source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 15:34:20 -0700 Subject: Re: Neanderthal flute From: alves@orion.ac.hmc.edu (Bill Alves) >Bill Alves writes: >Does anyone know more about or have any references on the acoustics of >flute hole placement? Thanks. > >This is the second time I'm going to suggest this book as an answer, but is >the best thing I've seen so far and relatively new. Bart Hopkin's book >Musical Instrument Design (See Sharp Press) gives the best advice I've seen. Thanks for reposting this reference. I'm sorry not to have taken notice of it the first time around. Fink, in his paper on the flute, takes note of some of complicating factors that Gary and Dan have brought up, but essentially says that, since they would be random, their effect on pitch would be cancelled out. This is assuming that the Neanderthals, unlike later instrument builders, took no notice of their hole diameter, bore, and so on, and that Fink's guess for the overall length of the flute is close. Both are pretty tenuous assumptions, I think. I've played renaissance gemshorns which are also flutes made out of bones (horns) and the diameters of the holes vary considerably from instrument to instrument. I had assumed that the instrument maker gradually widened them as a way to fine tune them, but I don't know. (One hole on the bass gemshorn was too big for most people's fingers, I recall.) The hole diameters on the Balinese suling I mentioned do not really vary as far as I can measure. The bore seems cylindrical. However, if the pitch is a function of the overall length of the closed tube, why, if is there such a long distance between the last hole and the end of the tube? That is, when all my fingers are down, I assume the air column is the length of the whole tube, about 43.7 cm as I measure it. When I lift my finger off the lowest hole, the vibrating length decreases to about 34 cm (measured to the middle of the hole), but the pitch only goes up about a whole tone. When I lift up my next finger, the length drops only to 30.8 cm, but the pitch rises another whole tone. I finally saw the Discovery article yesterday, and I must say that it looks like a much more profound discovery than the one in Slovenia. As Clif mentioned, there is a tusk "tuba" with sixteen holes (apparently equally spaced, as Fink may be disappointed to learn), something that could have been a bagpipe, graduated bones that could have been parts of a xylophone, and a small bone triangle. What was more astonishing to me is that they found a 50,000-year-old cave painting of musicians in a procession playing these instruments! In the photograph reproduced, the tuba is clearly played by blowing, though it's impossible to tell if it was a flute or buzzed-lip instrument. The triangle can clearly be seen played by another musician. Another figure is more amorphous, but one can easily imagine it to be a bagpipe. This is the first cave painting ever found associated with the Neanderthals, by the way. It would be great to find out more about this discovery. 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; Thu, 10 Apr 1997 00:37 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA02034; Thu, 10 Apr 1997 00:37:17 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA02032 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id PAA18428; Wed, 9 Apr 1997 15:35:28 -0700 Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 15:35:28 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu