String Music Research Articles

French String Music

French String Music

Art as Understanding

Why do people bother with art at all? When you think about it, dealing with art is often hard. Was Hamlet really hung up on his mother? How do we tell, and does that way of looking at things really help us to grasp the play better? Who is this guy Godot we seem to be waiting for? The Mona Lisa's smile means just what? How does Picasso's Nightfisbing in Antibes speak to us? How does Bart6k's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta make sense to our ears?

Khandoshkin and the Beginning of Russian String Music. By Anne Mischakoff. Russian Music Studies, no. 9 (edited by Malcolm Hamrick Brown). Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1983. xx, 197 pp. Illustrations. Maps. $39.95.

Khandoshkin and the Beginning of Russian String Music. By Anne Mischakoff. Russian Music Studies, no. 9 (edited by <i>Malcolm Hamrick Brown</i>). Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1983. xx, 197 pp. Illustrations. Maps. $39.95.

Stringed musical instrument

STRINGED MUSICAL INSTRUMENT A stringed musical instrument comprised of a support, a plurality of strings secured to the support and adapted to vibrate when strummed, the strings defining a playing area and being arranged in groups of octaves. A set of manually operable keys is disposed outside of the playing area with each key being associated with a corresponding one string in each octave. A damper bar is secured to each key and extends in a direction transverse to the strings and is disposed beneath the strings. One end of each damper bar is coupled to a pivot point and a plurality of damper elements are secured to each damper bar, the damper elements on one bar being associated with, and positioned beneath, a respective one string in each octave. All of the strings are accessible for strumming from above, and the strings can be strummed over substantially the entirety of the playing area including portions of the strings which overlie the damping elements. Bias elements bias all of the damper bars to a quiescent position. The bias elements are overcome for a damper bar which is pivoted to an operating position in response to the manual operation of the keys secured thereto, whereby all of the damper elements which are secured to the pivoted damper bar are spaced away from their associated strings in each octave to permit those strings to vibrate when strummed, and all of the damper elements which are secured to the remaining damper bars are in contact with their associated strings to as to prevent substantial vibration, when those strings are strummed.

Chamber Music for Strings and Keyboard

Chamber Music for Strings and Keyboard

A brief history of violin research

Underpinnings making possible present day violin research have been provided by such well known figures as Gallileo, Mersenne, Hooke, Saveur, Fourier, Chladni, Poisson, Helmholtz, Rayleigh, Dayton Miller, Erwin Meyer, and manufacturers of modern electronic and optical equipment. First known extensive investigations in violin acoustics were done in early 19th century France by Felix Savart. Not until early 20th century did a continuous research flow emerge. Today there is fairly good knowledge of what goes into the violin and what comes out based on extensive studies of: vibrational characteristics of bowed strings; overall spectral content of violin sounds with variations from one instrument to another; vibrations of the violin bridge; Eigenmodes of free plates; geometries of air resonances of the violin cavity; acoustical properties of suitable wood and other materials. We are beginning to understand how free-plate Eigenmodes affect tone quality, but we don't know how they relate to the coupled modes of both wood and air in the bowed instrument. We don't know exactly how the nonlinear bow-string mechanism activates the instrument, nor how vibrations of the bridge relate to those of each violin for desired tone quality; and we don't know how Chladni patterns of the vibrating box affect radiated sounds, nor how they are altered by changes in position and other soundpost variations. Also we have relatively little psychoacoustical information for correlation of subjective musician judgements with physical effects amenable to measurement and analysis. Since the early 1900s research has been done in laboratories around the world and considerable goes forward today on highly technical level which should provide new insights into old problems. Highlights of this will be discussed. An excellent survey of currrent developments is: “The Acoustics of Stringed Musical Instruments,” M. E. McIntyre and J. Woodhouse, Interdiscip. Science Rev. 3, No. 2 (1978).

The Acoustics of Stringed Musical Instruments

Attempts to understand the action of musical instruments at a level having some impact on the problem of musicians and instrument maker must face formidable unsolved problems in psychoacoustics as well as in classical physics. This review outline what is known about the physical properties of stringed instruments, with emphasis on the violin family, and tries to identify basic outstanding problem where progress may be hoped for within the next decade. One such area is assessment of the widely used simplest idealization of violin behaviour in which the driving at the bridge is assumed to be transverse, and the body is modelled as a 'black box' with one input and one output. Other major problem include the physical nature and psychoacoustical relevance of complex fine detail in the behaviour of the bowed string.

Meditations on a Theme by John Blow; Music for Strings

Meditations on a Theme by John Blow; Music for Strings

Barok in skladatelji 20. stoletja

Barok in skladatelji 20. stoletja

Baroque Music for Strings

Baroque Music for Strings

Preliminary Manuscript of Violin Music in Print [Basis for a Proposed Expansion into "String Music in Print"

Preliminary Manuscript of Violin Music in Print [Basis for a Proposed Expansion into "String Music in Print"

Festival Music for Wind and Strings

Festival Music for Wind and Strings