Klarinet Archive - Posting 000116.txt from 1997/05

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Air : amount,speed,presure etc.
Date: Sun, 4 May 1997 09:08:01 -0400

MattP69@-----.com (no name supplied) wrote:

> Yossi wrote:
>
> >Does science ( or we the wind-players) know what air parameters influence
> >what sound parameters ?
> >
> >I mean:
> >
> >Is it the air speed which makes the ff ? or is it the amount of air
> >?
>
> This is actually a somewhat complicated question, and the answers given so
> far on the list are not really accurate.
>
[cut]

>Now Yossi If you are still confused about the science stuff Just print out
>this message locate your nearest Physics professor give him the letter and
>fgor the next two or three hours and let him/her explain in great detail.
>
>No offense Jonhathan But I took 3 semester of Physics and it has been a year
>since I took any and I just barely understood what you were saying.
>
>//@-----. P=L=sik

No offense taken. In my messages that contain physics (or scientific
explanantions in general which explain the "how" and the "why"), I always
try to intersperse the important results in plain English. Also, I try to
keep the physics at a high school/first-year college level and make it as
brief as possible, so that most everyone can understand it.

Unfortunately, without the physics and science of music, acoustics and
clarinet playing we are left with the mythology, which is sometimes right
and too often wrong.

This is why I keep advocating (to no avail, of course) that the physics of
music and acoustics should be a required course for all music majors.

For your reading pleasure, below are the excerpts from the original message
that state the important results of the physics. These are the parts that
are in relatively plain English.

---------------
Jonathan Cohler
cohler@-----.net

*************************
First, the quick answer is that perceived loudness of a sound is a function
of the amplitudes and frequencies of all of the components of the sound as
well as the quality of the listener's hearing.

Some very simple and practical consequences of this are that high notes
sound louder than low notes...This is why one must
instantaneously reduce the blowing pressure when one makes a slur from a
low note to a high note if one wants to make a seemless and even connection
wherein both notes sound equal.

*************************
What this means in practice on the clarinet is that ... as we
add overtones (by blowing harder) the sound gets louder. And,
interestingly, *beyond a mezzo-piano, most of the increase in loudness is
due to the addition of partials and NOT to the increase in amplitude of the
fundamental*.

Therefore, as one gets louder on the clarinet, the tone color also changes
as the higher partials come into play.

By the way, hearing changes as one ages and therefore so does loudness and
tone quality perception. Older folks gradually lose sensitivity at higher
frequencies.