1.3 Subjective and Objective Evaluation of Brass Instrument Quality
27
and adjustments which are concealed from the audience but add greatly to the effort
of the performance. The term ‘playability’ is now widely used by performers and
manufacturers to encompass the features of an instrument which make it easy to
play. The word seems to have been coined by Stevenson (1881) in an early essay
entitled ‘Child’s Play’ and was adopted as a convenient term to describe the playing
properties of violins by Woodhouse (1993). In his discussion of violin playability,
Woodhouse makes an important point which is also valid for brass instruments: an
instrument considered to be easy to play will not necessarily rate highly on the sound
quality scale. An obvious example can be found in the choice of a mouthpiece for
high register playing: a smaller cup can make high notes less tiring, but this can be
at the expense of fullness of sound.
1.3.2 Descriptive Terms Used by Musicians to Describe Brass
Instrument Behaviour
In 2002, Matthias Bertsch and colleagues in Vienna instituted an extensive research
project on player evaluation of trumpets (Bertsch and Waldherr 2005; Bertsch
et al. 2005). Over 250 playing tests were performed by 55 trumpeters, mostly
professionals or advanced students from 3 different countries. A player performing
the test was given one of a number of trumpets in a darkened room, to prevent visual
identification; the test consisted of 40 questions assessing the sound quality and
playability of the instrument. Each player carried out the test several times, usually
being presented with a different instrument in each test. Some of the tests were
however repeats on the same instrument, allowing the reliability of the judgements
to be evaluated.
Bertsch et al. found that although individual players were able to rate consistently
the overall quality of the tested trumpets on a 5-point scale from ‘professional
instrument’ to ‘beginner instrument’, they did not all agree on which instrument was
their own personal preference. This finding reinforces the personal and subjective
nature of the players’ judgements: it seems clear that not all players were using the
same criteria in evaluating overall quality.
Some of the test questions probed specific features of instrumental performance.
One important aspect of playability is the ease with which a particular note can be
lipped up or down from its median pitch; notes which have little pitch flexibility
are described as ‘strongly centred’ or ‘slotted’. Judgements of this property were
consistent, showing that this is a well-understood and robust criterion of quality.
Players were also consistent in answering questions about how quickly a note
could be started or repeated (see Sect. 1.2.10). General questions on the ‘response’
of the instrument were however answered very inconsistently, implying that a
number of different factors, varying from test to test, may have been influencing
the players’ interpretation of this word. A similar lack of reliability was found in
judgements of ‘resistance’; it may be that the player sensation described by this
term is too dependent on the technique of the player to be useful in characterising
the instrument.
27
and adjustments which are concealed from the audience but add greatly to the effort
of the performance. The term ‘playability’ is now widely used by performers and
manufacturers to encompass the features of an instrument which make it easy to
play. The word seems to have been coined by Stevenson (1881) in an early essay
entitled ‘Child’s Play’ and was adopted as a convenient term to describe the playing
properties of violins by Woodhouse (1993). In his discussion of violin playability,
Woodhouse makes an important point which is also valid for brass instruments: an
instrument considered to be easy to play will not necessarily rate highly on the sound
quality scale. An obvious example can be found in the choice of a mouthpiece for
high register playing: a smaller cup can make high notes less tiring, but this can be
at the expense of fullness of sound.
1.3.2 Descriptive Terms Used by Musicians to Describe Brass
Instrument Behaviour
In 2002, Matthias Bertsch and colleagues in Vienna instituted an extensive research
project on player evaluation of trumpets (Bertsch and Waldherr 2005; Bertsch
et al. 2005). Over 250 playing tests were performed by 55 trumpeters, mostly
professionals or advanced students from 3 different countries. A player performing
the test was given one of a number of trumpets in a darkened room, to prevent visual
identification; the test consisted of 40 questions assessing the sound quality and
playability of the instrument. Each player carried out the test several times, usually
being presented with a different instrument in each test. Some of the tests were
however repeats on the same instrument, allowing the reliability of the judgements
to be evaluated.
Bertsch et al. found that although individual players were able to rate consistently
the overall quality of the tested trumpets on a 5-point scale from ‘professional
instrument’ to ‘beginner instrument’, they did not all agree on which instrument was
their own personal preference. This finding reinforces the personal and subjective
nature of the players’ judgements: it seems clear that not all players were using the
same criteria in evaluating overall quality.
Some of the test questions probed specific features of instrumental performance.
One important aspect of playability is the ease with which a particular note can be
lipped up or down from its median pitch; notes which have little pitch flexibility
are described as ‘strongly centred’ or ‘slotted’. Judgements of this property were
consistent, showing that this is a well-understood and robust criterion of quality.
Players were also consistent in answering questions about how quickly a note
could be started or repeated (see Sect. 1.2.10). General questions on the ‘response’
of the instrument were however answered very inconsistently, implying that a
number of different factors, varying from test to test, may have been influencing
the players’ interpretation of this word. A similar lack of reliability was found in
judgements of ‘resistance’; it may be that the player sensation described by this
term is too dependent on the technique of the player to be useful in characterising
the instrument.