Acoustical Comparisons of Sackbuts and Trombones
- Submitting institution
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Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 2577185
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
-
- Title of journal
- Historic Brass Society Journal
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 63
- Volume
- 63-78
- Issue
- -
- ISSN
- 1045-4616
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2014
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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2
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- An early conference presentation of the research was titled ‘Is the Sackbut Merely a Narrow-bore Trombone?’ reflecting a longstanding disagreement between musicians. The trombone has an extensive historical literature; however, discussion of timbre has been almost entirely subjective. Recent development of acoustical techniques, in which my co-authors and I have played a leading role, enabled an objective approach to timbre and thereby offered new insights into the relationship between the trombone and the sackbut.
The research centred on laboratory tests on a sample of modern trombones and reproduction sackbuts, focussing on the three main timbre-determining behaviours of brass instruments (bore profile and non-linear propagation, bore size and sound energy losses, and bell flare and radiation of sound). The measurements of sound radiation included the use of a modern trombone which had parts of the bell progressively cut off. The sample selection was validated by an extensive series of measurements of sackbuts and trombones in museums and collections in Europe and North America.
At a desired performance dynamic, a narrow-bore small-bell sackbut or a surviving Renaissance sackbut will in general have a brighter timbre than a narrow-bore trombone. Alternatively, for a given brightness the sackbut must be played at a lower dynamic level. In discussing the tonal characteristics of instruments such as sackbuts and modern trombones, both bell size and absolute bore size need to be taken into consideration as factors affecting spectral enrichment in the performance situation, alongside the shape of the bore profile. Merely reducing the bell size, as in the former practice of cutting the bell of a trombone, or modern “sackbut” models with larger than authentic bore size, will not provide instruments that allow a player to achieve the sound of an original or close copy of a sackbut.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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