Science of Percussion Instruments
World Scientific Publishing: 2000. 208 pp. £16, $25
Percussion instruments are a little different from the other regular members of the orchestra. Strings, woodwind and brass combine some type of oscillator (string or reed) with a resonator (a wooden box or air column) in such a way as to produce sustained sounds with strictly harmonic overtones. This is why we perceive these instruments as having a very definite pitch and why their sounds can be combined so harmoniously. In contrast, percussion instruments combine the oscillator and resonator in one, producing sounds through the transient excitation of the natural vibrations of bars, plates, stretched membranes and shells made from a host of different materials. The ensuing vibrations of these structures tend to produce short-lived sounds comprising inharmonic overtones. It is this rather haphazard overtone structure, and the way it develops with time, which determines the sound quality of each instrument. The key to understanding the acoustics of percussion instruments is thus to study the modes of vibration of the different groups of instruments — and that is largely what this book is about.
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