In order to help resolve this point, here is a quote from "The Physics of=
=20
Musical Instruments" (Fletcher and Rossing, 1991):
"The role of acoustical science in this context is an interesting one. =20
Centuries of tradition have developed great skill and understanding among=
=20
the makers of musical instruments, and they are often aware of subtleties=
=20
which are undetected by modern acoustical instrumentation for lack of=20
precise technical criteria for their recognition.... The first and major=
=20
role of acoustics is therefore to try to understand all the details of so=
und=20
production by traditional instruments. This is a really major program, a=
nd=20
indeed it is only within the past few decades that we have achieved even =
a=20
reasonable understanding of the basic mechanisms determining tone quality=
in=20
most instruments. In some cases even major features of the sounding=20
mechanism itself have only recently been unravelled. This is an=20
intellectual exercise of great fascination.... Our understanding of a=20
particular area will be reasonably complete only when we know the physica=
l=20
causes of the differences between a fine instrument and one judged to be =
of=20
mediocre quality. Only then may we hope that science can come to the hel=
p=20
of music in moving the design or performance of contemporary instruments=20
closer to the present ideal." This is from page vi of the Preface.
My original thought in raising the question was to ask whether the roughn=
ess=20
of bamboo might cause turbulence in the air stream that would affect the=20
sound, and whether coatings would therefore change the sound. Peter's=20
observation about sound reflecting off different materials was an=20
interesting thought that I had not considered.
What was especially interesting in the discussion was how emotional an is=
sue=20
this is. It seems somehow un-Buddhist to be so attached to the idea of=20
material for a flute (but maybe that doesn't matter, although the shakuha=
chi=20
seems to be a uniquely Buddhist instrument and that is the only reason I=20
mention this).
Anyway, I hope the above quote helps to bring balance and resolution.
Cheers
_________________________________________________________________
Join the world=92s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.=20
http://www.hotmail.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 03 2003 - 09:09:50 PST