Hi Nelson,
Even though it's your birthday I couldn't disagree with you more. I
believe that without a doubt the material is of extreme importance. I
feel that the bore and the mouthpiece affect how strong a flute plays
and the material affects the tone or voice or soul of the shakuhachi.
Air is vibrating inside and off of the material. This affects the tone
we get, just as acoustics vary in a wooden, or a concrete performance
space. When I perform in a concert hall with hardwood floors and
ceiling the sound is different than plaster or concrete and I know I'm
not vibrating the room. The sound waves are bouncing off the material.
Some material is more or less absorbent than other material. The shape
of a hall is important but so is the material. Ask any performer.
While I can't back up any of this scientifically, I know shakuhachi made
of different materials sound different. I hear it. I also don't know
why I get a sound when I blow into my flute. Couldn't explain it to
you. But I know how to get that sound and I sure hear differences in
flutes of different materials.
I've made hundreds of shakuhachi over the last 30 years. Most out of
bamboo, some on a lathe out of various hardwoods, and more recently
dozens out of pvc. The wooden flutes not only sound different than
bamboo, but each wood has a distinctive sound. I used a steel tapered
reamer so the bores were uniform. Rosewood sounds different than maple
or ebony etc. & etc. All the maple sound alike, and all the cocobolo
alike but different than the other woods. Same shape, different
material.
I've also made hundreds transverse flutes out of bamboo with hardwood
lip plates. This small amount of wood in the mouthpiece greatly affects
the tone color of the flute. Ebony is brighter, purple heart is
mellower etc. Silver flute players put a rosewood head joint on their
flutes for a sweeter, warmer sound.
The pvc shakuhachi I make play surprisingly strong even without a
tapered bore. They have a decent tone, but if you play a bamboo flute
after the pvc in comparison it's different and not as sweet or bamboo
sounding. I don't think plastic lined or plastic shakuhachi sound like
"plastic", but they don't sound as dark, sweet or warm as bamboo. They
have a different voice.
Ji-nashi flutes have the most natural, bamboo sound. Flutes filled
with plastic, or made out of plastic may play loud but lack the dark ,
warm tone most professional players like. I think the filler used in
Japan is somewhat porous and allows a warmer sound to come through, or
off of, but if there's too much filler of any kind it affects the tone.
And the tone is so important. Some Americans are into volume over tone
it seems, but the Japanese players discuss tone color all the time.
Sure, volume is important, and we all look for a strong playing flute,
but the voice is of equal or greater importance. Here's an example. If
you went to a night club and heard a loud singer with a voice you hated,
would you leave and turn to a friend and say "She had an awful voice but
at least it was really loud"?
No one, especially a scientist can convince me that I don't hear what I
hear.
Best regards and Happy Birthday!
Peter
-- Peter Ross
http://www.cloudhandsmusic.com
206-587-7262
206-364-2341 FAX
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 03 2003 - 09:09:50 PST