Klarinet Archive - Posting 000285.txt from 2010/09

From: Jennifer Jones <helen.jennifer@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] TUNING-Clem Hutchinson
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 01:59:57 -0400

On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 5:52 PM, <DGross1226@-----.com> wrote:
> In a message dated 9/9/2010 5:26:08 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Jennifer
> Jones <helen.jennifer@-----.com> writes:
>> (someone once told me (and I believed them) that the clarinet comes
>> closest to producing a pure sine wave...
> Actually, Jennifer, it's a square wave.

Hey, there are a bunch of variations on the sine wave! Square, saw
tooth, triangular, the classical version and combinations thereof...
Still a pure sine wave, in my mind was a classical sine function e.g.
y = sin(x) (could be: y = cos(x)). Stuff I've seen on my
oscilloscope support sound being a composite of a bunch of classical
sine functions. Square could be a bunch of different classical waves
summed. Could also make a classical sine wave out of square waves,
except that would be redundant, like adding and subtracting matching
pairs of waves.

On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 5:58 PM, Fred <vze2bsbs@-----.net> wrote:
> Whaaaa? The clarinet is rich in harmonics and its waveform is not a square wave at all. I would say the flute is much closer to a pure sine wave than the clarinet.

Now that I think about it, I might believe that; what about the
clarinet altissimo?
...i don't think you're speaking bs.

Sine waves:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sine_wave

Impedance curves:
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/z.html
I still don't understand impedance. It is a function of the inertia
of the air molecules, but I don't see how that translates to the
combined triangular-classic waveform. Impedance as a function of
frequency; Impedance is high at certain frequencies and low at other
frequencies and it is very touchy; these frequencies of minimal and
maximal impedance are very narrow. Reflects which wave frequencies
are stabilized by the musical instrument and which are cancelled?
High impedance minimal propagation of that frequency; low impedance
much propagation of that frequency? So, the cylinder should have
harmonics like 550 Hz, 1100 Hz, 1650, 2200, 2750, 3300, 3850, 4400 Hz?
Looks like 550 is too big an interval; the minimum 3850 is more like
3700 Hz. The text suggest it works that way for the flute, but
oppositely for the clarinet? GAAAH! This is not intuitive for me!
Perhaps this reflects the lack of even partials in the clarinet? So,
though the text does not say so, the flute should also play notes at
the maximum? But why would notes come at the maxima at all?; that is
high impedance; the air is sluggish there and doesn't want to move (it
should have a high inertia)!

List of things to find:
copy of Mozart cl concerto (imslp)
old oscilloscope
fundamentals of musical acoustics (Benade)

there are more things on this list... gotta think.
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