ABSTRACT:
In the past 10 years, studies in musical acoustics turned more and more towards both the instrument makers and the instrument players. For the acoustician, the empirical knowledge of the makers helps to focus on the most sensitive aspects of the instruments, geometrical and other “details” that often offer real challenges for the acousticians. The control by the player also offers a challenging framework that allows us to study the instruments under efficient control conditions.
Today’s approaches tend to aggregate elements from instrument making and playing into acoustical studies, in order to tackle complex problems like the conception of a specific instrument, or else the adaptation of the player’s control to variations in instrument making. For instance, the characteristics of each musical instrument induce an adaptation of the control by the player, resulting in a sounding aesthetics specific to each instrument – player couple. In the case of the flute, some aspects of the instrument making can be analyzed in terms of the aeroacoustics of the instrument, that determine the precise control the player needs to produce, in relation with the music to be played and the breathing possibilities of the player.
In the presentation, starting from the physical analysis of flute acoustics developed through the last decades, Fabre will unfold different analyses and try to build a global understanding of the relations between instrument making, playing techniques and sound aesthetics in musical performance.
BENOÎT FABRE:
Benoît Fabre is a professor at Sorbonne Universités - UPMC in Paris, France. He was educated both in acoustics and music. Music, sound, and acoustics are his passions. He develops research in the musical acoustics team (LAM) of the university, focusing on the acoustics of musical instruments. His research topics include the physical analysis and modeling of the instruments, the analysis of the making and the playing of the instruments. On top of academic collaborations, he often works with makers and players. He is author and co-author of many scientific publications, as well as books on musical acoustics.
VIDEO ARCHIVE - BENOIT FABRE
APA video citation:
Fabre, B. (2017, October 2). Musical instruments and players - an acoustical approach to the relations between instrument making, playing techniques, and sound aesthetics in music performace -
CIRMMT Distinguished Lectures in the Science and Technology of Music. [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvmD4-5aRto&feature=youtu.be