Contents
Part I The Musician’s Experience and the Scientific Perspective
1 The Musician’s Experience of Brass Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
1.1 Creating Music from Lip Vibration: Labrosones Through the Ages .
3
1.1.1
Labrosones from Found Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4
1.1.2
Early Metal Labrosones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6
1.1.3
Labrosones in Renaissance and Baroque Music . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
1.1.4
The Nineteenth-Century Labrosone Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.2 The Musician’s Interpretation of the Brass Playing Experience . . . . . . 13
1.2.1
Musical Pitch Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.2.2
Natural Notes and Harmonics: The Musician’s View . . . . . . . 14
1.2.3
Nominal Pitches of Brass Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.2.4
Compass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.2.5
Intonation Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.2.6
Dynamic Range. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.2.7
Timbre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.2.8
Blowing Pressure and Air Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.2.9
Resistance and Playing Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.2.10 Responsiveness and Rapid Articulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.2.11 Wrap, Directivity and Ergonomics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.3 Subjective and Objective Evaluation of Brass Instrument Quality . . . 25
1.3.1
Sound Quality and Playability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.3.2
Descriptive Terms Used by Musicians to Describe
Brass Instrument Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.3.3
Biases in Quality Evaluation of Musical Instruments . . . . . . . 28
2 The Scientist’s Perspective on Brass Instrument Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.1 Scientific Measurements of Brass Instrument Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.1.1
Sound Radiated from a Brass Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.1.2
Sound Measured Inside a Trombone Mouthpiece . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.1.3
Pressure Measured Inside a Brass Player’s Mouth. . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.1.4
Lip Vibration and Air Flow: The Valve Effect Sound Source 41
xi
Part I The Musician’s Experience and the Scientific Perspective
1 The Musician’s Experience of Brass Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
1.1 Creating Music from Lip Vibration: Labrosones Through the Ages .
3
1.1.1
Labrosones from Found Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4
1.1.2
Early Metal Labrosones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6
1.1.3
Labrosones in Renaissance and Baroque Music . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
1.1.4
The Nineteenth-Century Labrosone Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.2 The Musician’s Interpretation of the Brass Playing Experience . . . . . . 13
1.2.1
Musical Pitch Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.2.2
Natural Notes and Harmonics: The Musician’s View . . . . . . . 14
1.2.3
Nominal Pitches of Brass Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.2.4
Compass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.2.5
Intonation Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.2.6
Dynamic Range. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.2.7
Timbre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.2.8
Blowing Pressure and Air Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.2.9
Resistance and Playing Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.2.10 Responsiveness and Rapid Articulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.2.11 Wrap, Directivity and Ergonomics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.3 Subjective and Objective Evaluation of Brass Instrument Quality . . . 25
1.3.1
Sound Quality and Playability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.3.2
Descriptive Terms Used by Musicians to Describe
Brass Instrument Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.3.3
Biases in Quality Evaluation of Musical Instruments . . . . . . . 28
2 The Scientist’s Perspective on Brass Instrument Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.1 Scientific Measurements of Brass Instrument Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.1.1
Sound Radiated from a Brass Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.1.2
Sound Measured Inside a Trombone Mouthpiece . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.1.3
Pressure Measured Inside a Brass Player’s Mouth. . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.1.4
Lip Vibration and Air Flow: The Valve Effect Sound Source 41
xi