At 2/9/2005 11:54 AM, Chuck Israels wrote:
I am acutely aware of the physics involved in music - always, albeit at a subconscious level that some might describe as trivial.
As I am planning sounds - is the piano lid open or closed, French Horns face backward and spread their sound, gut strings sound different than steel, French double reed players adjust the reeds to make a different sound, etc. To me this is physics. It has become intuitive, but it's still physics. It is a also a matter of psycho-acoustics that leads those who want to write "non-harmonic" music to eschew powerful bass notes whose overtones are in the most sensitive part of human hearing so that they tend to lead the listener to hear harmony. To me, that's physics too, and ignorance of it would not improve my music. My 2c.
That's sounds like a "composer" perspective to me.
I thought we were talking about performers?
But, some performers have to do a lot more thinking about the physics of sound than others.
Which leads into one of my most favorite rehearsal stories:
The asst conductor of the concert band is filling in on percussion, because the conductor's choices have lots of percussion parts.
The conductor in question is Vaclav Nelhlybel.
I don't remember the piece, but the crescendos were not meeting his standard.
He gave a short lecture to the band about playing to 100% of their ability at some particular point in the score.
So, the next time that point approached, the asst conductor started "warming up the gong" which he was playing. This was prior to any actual note being played on the gong.
When the high point hit, he gave that gong a Roger Maris swing.
Of course, the sound then goes from very loud to deafening over the course of a minute.
Vaclav is waving his arms to cut everyone off, but anyone who was not watching didn't have a clue that the band had stopped playing because you couldn't hear anything but the gong.
It took about 3 minutes for the gong to stop ringing, at which point Vaclav says, pointing to the gong player:
"From you, I only need 75%."
Phil Daley < AutoDesk > http://www.conknet.com/~p_daley
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