Flute acoustics: measurement, modelling and design - School of ...
Flute acoustics: measurement, modelling and design - School of ...
Flute acoustics: measurement, modelling and design - School of ...
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331<br />
Appendix C<br />
Quantifying music<br />
The musician has words to describe the perceptual qualities <strong>of</strong> sound—words such as pitch,<br />
volume <strong>and</strong> timbre. The physicist or mathematician has her own set <strong>of</strong> words to describe<br />
sound—such as amplitude, frequency, speed, wavelength, spectral envelope <strong>and</strong> transient. To<br />
an extent, this is perfectly natural, since the musician <strong>and</strong> the physicist are concerned with<br />
different things. However, no two fields <strong>of</strong> inquiry are ever truly separate, <strong>and</strong> the union <strong>of</strong> music,<br />
physics <strong>and</strong> mathematics has been a particularly fruitful one. The premise <strong>of</strong> this thesis is<br />
that we can analyse a flute in order to give useful information to instrument makers, who are<br />
thus enabled to make instruments better suited to the particular requirements <strong>of</strong> musicians.<br />
Therefore, a brief discussion <strong>of</strong> the relationship between music <strong>and</strong> physics is in order.<br />
The musician’s word pitch is related to the physicist’s word frequency, the number <strong>of</strong> times<br />
a periodic wave repeats itself in a fixed time interval. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz). Low<br />
pitched notes have low frequencies, <strong>and</strong> high pitched notes high frequencies. The note A4 (the<br />
A above middle C on a piano) usually has a nominal frequency <strong>of</strong> 440 Hz, <strong>and</strong> the frequencies <strong>of</strong><br />
all other notes are calculated based on this reference value. (Often, the frequency <strong>of</strong> other notes<br />
is calculated according to the equal-tempered scale. Woodwind makers usually <strong>design</strong> their<br />
instruments to play in many different keys, <strong>and</strong> the equal-tempered scale is a compromise.)<br />
An octave in music is an interval between two notes that differ in frequency by a factor <strong>of</strong> two.<br />
In the equal-tempered scale a semitone corresponds to a frequency ratio <strong>of</strong> 2 1/12 . The semitone<br />
is further divided into 100 cents (2 1/1200 ).<br />
The volume <strong>of</strong> a musical sound is related to the amplitude <strong>of</strong> the physical wave, but because<br />
human perception <strong>of</strong> sound is frequency-dependent it depends also on the spectral envelope<br />
<strong>and</strong> on some details <strong>of</strong> the temporal envelope, such as attack transients <strong>and</strong> vibrato. The frequency<br />
range <strong>of</strong> hearing is from 20 Hz to 20 kHz with a peak at around 1–3 kHz. Filters with<br />
weighting factors exist to approximate the frequency response <strong>of</strong> the human ear (called A, B<br />
<strong>and</strong> C weighting factors). Ears (like microphones) respond to changes in air pressure <strong>and</strong> so<br />
sound amplitude is measured in pascals (Pa). Sound levels are commonly given in decibels<br />
(dB), which is a logarithm <strong>of</strong> a pressure ratio.<br />
Perhaps the most difficult musical term to relate to physics is the timbre <strong>of</strong> a sound. Timbre<br />
is defined negatively: it is that quality which differs between two sounds <strong>of</strong> equal pitch <strong>and</strong><br />
loudness. Timbre has some relation to the spectral components <strong>of</strong> the wave. A musical note<br />
with a frequency <strong>of</strong> 440 Hz is usually a mixture <strong>of</strong> harmonics, that is, the wave will contain<br />
contributions at frequencies <strong>of</strong> 880 Hz, 1320 Hz etc. The relative strength <strong>of</strong> these harmonics<br />
differ among different instruments, different volumes <strong>and</strong> among different notes on the same<br />
instrument. A sound with many strong harmonics is generally considered bright while a sound<br />
with a strong fundamental frequency <strong>and</strong> few harmonics is considered more mellow or s<strong>of</strong>t. But