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May 1988

Volume 83, Issue S1, pp. S1-S122

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back to top Session HH. Musical Acoustics III: Arthur H. Benade Memorial Session I: Horns, Strings, and Harmony
Invited Papers
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Arthur H. Benade: The making of a musical acoustics researcher, theorist, and teacher (A)

Virginia Benade

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 83, Issue S1, pp. S73-S73 (1988); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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The Rampur State Band, childhood consumption, and repairing World War II aircraft radios are only a few of the influences reported on here as having had some bearing on A. H. Benade's development as a musical acoustician.
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Arthur Benade—Synthesizer (A)

George Jameson

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 83, Issue S1, pp. S73-S73 (1988); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Of the talents that led to Art Benade's considerable accomplishments in musical acoustics, one has escaped prominent mention—namely—his proclivity to synthesize. He had a strong ability to select ostensibly unrelated facts and thoughts from many disciplines, theoretical and practical, over a period of time. When these stored items began to fit together, Art was often able to discern a direction and reach the solution to an acoustical problem. The breadth of overall knowledge required to permit access to obscure relationships has often been itself obscured by the impact of Art's results. He called freely on branches of physics, chemistry, mathematics, and electronics not central to his work. Besides the sciences, he was well grounded in music, literature, and many phases of engineering. On a different level, he was a proficient machinist, mechanic, and tinkerer. Not least, he was a usable musical performer. He possessed a truly remarkable musical ear that was a major source of information. While many of the above abilities are requisite for any successful experimental physicist, Art extended his attentions further—to the user of musical instruments. Examples of the synthetic process will be cited—partly from the standpoint of the author, whose background is in manufacture and repair of instruments, and in routine professional performance and teaching of woodwinds.
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Fundamentals of piano scale design (A)

Earle L. Kent

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 83, Issue S1, pp. S73-S73 (1988); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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The determination of optimum piano string diameters, speaking lengths, and total lengths is complicated due to the interaction between the strings, their breaking strengths, available space for them, the energy they can accept from hammers, and the utilization of string energy to produce sound. Many economic, philosophical, and psychological factors in addition to the physical considerations are involved. No universally accepted definition of good piano tones has been established. Though it is not practical to lay down a set of specific rules for piano scale design, it is helpful to consider the relationships between involved parameters in order to guide the design, rebuilding, and repair of pianos. A set of string design relationships is given to serve as a bench mark in establishing piano string dimensions and as a basis for making comparisons in existing pianos. It seems reasonable to consider starting with well chosen string dimensions since the strings are the starting sources of piano tones.
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From twenty years of violin acoustics research (A)

Erik V. Jansson

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 83, Issue S1, pp. S73-S74 (1988); (2 pages)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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A very fruitful year as research associate to Arthur Benade in 1967 started my professional work as a scientist. This year formed much of my way of thinking and future work on strings, some of the “highlights” of which are reviewed. Normal modes of plates of a violin under construction were mapped by means of hologram interferometry (with Molin and Sundin). Experiments with the air cavity, employing Fransson's Ionophone, disclosed a large number of air volume modes. Long‐time‐average spectra of quality judged violins implied that high level below 1 kHz, low at 1.3 kHz, and high around 2.5 kHz are favorable (with Sundberg and Gabrielson). Normal modes of the complete violin were mapped with “speckle interferometry” and input admittance measurements, and implied that “equally strong” low‐frequency modes and a marked “bridge hill” at 2.5 kHz are positive for quality (with Alonso Moral). The influence of material properties and design of free plates were investigated in physical experiments and finite element calculations indicating that the thickness is the main factor (with Jakub Niewczyk, Molin, and Lindgren). The properties of plates in a simplified violin body are presently investigated (with Benedykt Niewczyk). I believe that the learnings from my year with Arthur Benade, thus, have further been spread during the last 20 years to my fellow colleagues in Sweden and guest researchers from Spain, Poland, and Australia.
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Listening to sound in rooms (A)

W. M. Hartmann

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 83, Issue S1, pp. S74-S74 (1988); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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Professor A. H. Benade frequently remarked on the paradox involved in listening to musical sounds in rooms. He noted that the transmission path from the sound source to the listener is unreliable; its impulse response and its corresponding frequency response, are irregular, unpredictable, and unstable. Nevertheless, the listener obtains reliable information about the location of the source, about the tone color, and about the transient character. The paradox may be resolved in principle by postulating that the listener's nervous system performs certain temporal summation and differencing operations as well as binaural summation and differencing operations on the internal representation of the sound field. The present talk will review what is known from psychoacoustical experiments concerning these parallel summation and differencing operations with the goal of distinguishing between plausible and implausible models. Most striking has been recent progress on binaural processing where psychoacoustics and electrophysiology appear to be converging on a single model, based upon crosscorrelation in tuned channels. Of particular importance is the precedence effect, which, after 100 years of study, still creates surprises but still wants an adequate definition. [Work supported by the National Institutes of Health.]
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Art Benade at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique in Paris (A)

René Causse

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 83, Issue S1, pp. S74-S74 (1988); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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This presentation dicusses Art Benade's influence on different instrumental acoustics projects at IRCAM, a musical research institution headed by composer Pierre Boulez. Art Benade was a member of IRCAM's original scientific advisory committee. New performance techniques, such as flute and trombone multiphonics, input impedance measurements of wind instruments and mutes for brasses were among the projects in which Art Benade made contributions, as a theoretical physicist and an adept experimenter, but also as an experienced musical performer and instrument maker. These multifaceted talents enabled him to communicate effectively with composers and performers, to understand musical problems in physical terms (and vice‐versa), and to participate in every step of these projects. We will present the most recent results of some of these projects and discuss more particularly a new model of the “wah‐wah” mute for the french horn.
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Reminiscences of Art Benade (A)

Harry B. Miller

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 83, Issue S1, pp. S74-S74 (1988); (1 page)

Online Publication Date: 13 Aug 2005

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In the early 1950's, Art Benade gave a two‐semester evening course on atomic physics. I was a member of the class. We soon got into after‐class discussions of applied acoustics and these never really stopped until his death. Some of this will be recounted.
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