Klarinet Archive - Posting 000354.txt from 1996/06

From: Bruce Currie <BCurrie101@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Timbre Vocabulary
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 17:34:51 -0400

>Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 10:14:17 -0700
>From: Grant Green <gdgreen@-----.COM>
>Sender: "Klarinet - Clarinettist's Network"
><KLARINET@-----.BITNET>
>To: Multiple recipients of list KLARINET
><KLARINET@-----.BITNET>
>Subject: Timbre Vocabulary
>
>>An interesting issue is raised by this discussion that may be
>>worth mentioning. We have no "timbre vocabulary" in music that
>>can be consistently understood by musicians to describe
>>variations in tone color that are essential to our art. Visual
>>artists can describe "cobalt blue" and have a good understanding
>>of what that means to their community. Their training includes
>>that information. One goal of our research group is to
>>explore the possibility that computer-controlled, real-time
>>visual representations (spectra) of musical tones may give us a
>>way to "teach" an agreed-upon timbre vocabulary.
>
>Here's a suggestion: why don't we (or some of us) record several
>samples of different clarinet timbres, make WAV or AU files out of
>them, and post them on a web page. Then, we all listen to the
>samples, and provide our descriptions. We see if there is
>substantial agreement in how we describe the timbres, and
>thereafter label those sound files "bright", "covered", "dark",
>"focussed", or whatever. In any event, we have a *common*
> reference standard.
>
>I'm willing to help, but don't have time to do everything myself.
>Any takers?
>
>Grant
>
>Grant D. Green
>gdgreen@-----.com
>http://www.crl.com/~gdgreen/index.html
>Still hunting sarussophones!

Actually, I know that there have been at least some graduate
research projects about this, as I participated in one back in the
late 70s. It surveyed clarinet players' perception of clarinet
timbre using many of the "standard" terms (bright, dark, focussed,
etc.). There surely must have been others, if someone knows of such
projects, please let us know.

The advantage of these over an Internet survey is that these
probably were very carefully planned and controlled dissertations
or formal projects, including scientific evaluation of the results.
The disadvantage is that "people" don't have the dissemination of
the results, including hearing the actual examples that were
described. I would imagine that a great deal of these evaluations
are formed from one's personal experience, and what is "focussed"
to one person is not to another.
*******************************************
Bruce Currie
Lombard, Illinois
e-mail: BCurrie101@-----.com
*******************************************

   
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