Musical acoustics

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Musical acoustics is a scientific subject that encompasses both individual areas of acoustics and musicology . The focus of the department is on all aspects of research that concern the musician, the musical instrument or the perception of music , in particular their interaction in sound generation , using methods from the humanities, natural sciences or formal sciences.

Scientists have always regarded acoustics as a theory of vibrations and a part of physics . The research of outstanding individuals such as B. Hermann von Helmholtz or Arthur Benade gathered at the end of the 20th century in an international "scientific community" with several research centers in German-speaking countries. In principle, there is an interdisciplinarity through the connection of musicological research objects with one or more of the subjects physics, mathematics , electrical engineering , psychology , medicine .

Sub-areas of musical acoustics

Research and Teaching

Musical acoustics is represented at many universities and colleges as a subject in musicology and physics. Since 2003 it has been set up as an academic subject for doctoral studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna . Since 2012, the international, accredited "Music Acoustics" course can be taken as a Master of Science (M.Sc.) at the Detmold University of Music. Research also takes place at a number of musical instrument museums and instrument making schools.

The technical committee for musical acoustics in the German Society for Acoustics eV (DEGA) has existed since 1988

Methods

As an interdisciplinary subject, musical acoustics makes use of a wide range of different methods, e.g. B. sound analysis , sound synthesis , hearing tests , acceleration measurements , motion capturing , finite element method , simulations , physical modeling , laser interfereometry and psychophysiological measurements ( electromyography , heart rate variability, skin resistance measurements and other biofeedback techniques )

history

The introduction of tone systems and moods in music in the 3rd millennium BC is considered to be the first systematic concern with acoustics . In China . The scientific study of acoustics has been handed down from antiquity, including by Pythagoras of Samos (approx. 570–510 BC), who mathematically analyzed the relationship between string length and pitch in the monochord .

Herme of Pythagoras (around 120 AD); Capitoline Museums , Rome

Chrysippos of Soli (281–208 BC) recognized the wave character of sound by comparing it with waves on the surface of the water. Leonardo da Vinci recognized, among other things, that air is necessary as a medium for the propagation of sound and that sound propagates at a finite speed. By Marin Mersenne (1588-1648), among other scientific findings on the nature of sound and the first indication originates an experimentally determined speed of sound . Galileo Galilei described the relationship between pitch and frequency, which is important for acoustics .

Joseph Sauveur introduced the term "acoustics" for the theory of sound. Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni is considered the founder of modern experimental acoustics; he invented the Chladnian sound figures , which make natural vibrations of plates visible. Georg Simon Ohm postulated the ability of the hearing to resolve sounds into fundamental tones and harmonics, Hermann von Helmholtz researched sound perception and described the Helmholtz resonator, and John William Strutt published the "Theory of Sound" with numerous mathematically based findings on sound, his Concern formation and spread.

In the second half of the 19th century first acoustic measurement and recording devices were developed, the Phonautograph by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville and later the phonograph by Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931). August Kundt developed the Kundt pipe and used it to measure the degree of sound absorption . Heinrich Barkhausen invented the first device for measuring volume . Scientific journals have been published since around 1930 that are exclusively devoted to topics related to acoustics.

Musical acoustics was defined by Guido Adler in 1885 as one of the auxiliary sciences of musicology and has since been regarded as a subject area of systematic musicology .

literature

  • Stefan Weinzierl (Ed.): Acoustical basics of music . (Handbook of Systematic Musicology 5) . Laaber, Laaber 2014.
  • Donald E. Hall: Musical Acoustics: A Handbook . Mainz, Schott, 2008.
  • Richard Parncutt: Systematic Musicology and the History and Future of Western Musical Scholarship . University of Graz, Department of Musicology. In: Journal of interdisciplinary music studies. 1, No. 1, 2007, pp. 1-32.
  • Bertsch, Matthias; Brown, Andrew. W .: The paradox of musical acoustics : Objectivizing the essentially subjective. Proceedings of the Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology. 2004.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arthur H Benade: Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics: Second, Revised Edition . 2nd Edition. Dover, New York 1990, ISBN 0-486-26484-X , pp. 608 (English).