Design Of Musical Instruments Research Articles

Continuing development of the acoustics laboratory at the Cooper Union

As a result of the addition of new equipment, the scope of the acoustics laboratory curriculum at the Cooper Union is being widened to include the use of FFT analyzers, reverberation meter, vibrating table, etc. Research projects are required of undergraduate seniors and graduate students must meet thesis requirements. The laboratory also serves as a research center for those interested in physical acoustics, environmental sciences, architectural acoustics, loudspeaker design, design of musical instruments, acoustics for medical diagnoses and treatment, and other acoustics‐related topics. Newly established liaisons between the Cooper Union Research Foundation and other institutions (Riverside Research Institute, New York University Medical Center, U.S. Navy) open up additional opportunities for thesis work and provide access to even more equipment outside the laboratory. Even freshmen taking an integrated design course obtain acoustical laboratory experience by working in the anechoic and reverberation ch...

What Should One Expect from a Philosophy of Music Education?

There is a puzzle about music. On the one hand, whether we are performers or members of an audience, whether in the rarified atmosphere of a recital hall or in the confines of the shower stall, whether our interest is in Mozart or in the blues, whether we study music in the structured context of a university classroom or chance upon it on a car radio, whether we have years of concert performance behind us or have difficulty carrying a tune, hardly a day goes by when we are not engaged by some sort of musical experience. Music is our constant companion. Moreover, music seems to be a source of genuine enrichment without which our lives would be considerably diminished. For some, this enrichment comes through the composition of music. For others, musical performance is the chief source of musical delight. Others take pleasure in some of the ancillary aspects of music making, such as musical instrument design or working as a musical engineer. Still others write about music. Most of us enjoy listening to music. And for many, music provides enjoyment through some combination of these activities.

Trends in New Acoustic Musical Instrument Design

The author describes current trends in the design of acoustic and electroacoustic musical instruments, with an emphasis on unconventional and innovative types made by individuals rather than by commercial manufacturers. He discusses ways in which those who work with acoustic sound sources tend to approach sound differently from those who work primarily with electronics.

Treatment of Musical Hands: Redesign of the Interface

The author discusses comprehensive care of musicians, which requires an understanding of music and the evolution and design of musical instruments. In addition, the clinician must have a working knowledge of limb anatomy and maintenance, musical practice techniques, and the basic principles of hand surgery.

Sound through music: Exhibit-based teaching at the Exploratorium

Acoustical topics taught at the Exploratorium include speech, hearing, language, psychoacoustics, and the physics of sound. We have found that each of these topics can be reached easily by beginning with a discussion of music. The evolution of the western scale, musical composition, and the design of musical instruments involve the concepts of a vibrating string and its harmonics, logarithmic hearing, acoustic resonance, and physical beats. The broadness of this approach leads naturally to discussions of the bases of aesthetics, the ability of the sciences to contribute to an appreciation of the arts, and the natural creative relationship between artists and scientists. The exhibits used in this exploration are all hands-on, allowing for a variety of approaches to teaching. The students use the exhibits both on their own and with the guidance of an Exploratorium teacher. Independent use allows for self-discovery, while the guide can provide direction toward less obvious observations. Classroom discussions typically follow the floor work.

The physics of brass wind instruments

The design of musical instruments owes more to art than to science and assessment of their quality is essentially subjective. Nevertheless, the physical principles of their operation are very interesting and may be of practical importance. This article reviews the acoustics of brass wind instruments, regarding the player and his instrument as an entity, and compares experimental and theoretical results.

Moiré method for determining bending moments from hologram interferometry

Interferograms obtained in hologram interferometry provide the observer with ‘contour maps’ of more or less constant displacement of an object surface. The contours are presented in the form of fringes, often sinusoidal or approximately so. In many applications, however, it is important to determine the bending moments of the surface, which are related to the second partial derivatives of the surface deformation with respect to the surface coordinates. It is shown that bending moments can be evaluated at any point on the interferogram by moiré interference between two transparencies of the interferogram, rotated 180° about the point in question. This method not only yields the bending moments but also indicates the principal axes of bending and the relative sign between the two principal components. One application of the technique is in the design of certain musical instruments, guitars in particular, where analysis of vibration modes of braces is helpful.

The Problem of Novelty in Musical Instrument Design

Few instruments are found in today's symphony orchestras and concert bands that were not there 50 to 100 years ago. The instruments that have made a place for themselves have succeeded only after a long struggle. Many meritorious new and improved instruments have either dropped into oblivion or are still struggling for recognition. Novelty in musical instruments is up against the most formidable combination of conservatism confronting any product. Between the manufacturer of musical instruments and the consumer of his product lie five powerful conservative influences: the musician, the teacher, the composer, the music publisher, and the listening public.

A Slide Rule for the Study of Music and Musical Acoustics

Musicians are seldom concerned with the mathematical background of their art, but an understanding of the underlying physical principles of music can be helpful in the study of music and in the considerations of problems related to musical instrument design. Musical data and numerical standards of the physics of music are readily adaptable to slide-rule presentation, since they involve relationships which are the same for any key. This rule adjusts relative vibration rates, degrees of scale, intervals, chord structures, scale indications, and transposition data, against a base of the piano keyboard. It employs and relates several standard systems of frequency level specification.

The Woodwind Musical Instruments

The wood-wind group of musical instruments includes four distinct types, commonly known as flutes, oboes, clarinets, and saxophones. According to peculiarities of size or method of construction these instruments have a variety of names among which are: recorder, galoubet, piccolo, flageolet, English horn, bassoon, bag-pipe, doodlesack, etc. Originally these instruments were made of wood, now many are made of metal. A discussion is given of the tone production and of the relations of the nodes and loops of the vibrating air-column to the mouth-piece and the tone-holes in the several types of instruments. The varying qualities of tone are due to the prominence of certain overtones which are characteristic of each instrument; the general nature of these peculiarities have been determined by analysis of photographic records of the tones. The positions of tone-holes were primitively determined by the number and length of fingers conveniently available in playing and varies according to custom. Our musical scale of the octave has been by the peculiarities of the hand! Very little of the scientific method is applicable to the design of musical instruments. Theobald Boehm, of Munich, just one hundred years ago, first made use of the principles of acoustics in the making of an orchestral instrument; this consisted simply in placing the tone-holes according to the intervals of the equally tempered scale. He followed this with a study of tone-quality which resulted, in 1847, in the present-day Boehm Flute. These studies influenced the design of all the other wood-wind instruments. A discussion is given of possible further improvements through laboratory research. Exhibition and demonstration of primitive and modern instruments will be made with various specimens selected from the writer's historical collection of flutes, now the largest in the world.