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Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 10:25:40 -0700
From: Grant Green <gdgreen@contrabass.com>
Subject: Re: [Contra digest]
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com>That message came in just as I was about to write that I'd forgotten, when I
>wrote my previous message, that in the Cambodian art exhibit at the
>Smithsonian about two years ago, I saw temple art of a priest sitting on the
>ground and playing a huge sua na-type horn, the size of a digeridoo (maybe
>five feet long), with the bell resting on the ground in front of him. I
>didn't own my sua nas then and didn't pay close enough attention to retain
>details, but I wondered at the time what the instrument would sound like. I
>imagined it as something like the pedal contra-bombarde on an organ. I share
>your respect for anyone who can actually play a sua na of any size, instead
>of making the screams I make on it.Actually, it probably wouldn't be that low: considering that a bari sax (if
stretched out) is about 8', a 5-6' bombard would probably sound more like
the low Bb on a tenor sax. OK, maybe a whole section of tenor saxes... ;-)Grant
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Grant Green gdgreen@contrabass.com
http://www.contrabass.com
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---------------------------------------------------------From: "Dr Guy Grant" <guygrant@tassie.net.au>
Subject: RE: [Contra digest]
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 06:47:46 +1000
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comGday
It might have been a Tibetan rag-dun. I have one. They collapse into
themselves, have a primitive brass mouthpiece and I play mine like a
didjeridu.Guy
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Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 13:51:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: Adam Kent-Isaac <lokibassoon@yahoo.com>
Subject: Conical vs cilindrical
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comHey, why is it that the bassoon has a conical bore and if you stretched
it out it would be eight feet long, but the bass clarinet is nearly
half the size, and yet the bassoon only goes a couple of notes lower?
and the contrabass clarinet, althought it is about as long as a
bassoon, goes lower?-Adam
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Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 14:48:55 -0700
From: Grant Green <gdgreen@contrabass.com>
Subject: Re: Conical vs cilindrical
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com>Hey, why is it that the bassoon has a conical bore and if you stretched
>it out it would be eight feet long, but the bass clarinet is nearly
>half the size, and yet the bassoon only goes a couple of notes lower?
>and the contrabass clarinet, althought it is about as long as a
>bassoon, goes lower?The short answer is "acoustics" ;-) The slightly less brief answer is that
for pipes that are closed at one end (the reed closes one end), conical
pipes resonate at a fundamental (lowest) frequency about an octave higher
than the lowest fundamental for a cylindrical pipe. On a conical bore, the
lowest note has a wavelength twice as long as the bore (approximately),
with an antinode (region of greatest air motion/vibration) at the bell.
With a cylindrical bore, the wavelength of the lowest note is four times
the bore length - just the way the equations of motion work out. The
complete explanation is in A. Benade's "Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics",
which is available in paperback from Amazon.com (and others, and probably
in your local library), and is good reading if you're interested in this
sort of thing. Thus, reed instruments with conical bores sound an octave
higher than reed instruments with cylindrical bores: clarinets, crumhorns,
and racketts play an octave lower than oboes, bassoons, saxophones, etc.,
of the same length. Flutes are acoustically "open" at both ends, and
aren't described by the same equations (which is why cylindrical and
conical piccolos play in the same octave).Enjoy!
Grant
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green gdgreen@contrabass.com
http://www.contrabass.com
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