source file: mills3.txt Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 18:54:47 +0100 Subject: Honk if you like Horns From: Carl Lumma >>A trumpet is 3 natural horns in a small package. > >This is not quite right. Three-valved brass instruments are actually seven >natural horns sharing a bell and a mouthpiece. The valves are usually tuned to >lower the open horn by multiples of equal-tempered semitones (1st valve by 2 >semitones, 2nd by 1, third by 3; I said 3 for simplicity. If you want to pick nits, lots of trumpets have other numbers of valves. On the "3" example, if the fundamentals of the sections are set as you say, then there's actually only 6 horns. However, on many horns, 1st and 2nd does not equal 3rd. And let's not forget that at least the 1st and 3rd sections (i've seen some techniques with the 2nd too) are adjustable in length. These can quickly and accurately be adjusted by the practiced player to yield an un-countable infinity of horns. >So the fundmentals of the tones produced by all combinations of valves are set >to 12tet. The lips buzz at or near positions on a harmonic series, but the >actual form of the tubing can influence this and the designs of individual >manufacturers reflect this fact. An easy demonstration of this is available on >the trombone: insert the mouthpiece in the separated bell joint. With the >dimensions now largely conical, it becomes virtually impossible to blow a >harmonic series (I say virtually, because I do know some players who can >lip up or down at least a fifth in any position). I can blow a harmonic series to the 8th partial on most of my 15,897 horns. Carl SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: alves@orion.ac.hmc.edu (Bill Alves) Subject: Re: To Paul Erlich PostedDate: 25-11-97 19:05:45 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $MessageStorage: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 25-11-97 19:04:08-25-11-97 19:04:09,25-11-97 19:04:10-25-11-97 19:04:11 DeliveredDate: 25-11-97 19:04:11 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2 9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C125655A.00634070; Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:04:05 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA02006; Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:05:45 +0100 Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:05:45 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA02004 Received: (qmail 27734 invoked from network); 25 Nov 1997 10:01:45 -0800 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 25 Nov 1997 10:01:45 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu