12 March, 2008

Австралийские ученые разрешили музыкальный спор

На сайте The University of New South Wales представлена отличная статья Saxophones and the vocal tract: the acoustics of saxophone players:

"To play the high range of the saxophone, players must learn to tune a strong resonance of their vocal tract to the desired note. This resonance of the air in the vocal tract may be stronger than the resonances in the bore of the instrument: the acoustics of the saxophonist is sometimes more important than that of the instrument. This is a brief introduction to some of our recent research on this question, reported in Science (download paper). It is part of the project of PhD student Chen Jer Ming.

Col Loughnan plays the frankensaxFor a few decades, acousticians – and some musicians – have debated how important the vocal tract is in the playing of clarinet and saxophone. We have recently made direct measurements of the resonances of saxophonists' vocal tracts, while they played. Over the standard range of the instrument, the tract resonances vary among players and have no simple relation to the note played. In the high (altissimo) range, the professional saxophonists studied all tuned a strong resonance of their tracts systematically to frequencies slightly above that the desired note. The amateurs studied did not tune a strong resonance and were also unable to play notes in the altissimo range."

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