guitar, is bound up with this affordance. Local and global harmonic contrasts are often built around an antagonism between open‐string sets and fretted harmonies that largely avoid duplicating notes associated with the open strings. Open‐string/fretted binaries derive their sonic antagonism not just from timbral distinction, however, but from the fact that their pitch materials often lie at diametrically opposed positions on the circle of fifths. In many instances, this colouristic conflict replaces harmonic‐functional tension as a structure‐generating agent; the latter is reduced to a surface‐level topic. Representative works by Frank Martin and Leo Brouwer are taken as exemplifications of this trend.In demonstrating the subtle interactions between instrumental affordance and abstract pitch relationships and hierarchies, an invaluable theoretical approach developed by Ian Quinn and finessed by Jason Yust entails the study of harmonic quality through the discrete Fourier transform. This mathematical formula has been processed into an easy‐to‐use but powerful web application by Jennifer Harding – the Pitch Class DFT Vector Calculator – making its explanatory power available to music analysts without mathematical expertise. Part of the raison d’être of this article is to show how this application might be used and, more important, how the information that it yields might be interpreted.

Piano bass strings with reduced inharmonicity: theory and experiments

In modern straight pianos and half-grand pianos the inharmonicity due to the bending stiffness of the strings makes the sound of lower notes of poor quality. The question of whether this can be corrected has been addressed in a previous paper and it was shown on the basis of numerical simulations that this might be possible. In the present paper we show using analytical models that fixing a single mass near the end of the string is a simple and efficient solution. Indeed, the experiments show that theoretical predictions are relevant. So, in practice, on the basis of a simple formula involving the inharmonicity coefficient, it is easy to deduce the position of a given mass in order to reduce significantly the inharmonicity of the bass strings.

Expected Face

Expected Face Katherine Young (bio) For voice and piano, commissioned by Long Beach Opera, with text by A.Martinez from the poem "The Longest Improvisation" (duration, six minutes), 2020. Expected Face was commissioned by Long Beach Opera in the fall of 2020 as part of its "2020 Songbook," collecting songs "about 2020." Around that time, A.Martinez published her poem "The Longest Improvisation" in the journal Contratiempo in a Spanish translation by Miguel Marzana. A poet, visual artist, mother, and community and arts organizer based in Chicago, Martinez is a friend, colleague, and fellow artist-mama whom I deeply admire. Martinez wrote her poem in March 2019, yet "The Longest Improvisation"—describing a solitary moment of self-reflection at the end of a long-term relationship—resonated profoundly with me as I grappled with 2020. With its multiple, revealing, and compounding pandemics, this had been a year of profound loss, uncertainty, and instability. In many ways it felt like as a society we, too, were in the midst of a protracted, messy breakup. Things had reached (another) breaking point, and while the future was unclear, things could not continue as they had been. Now that some of us had looked ourselves in the mirror and seen "an expected face, different," there was no going back. The relationship, with its inequities and oppressions, was toxic, deadly. And collectively we were demanding something different and hopefully better from and for ourselves and others. With thoughts like these inspired by Martinez's poem, I tried to write the music in a way that would hold space for this intimate portrayal of an extremely fragile and significant moment. I want to also thank the artists who premiered the piece, soprano Emily Scott and pianist Stephen Karr, for their invaluable contributions to the piece's development and the staff of Long Beach Opera for their support of the project. [End Page 55] "The Longest Improvisation" by A.Martinez Meaning had fallen offthe words. I peered into bathroom mirrorthrough hesitantsteam, wiped away to expose an expected face, different. The mattress began to cupmy body like a soft coffin, in the stillestmoment of morning … … … … … the longest improvisation, welie together, cadavers. A map. An empty dawn congealsabove humidifier, hum and ire. Read the complete poem here: https://www.alyssahydemartinez.com/. [End Page 56] Expected Face for voice and piano 2020 notations voice Diamond noteheads indicate humming. X noteheads indicate unvoiced sibilants, vocal fry, or other noisy sounds. piano Bass String Harmonics: All were notated using http://www.pianoharmonics.com/ as a reference. The top staff indicates the resulting pitches, while the lower staff indicates which strings these harmonics are found on and, thus, which keys should be struck. The fractions indicate the nodes on the strings, which should be depressed with one hand while the other hand articulates the notes on the keyboard. Additional Implements: The pianist is asked to use a wire brush (like that used by drummers), a Super Ball mallet, and a wooden stick or back of a mallet for a few inside-the-piano techniques. These techniques are notated on special staves: inside the piano, used with Super Ball mallet techniques inside the piano, used with wire brush techniques bouncy drag across agraffe with Superball mallet with Super ball mallet [End Page 58] expected face for voice and piano commissioned by Long Beach Opera with text by A.Martinez from the poem "The Longest Improvisation" Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 59] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 60] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 61] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 62] Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 63] Katherine Young katherine young's electroacoustic music and sonic art use expressive noises, curious timbres, and kinetic structures. Collaboration is central to her practice. The LAPhil, CSO's MusicNOW, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Third Coast Percussion, Ensemble Dal Niente, Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik, the University of Chicago's Smart Museum of Art, and others have commissioned her work. She has worked closely with Wet Ink, Ensemble Nikel, WasteLAnd, Distractfold Ensemble's Linda...

The magic square of Olocin Ozzaniugnas

In 2009 Herbert Seifert published a description of certain Vivaldi sources held in the Estensischen Musikalien collection at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. In passing he described an unusual manuscript pasted into a print of Vivaldi’s op.2 violin sonatas—a ‘magic square’, consisting of a repeated array of alphabet symbols, running both horizontally and vertically, with an obscure series of pitch names running in four columns alongside. Although Seifert could not explain this document, he did identify the scribe as Nicolo Sanguinazzi (who tended to sign his name backwards), a bass string player who also copied many of the other items in the collection. Although Sanguinazzi held the collection prior to its acquisition by the Obizzi family in the late 18th century, no connection between the families has yet been made. This article offers both an explanation of the magic square and a possible identification of Nicolo Sanguinazzi as the uncle of Angela Sala, wife to Fernando Obizzi and mother to Tommaso Obizzi, the founder of the collection. The ‘magic square’ is in fact a visual guide to aid in the transposition of harmonic patterns using the alphabet symbols of 17th-century guitar notation (alfabeto). Alfabeto represents an anomaly in relation to the rest of the collection. These symbols do not appear anywhere else within the Vivaldi print, and are in any case stylistically inappropriate for that repertory. And Sanguinazzi’s other contributions to the collection postdate 1710, when alfabeto symbols were no longer current—he himself seems to have lived at least until 1740, at which point the alfabeto system was over 150 years old. There are antecedents, going back to the 16th century, of charts combining the alfabeto system with other types of harmonic notation, and Sanguinazzi’s magic square can be interpreted in that tradition. It is unique, however, in the extent to which it attempts to merge the alfabeto system with major–minor harmonic tonality. This remarkable visual artefact argues for the influence of 17th-century harmonic practice, in the form of alfabeto symbols, well into the early 18th century, long past the currency of alfabeto as a performance practice.

Long Day's Journey Into Night

Long Day's Journey Into Night

From Explosion Rocks Springfield

from Explosion Rocks Springfield Rodrigo Toscano (bio) The Friday evening gas explosion in Springfield leveled a strip club next to a day care I remember the breeze right before…Burs of—was it willow—slant-falling.The gray sidewalk, schist granules, scattering.A brown dumpster lid smushing its green plastic, sandwich meat.A rat made its debut, but for a moment. I remember an awning string’s knotted tip soft-thudding a windowpane—tympani’s uneven beat.The rustle of stray trash—bass strings, almost rising—but never.And the chopper, the chopper—spittletatootling, spittletatootling—A proud boot landing on obedient asphalt.The stern, uncrying chrome.The flighty flames decorative gas tank. I can’t forget the beryllium blue sunshades—orange hued at a glance.And the stars and bars, starched, pressed, bandana.Nation Idol GorgeBut for a momentThenBoom. [End Page 132] The Friday evening gas explosion in Springfield leveled a strip club next to a day care I remember the plume right after…Orbs of—was it cinnamon—black-rising.Vapor gray whitening shingle powder rain.A dumpster lid sheered off a gravestone’s angel face.A hawk’s claws claimed the stump. I remember two spouts of thin flame, blue, making an X—mind’s waking dream.The hissing of gurgling plastic, supplicant—sick—stomach’s inner eyeball.And the bathtub, the bathtub—sittin’ pretty—sittin’ pretty—The hysteric roof flopping on an unfazed floor.The wise, ever-wakeful steel beams.The cheery glass—beaming—everywhere. I can’t forget that purple doorknob—horny at a glance.And the plump couch stuffing foam, blazing, angry.City’s Final ChorusBut for a momentThenShsh. [End Page 133] The Friday evening gas explosion in Springfield leveled a strip club next to a day care I don’t remember the very moment…Flashes of—was I daydreaming—Biloxi Bound.The termite swarm at dusk, balling up, sprinkling.A skeeter swirling in its hotel pool—for the first time.A no-see-um bug popped out from nowhere—but for a moment—toromp. I can’t say I recall Cleopatra’s hairpiece flying off in a speeding four-cylindervehicle—Empire of the Great Somewhere, but never.And the flying fish, the flying fish—hither-flopping, hither-flopping—The carefree palms, twerking, injured.The bald, unyielding sun, giddy.Tentative feet in knee high water, gripping. Have I forgotten the name of that triple IPA—something like—Rondez The Moon à la Batshit.And the ample sized black pockadots—in my eyes, twerking, carefully.Empire of the Great SomewhereBut for a momentThenThen [End Page 134] Rodrigo Toscano Rodrigo Toscano’s Explosion Rocks Springfield, is due out from Fence Books in spring, 2016. Collapsible Poetics Theater was a National Poetry Series selection. His poetic works have appeared in the anthologies Angels of the Americlypse, Voices Without Borders, Diasporic Avant Gardes, and Best American Poetry. He lives in New Orleans. Copyright © 2016 University of Wisconsin Board of Regents

Acoustical evolution of the viola da gamba

The viola da gamba (or viol) emerged as a distinctive type of bowed string instrument during the fifteenth century. Its characteristics include a fingerboard with gut frets and between five and seven strings tuned in fourths with a central major third. By the end of the fifteenth century, the instrument was being constructed in a range of sizes. To investigate the acoustical significance of design changes during the evolution of the viol family in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries admittance measurements at the bridge have been made on a wide variety of reproductions of viols and other early bowed-string instruments. A comparison of the results with existing data on modern violin-family instruments, and other stringed instruments such as guitars, reveals that the acoustic behavior of viols is more disparate than that of violins or guitars. Models that have been measured include examples with and without a soundpost, and a correspondingly wide range of frequency responses is seen. The influence of the viol bridge and the significance of the adoption of overwound bass strings are also discussed.

Failure analysis of piano strings

In this paper we studied the failure cause of two types of piano strings. The numerous problems which make it difficult to quantify the string life are systematically analyzed. The strings in question, made of spring steel (cold drawn wires with different thickness), are bass strings and acute strings of a piano concert. SEM analysis and Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS) were made.Related questions were taken into account:•the connection of the string at the “tuning pin”;•string wear produced in its anchor point “agraffe”;•the bending in the compression points;•the environment where the piano is located, the relative humidity and the strings corrosion phenomena that might trigger stress-corrosion cracking;•the surface finish of the cold drawn string. Besides these factors, it is necessary to consider the different tuning performed on a concert grand piano.

Out But In: Between Discourse and Practice in a London Jazz Quartet

I think the key is that we really try to think about what we're doing. I think a lot of bands don't. We put so much thought into what we're playing--and really deliberately in terms of concept or what we're trying to express. tune has an identity. It's all very considered. It's not chance, so much. Chance comes on the bandstand. Tom Farmer (Empirical 2010) At the start of Bowden Out, the concluding track on their 2009 album 'n' In, London jazz quartet Empirical generates a sound world that is both new and familiar. Acoustic bass, alto saxophone, and bass clarinet weave an accompanimental fabric of open, strummed chords and gentle breathy dyads. Over this consistently undulating foundation, a vibraphone skips a weightless melody. Drums enter, adding the wash and rumble of mallets on cymbals and tom-toms. Together, the ensemble floats in suspended animation. The recording offers admirable space and clarity, allowing the listener to focus on the quiet click of woodwind keys, the fleshy attack of bass strings, the slow rotation of vibraphone motors. This moment of quiet reflection comes at the end of an album dedicated to a modern reimagining of the music of reedist and composer Eric Dolphy. Bowden Out presents a reflective abstraction of his ensemble's music, revealing the extent to which Empirical has assimilated and personalized the compositional and interactive processes at the heart of Dolphy's recording, To Lunch. Empirical's process--careful study of a series of recordings as the foundation of the quartet's collective work as improvisers--is certainly nothing new. This imitative approach has been broadly distributed across the jazz landscape for the last century as countless young musicians have used old recordings as the foundation of new work. Empirical's particular result, however, is unique to them, and it is uniquely informed by their relationship to the jazz tradition--both as the tradition's story has been told and as the tradition has been lived by musicians. Through their collective imagination of the processes undertaken by the Dolphy quintet in Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, recording studio in February 1964, the members of Empirical have pieced together their own understanding of the practices and relationships animating the American post-bop community of the mid-1960s. Their internalization of the dominant jazz discourse has led the members of Empirical to paint themselves--a racially diverse ensemble of young British improvisers--as outsiders, separated both in time and in locality from the most privileged sites at which the jazz tradition has coalesced. Their sincere, focused engagement with their recorded mentors, however, has enabled the group to overcome the limitations that they have associated with the distance they perceive between themselves and the tradition's discursive core. On 'n' In, Empirical explores Dolphy's music quite directly, focusing on To Lunch in particular. While 'n' In includes two Dolphy compositions (Hat and Beard and Gazzelloni), the majority of the album is dedicated to an abstracting and reimagining of Dolphy's processes and materials. As bassist Tom Farmer describes Empirical's approach, Each [track] deals with at least one specific idea from Dolphy and Dolphy's associates (Empirical 2010). Rather than writing new compositions based loosely on Dolphy's musical style yet utilizing traditional bebop forms, Empirical constructs spaces that fuse definite material and performative process within a single set of instructions. The pieces included on 'n' In are not only melodies and harmonic progressions composed by one of the group members; the works themselves also encompass collectively negotiated guidelines for each performance's interaction and expressive shape. These shared understandings are broad and negotiable, but they form an important foundation for the quarter's engagement with each composition. …

Programming hearing instruments to make live music more enjoyable

Programming hearing instruments to make live music more enjoyable

A guitar in vacuum: How does it sound?

The loudness of the radiated sound is one prominent quality feature of guitars. However, few studies have been devoted to the ratio between the radiated energy and that which is lost in the wooden structure. In order to evaluate this ratio experimentally, yielding the acoustical efficiency of the instrument, we have compared the vibrations of a guitar at different ambient pressure levels. The guitar is installed in a large tank where the open bass string is automatically plucked. The pressure is varied between atmospheric level and vacuum, which implies a proportionally vanishing radiated power. The decay time of the most energetic component of each partial is estimated. It turns out that decay times are sometimes shorter in vacuum. This can be explained through a model of the coupling between the string and the bridge, the important parameter being the ratio of the real part of the mechanical impedance of the bridge to its imaginary part. The efficiency is measured every 82 Hz between 80 and 2500 Hz. Values are widely scattered between 15% and 60%. A comparison will be presented with acoustical efficiencies of other structures (plates, piano soundboard) and with values obtained on guitars by other methods and authors.

A Plea for Better Student Bass Strings

A Plea for Better Student Bass Strings

The American hammered dulcimer: Its acoustical properties, role in traditional culture, and current design developments

The modern hammered dulcimer is a trapezoidal-shaped instrument with 24 to 30 courses of treble and bass strings with a partially chromatic range from D3 to D6, which is played with light wooden hammers. The treble strings are divided by a middle bridge in a ratio of 2:3 so that each course provides two notes a musical fifth apart. Although acoustically similar to the piano, the distinctly different bridge/soundboard placement and hammer/string interactions give the hammered dulcimer a unique percussive sound. Historically in the United States, the hammered dulcimer has remained almost exclusively a folk instrument, most often used as a lead or rhythm instrument in traditional dance bands, but more recently as a concert instrument as well. Instrument builders, almost exclusively folk craft people, and players themselves, have responded with new designs that have changed the sound characteristics and musical and physical flexibility of the instrument.

Musical instruments having bowed or plucked strings

A musical instrument having plucked strings includes a sound board resting freely on the body of the instrument and which is put into vibration in a plane normal to its surface by a bridge of asymmetrical structure that supports the strings of the instruments and that rests on said sound board. The sound board is clamped at a projecting one of its ends between the body and the tailpiece of the instrument, and at its other end it rests on supports secured to the body. The bridge is supported at its treble string end directly by means of a fixed finger secured to the rigid body, and at its bass string end by the freely mounted sound board to which pressure and vibration are transmitted by a thrust piece which defines an asymmetrical configuration relative to the fixed finger.

Musical pitchness evaluation through pitch extraction

Timbre and pitch are different properties of sound according to the ASA definition, but they are closely connected in the sounds from musical instruments. An interesting property is the ‘‘pitchness’’ (or ‘‘pitch strength’’) which refers to the distinctiveness of pitch in the sound. This property was investigated for piano notes, in particular in the bass and treble. In these ranges, the degree of pitchness is an important factor in determining instrument quality. Pitch extraction methods were used to calculate a noise factor in the treble, and an inharmonicity factor in the bass. New methods for judging the sound quality in the treble, and for measuring and evaluating inharmonicity of bass strings are proposed. [Work supported by ‘‘Red October’’ piano factory, St. Petersburg, Russia, and Swedish Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.]

Dispersion of waves in piano strings

A recent survey of piano acoustics literature revealed an apparent lack of attention to various aspects of dispersion in piano strings, apart from some information on its effect on inharmonicity of piano tone partials. In this article, it will be shown how group velocity of transverse waves in piano strings can be measured as a function of frequency with the aid of a short-time spectral analysis method. Examples of group velocity measurements appear to be essentially in agreement with the theoretical predictions based on a model of a flexurally stiff string. In addition, the relationship between the group and phase velocity, as a function of frequency, is also illustrated, indicating correspondence between theoretical predictions and experimental results. A short-time spectral analysis of transverse string displacement as a function of time, monitored near the bridge, has revealed a quasiperiodic succession of frequency glides. This effect is due to dispersion and is particularly prominent in the lowest bass strings. However, the same type of analysis applied to the sound-pressure signal of the corresponding radiated sound yielded somewhat different results. While frequency glides similar to those found in the string displacement spectra were partly evident in the sound-pressure spectra, strong precursive components of longitudinal string vibration origin were found to dominate the higher frequency portion of the attack transient of the radiated sound.

Musical string instrument

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Graduated leverage piano action

A graduated leverage piano action is incorporated into a piano having graduated mass hammers for striking graduated mass strings. The mass of the hammers and strings is highest for the lowest bass strings and lowest for the highest treble strings. In the piano a plurality of keys are supported by and pivoted about a balance rail which divides each key into first and second lever arms. The length of the second lever arm is defined by the location of a capstan screw which is coupled to each key. The length of the second lever arm decreases as the mass of the hammers increases. A complex mechanical linkage is coupled to each hammer and is positioned above each capstan screw for displacing each hammer when contacted by an opposing capstan screw contacts the third lever arm. The third lever arm is displaceable by the corresponding capstan screw. The length of the third lever arm increases as the length of the second lever arm decreases so that the force required to displace any piano keys remains substantially constant across the entire keyboard.

The morphology of lutes with extended bass strings

Journal Article The morphology of lutes with extended bass strings Get access Friedemann Hellwig Friedemann Hellwig Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Early Music, Volume 9, Issue 4, October 1981, Pages 447–454, https://doi.org/10.1093/earlyj/9.4.447 Published: 01 October 1981

Piano bass string

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