Articles in the August Journal

[Cy Shuster]

Dear List,

There are some great articles in this month's Journal.  One is a detailed
analysis by a Petrof acoustical engineer of the mathematical modeling of
string vibrations, *including* an insight on the perplexing behavior of the
bridge as a termination (just wait 'til Ric gets back from vacation!).  He
uses the example of an ancient Greek guitar, where one string termination
was a flexible rod.  In a piano, only the tuning pin side is a fixed
termination, whereas the bridge end moves, thereby changing the effective
speaking length.  Good stuff!  And he has experiments to back up his
findings!  This is Part 1 of a series.

In another article, Owen Jorgensen proposes that the layout of naturals and
sharps on the keyboard gives a visual clue to intervals in a well
temperament (if the piano were designed for equal temperament, there would
simply be alternating black and white keys across the board).

This issue will take some chewing to digest (metaphoric, of course).
Excellent articles.

--Cy Shuster--
Rochester, MN