Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics

Second, Revised Edition

Arthur H. Benade

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780486264844
• eBook ISBN:
  9780486150710
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics is a landmark book in its field, hailed for its astonishingly clear, delightfully readable statement of everything of acoustical importance to music-making. Though directed primarily to the music student who is taking an acoustics course, it is essential reading for all musicians, music lovers, and audiophiles eager to expand their musical horizons.
The book deals extensively with the fundamental modes of sound production and with the special sound-producing properties of the musical instruments in common use today — keyboard, string, brass, woodwind, and percussion — as well as the human voice. It further explores the critical roles played by the room and by the hearer's auditory apparatus. The basis of scales and harmony and the craft of instrument makers are also discussed in this masterly text, which includes numerous illustrations, bibliographical information, and a stimulating section of "Examples, Experiments, and Questions" at the end of each chapter. After the original publication of this book, Dr. Benade maintained a detailed set of corrections and revisions that have been incorporated into this second, revised edition.
"Comprehensive . . . rigorous . . . well-organized . . . will surely be the text of choice." — American Scientist
"A remarkable achievement . . . a book on musical acoustics by an acknowledged master of the subject which guides the reader through all the most subtle intricacies of every important family of Western musical instruments with virtually no mathematics . . . Arthur Benade, a professor at Case Western Reserve, has set forth a vast knowledge of musical acoustics so clearly that you can read his book as you would a novel." — The Audio Amateur
"Every chapter contains material not previously covered in books written on musical acoustics." — John T. Scott, Physics Today
"Recommended for music lovers and audiophiles who want to know more about the physics of musical sounds." — Stereo Review

Table of contents

• DOVER BOOKS ON MUSIC, MUSIC HISTORY
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgments
• Note to the Dover Edition
• Table of Contents
• 1 - Preliminaries to a Study of Musical Acoustics
• 2 - Impulsive Sounds, Alone and in Sequence
• 3 - Simple Relations of Sounds and Motions
• 4 - Characteristic Frequencies and the Decay of Composite Sounds
• 5 - Pitch: The Simplest Musical Implication of Characteristic Oscillations
• 6 - The Modes of Oscillation of Simple and Composite Systems
• 7 - Introduction to Vibration Recipes: The Plucked String
• 8 - Broad Hammers and Plectra, Soft Hammers, and the Stiffness of Strings
• 9 - The Vibrations of Drumheads and Soundboards
• 10 - Sinusoidally Driven Oscillations
• 11 - Room Acoustics I: Excitation of the Modes and the Transmission of Impulses
• 12 - Room Acoustics II: The Listener and the Room
• 13 - The Loudness of Single and Combined Sounds
• 14 - The Acoustical Phenomena Governing the Musical Relationships of Pitch
• 15 - Successive Tones: Reverberations, Melodic Relationships, and Musical Scales
• 16 - Keyboard Temperaments and Tuning: Organ, Harpsichord, Piano
• 17 - Sound Production in Pianos
• 18 - The Clavichord and the Harpsichord
• 19 - The Voice as a Musical Instrument
• 20 - The Brass Wind Instruments
• 21 - The Woodwinds: I
• 22 - The Woodwinds: II
• 23 - The Oscillations of a Bowed String
• 24 - Instruments of the Violin Family
• 25 - Half-Valved Octaves, Burrs, Multiphonics, and Wolf Notes
• Index