Multiphonics
In music, multiphonics are techniques that use certain fingering or blowing techniques (or the insertion of objects into keyboard instruments as in a prepared piano ) to produce more than one sound on an instrument at the same time. With some instruments these techniques are also called multi-sound or split sound ; the term multiphonic is also used .
Acoustically, they go back to combination effects (difference and summation tones) of the respective partial vibrations involved in a sound. For example, it is possible on many wind instruments to produce several tones at the same time by blowing a note and singing into the mouthpiece at the same time. When the note is played and sung in different ways, overtones arise that are so audible that even chords can sound. At the beginning of the 19th century, Carl Maria von Weber was already using chords generated by multiphonics in his "Concertino for Horn and Orchestra"; Such techniques were already used in jazz by Adrian Rollini in the 1920s.
In the 1960s, flautists Roland Kirk and Jeremy Steig, as well as Ian Anderson in rock music, used appropriate techniques. In New Music , appropriate techniques were developed and introduced into the composition almost simultaneously. Building on Severino Gazzelloni , who worked with Luciano Berio , William O. Smith developed the technique for the clarinet. In addition, the oboist Heinz Holliger used multiphonics in the composition "Siebengesang" (1966/1967) for voices, oboe, loudspeakers and orchestra and especially in the "Study on Mehrklänge" (1971) for oboe solo.
For the generation of summation or difference tones in wind instruments, the vibration behavior of the air column in the interior of the sound tube and the mouthpiece is decisive. Brass players like Albert Mangelsdorff , Vinko Globokar or Michel Godard (but also flautists) mostly produce multiple sounds by singing and playing different pitches at the same time and the resulting combination tones; Woodwind players like Theo Jörgensmann usually use special approach techniques and changes to the blowing pressure ( overblowing ) as well as special fingerings. Sounds generated with these techniques depend to a great extent on the acoustic properties of each instrument, but also of its player (e.g. the shape and size of the throat).
See also
- Double handle
- Overtone singing
- Undertone singing
- Prepared piano
- Third bridge guitar
- Mood swingers
- Flageolet tone
- Extended technique
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Facsimile of the score: Concertino for Horn and Orchestra in E minor : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project