Klarinet Archive - Posting 000373.txt from 2001/01

From: "Tim Roberts" <timr@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] transposing
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 18:10:21 -0500

On Thu, 11 Jan 2001 12:14:25 -0800 (PST), William Wright wrote:
>
> <><> Tim=A0Roberts wrote:
>Although acoustic scientists have made great strides in recent years,
>the actual concert key of the French Horn remains one of the great
>undiscovered mysteries of our time.
>
> Tim, I don't mean this as confrontation or lack of sense of humor.
>Since I don't know anything about brass, I'm curious if there is
>something dramatically different about a French horn vs. (say) a
>trumpet?

Well, you don't shove your fist up the bell of your trumpet...

According to my reading, the french horn at 17ft is the longest brass
instrument other than the tuba. This surprised me, since the pitch is higher
than that of a trombone. I also read that the french horn has as many as 22
resonant peaks, and is playable up to the 16th harmonic, more than double the
range of the trumpet and trombone. The fist in the bell increases the
"acoustic mass" of the air column, apparently allowing resonant peaks up to
1500Hz. That's an altissimo B for us, which is WAY up there.

There's an interesting acoustical graph here:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/music/french.html

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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