Klarinet Archive - Posting 000271.txt from 2005/11
From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: [kl] Cambridge Seminar
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 16:15:02 -0500
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OCCASIONAL SEMINARS IN MUSICAL ACOUSTICS
A seminar will take place at 2.30 on Wednesday 23rd November, in Lecture Room
4 of the Music School, West Road, Cambridge. All are welcome.
Dr Claudia Fritz (Departments of Music, Engineering and Experimental
Psychology, University of Cambridge).
The clarinet and the clarinettist: influence of the vocal tract on sound
production.
It is clear to clarinettists that they adjust their vocal tract (VT) when
playing, but it is less clear for them what exactly they do and how their VT
physically affects the sound. This talk will describe a study of the coupling
between the musician and his instrument, to explore how it influences the
frequency of the note played, its spectrum and the mouth pressure required to
initiate the note. Measurements have been made of the impedance spectra of
the VT of twenty Australian players under a range of conditions. These
measurements showed a large variability among musicians, but some general
trends were observed. Most clarinettists vary the configuration of the VT
relatively little over most of the range of the instrument, except for the
altissimo register. They do however use radically different configurations
for special effects such as pitch bend and awkward slurs across registers. It
turns out that there is no "golden rule" for musicians, and they do not tune
their vocal tract resonances to the note played as has been assumed in
previous work. Experiments were then conducted using a blowing machine with
an artificial VT. Threshold pressures, playing frequencies, spectra and
transition transients were measured. The results show poor agreement with the
numerical calculations but reveal interesting features. In the low register,
the spectral envelope, but not the playing frequency, depend strongly on the
tract configuration. The difference is larger for high notes, where even the
notes issued can be significantly different between the two configurations.
An appropriate VT configuration can also make some notes start more easily
(shorter transients) and can facilitate slurs. The results of this
experimental study were generally in good agreement with the opinion of
clarinettists.
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Unfortunately, I can't be there.
Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339
... No man is an island. But some of us are long peninsulas.
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