The Science of Musical Sound: Volume 1: Stringed Instruments, Pipe Organs, and the Human Voice

456 Pages·2018·14.85 MB·English

by  William Ralph Bennett Jr.

William Ralph Bennett, Jr.
Andrew C. H. Morrison Editor
The Science
of Musical Sound
Volume 1: Stringed Instruments,
Pipe Organs, and the Human Voice
Foreword by
Christy K. Holland
The Science of Musical Sound
William Ralph Bennett, Jr.
Andrew C. H. Morrison
Editor
The Science of Musical
Sound
Volume 1: Stringed Instruments, Pipe Organs,
and the Human Voice
Foreword by Christy K. Holland
123
Author Editor
WilliamRalphBennett,Jr. AndrewC.H.Morrison
YaleUniversity JolietJuniorCollege
NewHaven,CT,USA Joliet,IL,USA
Thisisarevisededitionoftheoriginalpublication,TheScienceofMusicalSound:Volume
1byWilliamR.Bennett,Jr.(RoseLanePress).Copyright2008byWilliamR.Bennett,Jr.,
Haverford,Pennsylvania,USA.AllRightsReserved.
ISBN978-3-319-92794-7 ISBN978-3-319-92796-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92796-1
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2018944607
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The ASA Press imprint represents a collaboration between the Acoustical Society
ofAmericaandSpringerdedicatedtoencouragingthepublicationofimportantnew
booksinacoustics.Publishedtitlesareintendedtoreflectthefullrangeofresearch
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EditorialBoard
MarkF.Hamilton(Chair),UniversityofTexasatAustin
JamesCottingham,CoeCollege
DianaDeutsch,UniversityofCalifornia,SanDiego
TimothyF.Duda,WoodsHoleOceanographicInstitution
RobinGlosemeyerPetrone,ThresholdAcoustics
WilliamM.Hartmann(ExOfficio),MichiganStateUniversity
DarleneR.Ketten,BostonUniversity
JamesF.Lynch(ExOfficio),WoodsHoleOceanographicInstitution
PhilipL.Marston,WashingtonStateUniversity
ArthurN.Popper(ExOfficio),UniversityofMaryland
MartinSiderius,PortlandStateUniversity
G.ChristopherStecker,VanderbiltUniversitySchoolofMedicine
NingXiang,RensselaerPolytechnicInstitute
TheAcousticalSocietyofAmerica
On 27 December 1928 a group of scientists and engineers met at Bell Telephone
LaboratoriesinNewYorkCitytodiscussorganizingasocietydedicatedtothefield
ofacoustics.PlansdevelopedrapidlyandtheAcousticalSocietyofAmerica(ASA)
helditsfirstmeetingon10–11May1929withachartermembershipofabout450.
TodayASAhasaworldwidemembershipof7000.
The scope of this new society incorporated a broad range of technical areas
that continues to be reflected in ASA’s present-day endeavors. Today, ASA serves
the interests of its members and the acoustics community in all branches of
acoustics, both theoretical and applied. To achieve this goal, ASA has established
technicalcommitteeschargedwithkeepingabreastofthedevelopmentsandneeds
ofmembershipinspecializedfieldsaswellasidentifyingnewonesastheydevelop.
The Technical Committees include acoustical oceanography, animal bioacous-
tics, architectural acoustics, biomedical acoustics, engineering acoustics, musical
acoustics, noise, physical acoustics, psychological and physiological acoustics,
signal processing in acoustics, speech communication, structural acoustics and
vibration, and underwater acoustics. This diversity is one of the Society’s unique
and strongest assets since it so strongly fosters and encourages cross-disciplinary
learning,collaboration,andinteractions.
ASA publications and meetings incorporate the diversity of these Technical
Committees.Inparticular,publicationsplayamajorroleintheSociety.TheJournal
of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) includes contributed papers and
patent reviews. JASA Express Letters (JASA-EL) and Proceedings of Meetings on
Acoustics(POMA)areonline,open-accesspublications,offeringrapidpublication.
AcousticsToday,publishedquarterly,isapopularopen-accessmagazine.Otherkey
features of ASA’s publishing program include books, reprints of classic acoustics
texts,andvideos.ASA’sbiannualmeetingsofferopportunitiesforattendeestoshare
information, with strong support throughout the career continuum, from students
to retirees. Meetings incorporate many opportunities for professional and social
interactionsandattendeesfindthepersonalcontactsarewardingexperience.These
experiences result in building a robust network of fellow scientists and engineers,
manyofwhombecamelifelongfriendsandcolleagues.
FromtheSociety’sinception,membersrecognizedtheimportanceofdeveloping
acoustical standards with a focus on terminology, measurement procedures, and
criteria for determining the effects of noise and vibration. The ASA Standards
Program serves as the Secretariat for four American National Standards Institute
Committeesandprovidesadministrativesupportforseveralinternationalstandards
committees.
Throughout its history to present day, ASA’s strength resides in attracting the
interest and commitment of scholars devoted to promoting the knowledge and
practicalapplicationsofacoustics.Theunselfishactivityoftheseindividualsinthe
development of the Society is largely responsible for ASA’s growth and present
stature.
TomygrandchildrenSarah,Katie,Max,
Danny,andMichael,withthehopethatthey
willcontinuetoenjoyplaying musicand
studyingscience.
WRB
Foreword
Harmonizing principles from physics, engineering, and music, William Ralph
Bennett,Jr.hittherightnotesforundergraduatestudentsinapopularsemester-long
course on the physics of musical instruments, which he taught at Yale University
in the 1970s and 1980s. The course appealed to students with diverse talents
and backgrounds, including musicians and scientists. His lectures were filled with
demonstrations that helped students visualize complex concepts in wave analysis
and train their sense of hearing to appreciate harmonics and historical tuning of
musical instruments, and his classes were always infused with humor. In the mid-
1970s,Bennettwasselectedbystudentsasoneofthe“TenBestTeachers”atYale
University 3 years in a row. The material for this course was based on Bennett’s
encyclopedicresearchofthephysicsofmusicalinstruments.Iwasdrawntooneof
Bennett’slecturesasaYalegraduatestudentwhenIheardstrangenoisesandloud
music emanating from gigantic electrostatic speakers in a lecture hall in Becton
Center.AsIslippedintothebackofthehall,Iwasstruckbyhisenthusiasmandthe
engagementofhisstudents;hisapproachresonatedwithme.Ibecamehisteaching
assistant on the spot. Lecture notes and homework assignments from Bennett’s
courseservedasthefoundationforthisbook.
WhileatBellLabsin1960,Bennettinventedthefirstgaslaser,thehelium-neon
laser, along with Ali Javan and Donald Harriott. The word “LASER” originated
asanacronymforlightamplificationbystimulatedemissionofradiation.Bennett
went on to invent nearly a dozen other lasers using electron impact excitation in
each of the noble gases, dissociative excitation transfer in the first chemical laser,
MusicaetLux-WilliamRalphBennett,Jr.(January30,1930–June29,2008).
ix
x Foreword
the neon-oxygen laser, and collision excitation in several metal vapor lasers. He
wasawarded12patentsforhisworkinthisarea.Lasertechnologyspawnedmany
applications,includingcompactdiscplayers,ofrelevancetotheenjoymentofhigh-
fidelityrecordedmusic.Bennettauthored8booksandover130researchpapers.
Outside of his applied physics research on optical pumping, Bennett was also
an accomplished musician. He enjoyed listening to and playing chamber music as
HeadofSillimanCollegeatYaleandplayedclarinetwithseveralamateursymphony
orchestras.Ipersonallyenjoyedplayingfour-handclassicalworkswithhimonhis
beautifullyrestoredSteinwayconcertgrandpiano.Myhandsworkedhardtokeep
upwithBennett’s,whohitthekeyshardwithhislargehands.BeforeBennettdied
in 2008 from esophageal cancer, he asked me to help Frances Commins Bennett,
his wife of 55 years, see that the material in this book make it into print. Frances
and their daughter Jean Bennett, a geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania,
carefully organized and curated the contents of this book. Through my academic
connections, and later as President of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), I
promised Frances to help find an editor for this book who is as passionate about
teachingasWilliamRalphBennett,Jr.was.AndrewC.H.Morrisonwastheperfect
choice,anactivememberofthemusicalacousticstechnicalcommitteeattheASA,
a society that generates, disseminates, and promotes the knowledge and practical
applicationsofacoustics.MorrisonisanassistantprofessoratJolietJuniorCollege,
Northern Illinois University. Morrison’s primary area of research is the physics
of musical instruments, and he teaches acoustics, astronomy, general physics, and
modernphysics.
Bennett’s intellectual legacy is partly immortalized in this first installment of
a two-volume set on the science underpinning musical sounds. Wave motion and
the physics of the propagation of disturbances in strings, membranes, and pipes
are introduced with elegant descriptions and minimal algebraic and trigonometric
mathematics. The history of spectral analysis and Fourier series is presented with
delightful tidbits about significant scientists in the footnotes. Discrete Fourier
analysis is described and applied to musical sounds and is employed to elucidate
howhumanhearingworks.Bennettprovidessampledwaveformsofmanymusical
instruments and quirky household items, such as the garden hose, which can
be played like a trumpet, complete with computer programs for the student to
explore.WhileinmylaboratoryattheUniversityofCincinnati,JasonL.Raymond,
currentlyapostdoctoralresearchassistantintheDepartmentofEngineeringScience
at the University of Oxford, translated Bennett’s original BASIC programs to
MATLABcode,foundinAppendixC.Thescientificconceptsofmodesofvibration
and resonance frequency are translated into the language of music, so that the
nonscientistcanunderstandtheoriginsofovertonesandpitch.Detaileddescriptions
oftheinherentspectraofplucked,struck,andbowedstringsaretreatedinseparate
chapters.Thesourceofsoundsmadebythehumanvoiceisgivenspecialattention,
and even the sampled spectrum of one of Bennett’s beloved German Shepherd
dogs named Mozart appears in one figure. The diagrams, photos, and anecdotes
in the chapter on pipe organs reveal Bennett’s fascination and familiarity with the
constructionofthisintricateinstrument.Bennettspentmanyhoursbuildingapipe
Foreword xi
organintoanookofhissummerhomeinColrain,Massachusetts.Studentsreading
this book will be treated to Bennett’s witty personality and love of music while
learningabouttheinstrumentsthatcontributetothisartform.
Professor,InternalMedicine,DivisionofCardiovascular ChristyK.Holland
HealthandDiseaseandBiomedicalEngineering
ScientificDirector,Heart,Lung,andVascularInstitute
UniversityofCincinnati
Cincinnati,OH,USA