Resonance

[Richard Brekne]

Carl Meyer wrote:

> I'm feeling quite resonant tonight.

Hmm.. I am feeling ...well... lets not get into that..:)

I read your post with interest as I said earlier on... and got to thinking about
this and a few other things that have been tossed around and started thinking
about the words we use to describe things and our attempts to quantify the
phenomena these words respresent. It struck me that there is this huge pool of
words we use to decsribe the sound of a piano. Words like "body", "full",
"luster", "rich", and so on. I am sure we could make a sizeable list of these.
These expressives represent in each case our attempts to describe what we
experience when we listen to music... be it the sound of a piano, or a symphony,
or a rock and roll band. Such a rich body of descriptive terms we have.

Then it also struck me how cold limited the description of soundboards is that
attempts to confine all these sensations into a few simple easily measureable
quantities such as the "speed of sound through wood",  "impedance",  "internal
friction" and a very very few others. Not that these quantities lack value in
themselves.

I am also reminded of what I earlier experienced in the Piano Disk adventure...
watching as each new version of the softeware got more and more sophisitcated in
the attempt to quantify something as simple and yet as complex as a single
finger playing music on a piano key.

In the end I personally am impressed with what science can tell us... and what
an aid that information can be as it develops. But I am also distressed when
those who take time to remember that we are dealing with music first and formost
and point to the many many sensations we experience that have yet to be
quantified by any science are told that these sensations are either meaningless
or easily explained away by one, rather simple acoustical model. And if you dare
to disagree ???....

Doesnt really sound so very musical to me....


--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no