Klarinet Archive - Posting 000333.txt from 2000/08

From: "dikarius" <dikarius@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Unloading.....
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 13:40:09 -0400

As a physiologist, I would argue that there is a substantial physiological
component to Bill's observation, based both on the physiologiy of the ear as
well as the neurophysiology of what the brain does with the input of the
ear.

Within the cochlea of the ear, the pitch (and a good part of the tone we
hear) is determined by where the basilar membrane's vibration is occurring,
which is determined by the wavelength of the sound. In hearing a complex
tone (such as that produced by a musical instrument), there will be movement
of the basilar membrane corresponding to the base wavelength (sorry - I'm
pulling a blank on the precise terminology) and all the harmonics present in
the sound. With higher pitches, we get fewer and fewer areas of vibration
on the basilar membrane, therefore fewer and fewer axons within the acoustic
branch of the nerve are being activated. From there, the information
travels to the brain, where neurons from each part of the basilar membrane
go to separate (but closeby) areas of the brain. (For the purists, I have
lumped the brainstem and thalamic portions of the processing - which is a
heck of a skip). With the higher notes, we will have fewer and fewer
neurons in the brain involved in this part of the processing - but there
will still be a lot of activity.

Within the brain, we get a great deal of processing of the neural input,
most of which is poorly understood. Some of this processing will probably
fill in a bit of the loss that Bill mentions (as in the visual system, where
missing information is often "assumed" by the brain). There are specific
regions of the brain involved in determining pitch and tone and the
characteristics of "music" vs. that of speech etc..., but exactly how those
work has not been determined. We do know the different areas that seem to be
involved based on SPECT and functional MRI recordings of humans listening to
music, but those don't tell us how that part of the brain is working to
"interpret" the input they are receiving.

Original Message -----
From: "Tony Wakefield" <tony-wakefield@-----.net>
Subject: Re: [kl] Unloading.....

>
> Bill Wright relates: -
>
> > (snip) - the number of components is reduced by 50% as you go up one
> octave. Two
> > > octaves means 1/4 of the available components, and three octaves means
> > > only 1/8 of the available components..
>
> The scientists amongst us,
> Is this a question of psychology, ( the source of Will. Wright`s theory)
> or is there some real scientific basis for the peculiarity of this
> (psychological?) observation? We >do have to work harder to aquire "tone
> quality" in the high register compared with the chalumeau reg. Is tone a
> scientific or psychlogical "component". Or both?We know that the >note
> itself has components, i.e. harmonics or partials. But what about the
>tone
> of that note. All I can deduce immediately, after reading Bill`s piece is
> that tone is produced not psychologically, but by the >physiological steps
> of experimenting with mouthpiece, reed, ligature, correct embouchure etc.
> AND THE EAR.
> As I understand what Bill is saying, - that as the >lower components,
(lower
> partials) are reduced by the percentages shown, (as we play higher), then
so
> in turn, tone is reduced, (by the same percentage, or just plain reduced?)
> Is >that why the aquisition of good tone seems to be more evasive up top?
> Does >both Bill`s theory, AND the m/p, reed/ ligature etc campaign have
more
> or less equal contributing factors?
>
> Sorry about more and more questions folks. You see I`m still
> learning - - - -
>
> Best,
> Tony W.
>
>
>
>
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