Abstract:

Most modern orchestral instruments have evolved through many generations of development, in many cases through an evolutionary process spanning hundreds of years. As the process of refinement went on, many earlier instruments were essentially discarded and are now heard only rarely, in early-music concerts. In some cases, these nearly extinct instruments were abandoned because their descendants were much easier to control, or could produce tones spanning increased ranges. In other cases, the earlier instruments may have been discarded because of limitations of their sounds: Their dynamic ranges may have been too limited, or their timbres (tone colors) may have been simply judged unappealing. It may also be the case that these sound characteristics were related: for instance, that the sound of an instrument might have a low ``ceiling'' of volume and a high ``floor'' of noise, with the result that the instrument may have produced a fairly weak sound that, when forced to a higher intensity level, rapidly deteriorated in tone quality. This paper will report the early results of a study involving both physical measurements and perceptual judgments of tones produced on early single- and double-reed woodwind instruments.