Perceptions of the Stuart & Sons Piano Sound: Realising a creative, active vision

This research examines the position of the Stuart & Sons piano in the three hundred year evolution of piano design. It demonstrates how the Stuart piano design is indicative of the technology of its period, the music of its period, and the place of its development. This thesis argues that the Stuart & Sons piano design implementations of the bridge agraffe and the expansion of its frequency ranges demonstrate that the new Australian instrument is of its time and place. Its use of 21st century technological advancements in steel wire drawing and its production of a distinctively new sound aesthetic which appeals to Australian contemporary music composition are indicative of a piano design of this period. The experimental ideas of the 19th century piano designers Henri Pape, John Broadwood and Sebastian Erard have been taken up by Stuart to expand the piano’s frequency range to the widest in the history of the piano, from 16Hz to 5587.65 Hz with a proposed extension of 6 higher notes to 7901.72 Hz. This proposed extension achieves a 108 note keyboard compass and eight full octaves for each pitch of the chromatic scale. The thesis examines Wayne Stuart’s claims that today’s modern piano design, standardized in the late 19th century, represents a pause in the evolution of piano design that has not adapted to the changes in musical style and technology of the 20th century, whereas the Stuart design supports the vertical emphasis in sound production implemented by the impressionist, contemporary & electronic music composers of the 20th century. This research compares the sound of the modern piano with the Stuart piano sound to demonstrate the differences of the Stuart’s vertically enhanced harmonic characteristics and its increased capacity to project a comprehensive tonal spectrum over a longer distance. How audiences decipher the differences found by this research, in the sounds of the Stuart and modern pianos is tested in a series of audience-survey concerts. Verbal attributes used to describe piano sound quality are complied into glossaries and used in survey questions. Australian aspects of the Stuart piano are described and associated with the oblique connection that exits between contemporary Australian music composition and Australian Aboriginal art forms. Compositions for the Stuart piano are devised from perceptions of the Stuart piano sound established by this research. The compositions reflect social aspects of Australian society and enable a musical activity and response to the urgent need for cross-cultural collaborations in the arts-education sector between Indigenous and non-Indigenous systems of education

Physically Informed Subtraction of a String's Resonances from Monophonic, Discretely Attacked Tones : a Phase Vocoder Approach

A method for the subtraction of a string's oscillations from monophonic, plucked- or hit-string tones is presented. The remainder of the subtraction is the response of the instrument's body to the excitation, and potentially other sources, such as faint vibrations of other strings, background noises or recording artifacts. In some respects, this method is similar to a stochastic-deterministic decomposition based on Sinusoidal Modeling Synthesis [MQ86, IS87]. However, our method targets string partials expressly, according to a physical model of the string's vibrations described in this thesis. Also, the method sits on a Phase Vocoder scheme. This approach has the essential advantage that the subtraction of the partials can take place \instantly", on a frame-by-frame basis, avoiding the necessity of tracking the partials and therefore availing of the possibility of a real-time implementation. The subtraction takes place in the frequency domain, and a method is presented whereby the computational cost of this process can be reduced through the reduction of a partial's frequency-domain data to its main lobe. In each frame of the Phase Vocoder, the string is encoded as a set of partials, completely described by four constants of frequency, phase, magnitude and exponential decay. These parameters are obtained with a novel method, the Complex Exponential Phase Magnitude Evolution (CSPME), which is a generalisation of the CSPE [SG06] to signals with exponential envelopes and which surpasses the nite resolution of the Discrete Fourier Transform. The encoding obtained is an intuitive representation of the string, suitable to musical processing

Model-based digital pianos: from physics to sound synthesis

International audiencePiano is arguably one of the most important instruments in Western music due to its complexity and versatility. The size, weight, and price of grand pianos, and the relatively simple control surface (keyboard) have lead to the development of digital counterparts aiming to mimic the sound of the acoustic piano as closely as possible. While most commercial digital pianos are based on sample playback, it is also possible to reproduce the sound of the piano by modeling the physics of the instrument. The process of physical modeling starts with first understanding the physical principles, then creating accurate numerical models, and finally finding numerically optimized signal processing models that allow sound synthesis in real time by neglecting inaudible phenomena, and adding some perceptually important features by signal processing tricks. Accurate numerical models can be used by physicists and engineers to understand the functioning of the instrument, or to help piano makers in instrument development. On the other hand, efficient real-time models are aimed at composers and musicians performing at home or at stage. This paper will overview physics-based piano synthesis starting from the computationally heavy, physically accurate approaches and then discusses the ones that are aimed at best possible sound quality in real-time synthesis

The development of and relationship between vocal sight reading and instrumental sight reading of seventh, ninth, and eleventh grade orchestra students

Developing the music cognition competencies of both singers and instrumentalists is one of the goals of school music programs. Vocal and instrumental sight reading are used to indicate the level of development of cognitive skills in music. In this study, vocal and instrumental sight reading served as a basis for determining public school orchestra students' cognitive development in music. Vocal sight-reading and instrumental sight-reading performances of 143 orchestra students in 7th, 9th, and 11th grades were examined. Students' vocal sight-singing accuracy was tested using the Vocal Sight Reading Inventory (Henry, 1999). Students' instrumental sight-reading was assessed using the String Performance Rating Scale (Zdzinski & Barnes, 2002). The ANOVA procedure and the Welch test were applied to determine whether there was an improvement in students' vocal and instrumental sight reading with additional years of school orchestra experience. Results from ANOVA analyses indicated that the differences in students' instrumental sight-reading scores across the three grade levels were statistically significant [F (2,140) = 34.50], p < .01. A post hoc Bonferroni adjustment revealed that the differences between each of the groups were statistically significant (p < .05) in favor of older and more experienced students. For vocal sight reading, the Tamhane procedure revealed significant differences only between students at the 7th and 11th grade levels, also in favor of the older students (p < .05). Correlational analysis indicated that there was a strengthening of the relationship between students' vocal sight reading and instrumental sight reading as students progressed in grade level, indicating that they were continuing to develop their musicianship skills. The correlation between vocal sight-reading and instrumental sight-reading scores according to grade level were r = .36, p < .05 for 7th grade, r = .52, p < .01 for 9th grade, and r = .64, p < .01 for 11th grade. In this study I stressed the importance of both vocal sight-reading and instrumental sight-reading experiences for orchestra students and ultimately for all instrumental students. I also proposed theoretical models as to how the two skills are related and how they might be developed

Musical Haptics

Haptic Musical Instruments; Haptic Psychophysics; Interface Design and Evaluation; User Experience; Musical Performanc

Caracterização vibroacústica e síntese sonora da viola caipira

Orientadores: José Maria Campos dos Santos, François Gautier, Frédéric AblitzerTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica e Le Mans UniversitéResumo: A viola caipira é um tipo de viola brasileira amplamente utilizada na música popular. Ela é composta de dez cordas metálicas dispostas em cinco pares, afinadas em uníssono ou oitava. Este trabalho de tese concentra-se na análise das especificidades dos sons musicais produzidos por este instrumento pouco estudado na literatura. A análise dos sons de viola caipira mostra a presença de vibrações simpáticas de cordas, o que resulta em um halo de som, constituindo uma característica perceptiva importante. Os movimentos de cordas dedilhadas são estudados usando uma câmera de alta velocidade, revelando a existência de choques entre cordas que levam a efeitos claramente audíveis. A análise modal das vibrações do corpo realizada por um vibrômetro à laser de varredura e um martelo de impacto automático permite identificar algumas diferenças em relação ao violão clássico. As mobilidades do cavalete também são medidas usando o método do fio quebrante, que é simples de usar e de baixo custo, uma vez que não requer o uso de um sensor de força. Combinadas com uma análise modal de alta resolução (método ESPRIT), tais medidas permitem determinar as formas modais nos pontos de acoplamento entre corda/corpo e assim caracterizar o instrumento. Uma modelagem física baseada em uma abordagem modal híbrida é realizada para fins de síntese sonora. Tal modelagem considera os movimentos das cordas em duas polarizações, os acoplamentos com o corpo e as colisões entre cordas. Este modelo é chamado de modelo híbrido porque combina uma abordagem analítica para descrever as vibrações de cordas e parâmetros experimentais que descrevem o corpo. Um conjunto de simulações no domínio do tempo revelam as principais características da viola caipiraAbstract: The viola caipira is a type of Brazilian guitar widely used in popular music. It consists of ten metallic strings arranged in five pairs, tuned in unison or octave. The thesis work focuses on the analysis of the specificities of musical sounds produced by this instrument, which has been little studied in the literature. The analysis of the motions of plucked strings using a high speed camera shows the existence of sympathetic vibrations, which results in a sound halo, constituting an important perceptive feature. These measurements also reveal the existence of shocks between strings, which lead to very clearly audible consequences. The modal analysis of the body vibrations, carried out by a scanning laser vibrometer and an automatic impact hammer reveals some differences and similarities with the classical guitar. Bridges mobilities are also measured using the wire-breaking method, which is simple to use and inexpensive since it does not require the use of a force sensor. Combined with a high-resolution modal analysis (ESPRIT method), these measurements enable to determine the modal shapes at the string/body coupling points and thus to characterize the instrument. A physical modelling, based on a modal approach, is carried out for sound synthesis purposes. It takes into account the strings motions with two orthogonal polarizations, the couplings with the body and the collisions between strings. This model is called a hybrid model because it combines an analytical approach to describe the vibrations of strings and experimental data describing the body. Simulations in the time domain reveal the main characteristics of the viola caipiraDoutoradoMecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto MecanicoDoutor em Engenharia Mecânica141214/2013-999999.010073/2014-00CNPQCAPE

Perception of attributes in real and synthetic string instrument sounds

This thesis explores the perceptual features of natural and synthetic string instrument sounds. The contributions are in formal listening experiments on a variety of features in musical sounds that have not been studied in detail previously. The effects of inharmonicity on timbre and pitch have been measured. The results indicate that the implementation of inharmonicity is not always necessary. The timbre effect is more salient in natural instruments, but for high tones a pitch difference may also be detected. Guidelines were given for compensation of the pitch effect. A perceptual study of the decaying parameters showed that large deviations from the reference value are tolerated perceptually. The studies on the audibility of initial pitch glides and dual-polarization effects provides practical knowledge that helps in the implementation of these features in digital sound synthesis. Related to expression rather than basic string behavior, the study on perception-based control of the vibrato parameters has a sligthly different background. However, all of the studied features are more or less player-controlled by different ways of plucking the string or pressing the key. The main objective of the thesis is to find answers to current problems in digital sound synthesis, such as parameter quantization. Another aim is to gain more general understanding of how we perceive musical sounds.reviewe