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Hi Reid, Zachary, et al.
Great discussion. Glad to see I'm not the only one losing sleep over
these issues.
My own experience as a shakuhachi maker totally corroborates
Coltman's and Jakeway's conclusions:
". . . the sound [of a woodwind] comes from the vibrating air column
inside the instrument. This sound is produced through the end or
through open tone holes, not by vibrations of the instrument's body,
as is true of string instruments. Dozens of published reports, some
dating back 100 years, converge toward the same general conclusion:
so long as the walls are thick enough to remain rigid--about 0.4
millimeter (0.016 inch) for metals, two millimeters ) for woods--and
the inside walls are smooth, the kind of material used for a wind
instrument is, for the most part, immaterial."
This became quite clear to me when developing a technique for
mathematically scaling the bores of various sized flutes to produce a
prototype for my 2.8' (Key of G) shakuhachi. In order to minimize
variations in wall thickness and resulting finger hole depth, I
attached bamboo mouthpieces to PVC flute bodies which were then
outfitted with precision bores. The sound of100% bamboo instruments
that grew out of these experiments is indistinguishable from the
prototypes. They have identical pitch, timbre and resonance qualities.
There is complete consensus amongst researchers on the acoustical
physics of woodwind instruments in regard to this issue. It was amply
summed by the renowned Arthur H. Benade in his Fundamentals of
Musical Acoustics (2nd ed., pp. 499-500), who wrote:
"The question of whether or not the playing properties of a wind
instrument are influenced by the material from which it is made has
been the subject of curiously bitter controversy for at least 150
years." . . . [The walls of a pipe]cannot radiate sound into the
room with sufficient amplitude to be heard in the presence of the
other sources of excitation. Because of this, changes in the material
or the thickness of the walls cannot detectably alter the sound of an
instrument insofar as it depends on radiation by the walls. . . .
"Since 1958 I have made several studies of the possible difference in
damping that can be made by using copper, silver, brass, nickel
silver, or various kinds of wood as the air-column wall material. If
the walls are thick enough not to vibrate and if they are smooth and
nonporous, experiment and theory agree that switching materials will
make changes in the damping that are generally less than the
two-percent change that most musicians are able to detect."
It may be hard to believe, but the bamboo, tonoko and urushi that
make up a shakuhachi have nothing to do with the sound it produces.
Their function is to define the physical parameters of its resonating
air column and other structural aspects such as the mouthpiece and
chimney height of the finger holes. The sound we are so taken by is a
manifestation of air molecules vibrating inside of an empty (albeit
highly-defined) space.
All the best.
Monty
(flute maker & former hippie)
>http://www.sciam.com/1998/0398issue/0398scicit3.html
>
>Here is a very interesting article about flutes and materials. In
>case the link doesn't work, it is from the March 1998 edition of
>Scientific American. You can find it on the Scientific American
>site (www.sciam.com). I'd enjoy hearing your responses to the
>article.
>
>By the way, I've been impressed with the apparently strong
>scientific backgrounds of the contributors to this site. It appears
>to be an educated group of people who are interested in the
>shakuhachi. I thought I would just find a bunch of hippies :-)
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29
: Mon Feb 03 2003 - 09:09:50 PST
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Re: Sound Material</title></head><body>
<div>Hi Reid, Zachary, et al.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Great discussion. Glad to see I'm not the only one losing sleep
over these issues.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>My own experience as a shakuhachi maker totally corroborates
Coltman's and Jakeway's conclusions:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>"<font color="#000000">. . . the sound [of a woodwind] comes
from the vibrating air column inside the instrument. This sound is
produced through the end or through open tone holes, not by vibrations
of the instrument's body, as is true of string instruments. Dozens of
published reports, some dating back 100 years, converge toward the
same general conclusion: so long as the walls are thick enough to
remain rigid--about 0.4 millimeter (0.016 inch) for metals, two
millimeters ) for woods--and the inside walls are smooth, the kind of
material used for a wind instrument is, for the most part,
immaterial.</font>"</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>This became quite clear to me when developing a technique for
mathematically scaling the bores of various sized flutes to produce a
prototype for my 2.8' (Key of G) shakuhachi. In order to minimize
variations in wall thickness and resulting finger hole depth, I
attached bamboo mouthpieces to PVC flute bodies which were then
outfitted with precision bores. The sound of100% bamboo instruments
that grew out of these experiments is indistinguishable from the
prototypes. They have identical pitch, timbre and resonance
qualities.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>There is complete consensus amongst researchers on the acoustical
physics of woodwind instruments in regard to this issue. It was amply
summed by the renowned Arthur H. Benade in his<u> Fundamentals of
Musical Acoustics</u> (2nd ed., pp. 499-500), who wrote:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>"The question of whether or not the playing properties of a
wind instrument are influenced by the material from which it is made
has been the subject of curiously bitter controversy for at least 150
years." . . . [The walls of a pipe]cannot radiate sound
into the room with sufficient amplitude to be heard in the presence of
the other sources of excitation. Because of this, changes in the
material or the thickness of the walls cannot detectably alter the
sound of an instrument insofar as it depends on radiation by the
walls. . . .</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>"Since 1958 I have made several studies of the possible
difference in damping that can be made by using copper, silver, brass,
nickel silver, or various kinds of wood as the air-column wall
material. If the walls are thick enough not to vibrate and if they are
smooth and nonporous, experiment and theory agree that switching
materials will make changes in the damping that are generally less
than the two-percent change that most musicians are able to
detect."</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>It may be hard to believe, but the bamboo, tonoko and urushi that
make up a shakuhachi have nothing to do with the sound it produces.
Their function is to define the physical parameters of its resonating
air column and other structural aspects such as the mouthpiece and
chimney height of the finger holes. The sound we are so taken by is a
manifestation of air molecules vibrating inside of an empty (albeit
highly-defined) space.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>All the best.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Monty</div>
<div>(flute maker & former hippie)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite>http://www.sciam.com/1998/0398issue/0398scicit3.html
<br>
Here is a very interesting article about flutes and materials.
In case the link doesn't work, it is from the March 1998 edition of
Scientific American. You can find it on the Scientific American
site (www.sciam.com). I'd enjoy hearing your responses to the
article.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>By the way, I've been impressed with the
apparently strong scientific backgrounds of the contributors to this
site. It appears to be an educated group of people who are
interested in the shakuhachi. I thought I would just find a
bunch of hippies :-)<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
</body>
</html>
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