Dear Bob: There is no doubt that you are correct, and there is also no doubt that what I know about this subject could probably be placed on a three by five inch card. However, I don't think the Sixteenth-Century builders had those resources either. I kind of look at the issue in much the same way one would approach an empty wine jug with the intent of producing a sound by blowing across the opening. That particular jug is going to produce a particular sound of its own that cannot be changed without altering the space inside by filling or emptying its contents. When I made the comment about the Lute body producing or resonating at a particular pitch it was with this in mind. Of course it is still possible that we are assigning a function to the Lute body from our technical understanding of acoustics that was totally ignored by the original builders, or maybe not.
Vance Wood. ----- Original Message ----- From: "BobClair or EkkoJennings" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 5:50 AM Subject: Re: Lute resonance. > I really don't want to start this again, but... > > > Here's a simple, but physically accurate, discussion of lute resonance. > > > > Let me summarize your statement: "It depends on a lot of stuff". > > May I gently suggest that, before issuing such grandiloquent pronouncements, you > look beyond the McGraw-Hill technical encyclopedia and actually read some of the > literature on musical acoustics ? There are a number of texts (the best known is > _The Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics_ by Arthur Benade - Benade died a > number of years ago and I don't know if there is a recent edition) and some active reasearh. > There is a group in Australia with some nice web pages on guitars: > > http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/guitar/ > > You are correct in that a closed form analytic soulution is doubtless impossible. > > But : > > > 1) A pretty good computer model could very likely be made - especially if you can afford, say 1100 > dual-processor G5 power Macs and the support staff. (Perhaps the readers of the list would be interested in > contributing their spare change ? :-) ) > > 2) You can _measure_ the response of various instruments and/or measure the response of an instrument, modify it > and then measure it again. This will often give you a good idea about what affects what. I don't know that anyone > has studied lutes, but the _basics_ about violins (what the main reasonances are and what they do) have been known for > at least 35 years. See > > www.catgutacoustical.org > > > ..............Bob > > > > ____________________________________________________________ > ____________________________________________________________ > > Replies: (remove the "ZZZZ") > > Ekko Jennings: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Bob Clair: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >
