source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 13:35:09 -0700 Subject: Re: Neanderthal flute From: alves@orion.ac.hmc.edu (Bill Alves) Not to beat this bone flute thing to extinction, but I have some questions about the acoustics of flutes as they are presented in Fink's article. He draws the conclusion that, because of unequal spacing of the holes in the bone, it must have played a diatonic scale. Now I have a Balinese suling (bamboo flute) that plays a pretty reasonable major scale if you lift up your fingers one at a time (despite the fact that the music it plays in Bali is not diatonic). Yet the physical distance between the second and third holes is almost the same as the distance between the other holes. (I measure them all as within 1 millimeter of the same distance: about 32 mm.) According to Fink it should be half the distance because the interval is half as large. However, in another place in his article he says that hole placement has the same relationship to frequency as string length does. That would seem to indicate that the holes would have to get closer together to preserve the same interval between them. Does anyone know more about or have any references on the acoustics of flute hole placement? Thanks. Bill ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ Bill Alves email: alves@hmc.edu ^ ^ Harvey Mudd College URL: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ ^ ^ 301 E. Twelfth St. (909)607-4170 (office) ^ ^ Claremont CA 91711 USA (909)621-8360 (fax) ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 7 Apr 1997 23:05 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA01666; Mon, 7 Apr 1997 23:05:09 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA01664 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id OAA28943; Mon, 7 Apr 1997 14:03:33 -0700 Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 14:03:33 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu