While the history of musical instruments is nearly as old as civilisation itself, the science of acoustics is quite recent. By understanding the physical basis of how instruments are used to make music, one hopes ultimately to be able to give physical criteria to distinguish a fine instrument from a mediocre one. At that point science may be able to come to the aid of art in improving the design and performance of musical instruments. As yet, many of the subtleties in musical sounds of which instrument makers and musicians are aware remain beyond the reach of modern acoustic measurements. This book describes the results of such acoustical investigations - fascinating intellectual and practical exercises. Addressed to readers with a reasonable grasp of physics who are not put off by a little mathematics, this book discusses most of the traditional instruments currently in use in Western music. A guide for all who have an interest in music and how it is produced, as well as serving as a comprehensive reference for those undertaking research in the field.

An ideal text for advanced undergraduates, the book provides the foundations needed to understand the acoustics of rooms and musical instruments as well as the basics for scientists and engineers interested in noise and vibration. The new edition contains four new chapters devoted primarily to applications of acoustical principles in everyday life: Microphones and Other Transducers, Sound in Concert Halls and Studios, Sound and Noise Outdoors; and Underwater Sound.

Intended for students in the visual arts and for others with an interest in art, but with no prior knowledge of physics, this book presents the science behind what and how we see. The approach emphasises phenomena rather than mathematical theories and the joy of discovery rather than the drudgery of derivations. The text includes numerous problems, and suggestions for simple experiments, and also considers such questions as why the sky is blue, how mirrors and prisms affect the colour of light, how compact disks work, and what visual illusions can tell us about the nature of perception. It goes on to discuss such topics as the optics of the eye and camera, the different sources of light, photography and holography, colour in printing and painting, as well as computer imaging and processing.

Thomas D. Rossing String instruments are found in almost all musical cultures. Bowed string instruments form the backbone of symphony orchestras, and they are used widely as solo inst- ments and in chamber music as well. Guitars are used universally in pop music as well as in classical music. The piano is probably the most versatile of all musical inst- ments, used widely not only in ensemble with other musical instruments but also as a solo instrument and to accompany solo instruments and the human voice. In this book, various authors will discuss the science of plucked, bowed, and hammered string instruments as well as their electronic counterparts. We have tried to tell the fascinating story of scienti?c research with a minimum of mathematics to maximize the usefulness of the book to performers and instrument builders as well as to students and researchers in musical acoustics. Sometimes, however, it is dif?cult to "translate" ideas from the exact mathematical language of science into words alone, so we include some basic mathematical equations to express these ideas. It is impossible to discuss all families of string instruments. Some instruments have been researched much more than others. Hopefully, the discussions in this book will help to encourage further scienti?c research by both musicians and scientists alike. 1.1 A Brief History of the Science of String Instruments Quite a number of good histories of acoustics have been written (Lindsay 1966, 1973; Hunt 1992; Beyer 1999), and these histories include musical acoustics.

Thomas D. Rossing String instruments are found in almost all musical cultures. Bowed string instruments form the backbone of symphony orchestras, and they are used widely as solo inst- ments and in chamber music as well. Guitars are used universally in pop music as well as in classical music. The piano is probably the most versatile of all musical inst- ments, used widely not only in ensemble with other musical instruments but also as a solo instrument and to accompany solo instruments and the human voice. In this book, various authors will discuss the science of plucked, bowed, and hammered string instruments as well as their electronic counterparts. We have tried to tell the fascinating story of scienti?c research with a minimum of mathematics to maximize the usefulness of the book to performers and instrument builders as well as to students and researchers in musical acoustics. Sometimes, however, it is dif?cult to "translate" ideas from the exact mathematical language of science into words alone, so we include some basic mathematical equations to express these ideas. It is impossible to discuss all families of string instruments. Some instruments have been researched much more than others. Hopefully, the discussions in this book will help to encourage further scienti?c research by both musicians and scientists alike. 1.1 A Brief History of the Science of String Instruments Quite a number of good histories of acoustics have been written (Lindsay 1966, 1973; Hunt 1992; Beyer 1999), and these histories include musical acoustics.

An ideal text for advanced undergraduates, the book provides the foundations needed to understand the acoustics of rooms and musical instruments as well as the basics for scientists and engineers interested in noise and vibration. The new edition contains four new chapters devoted primarily to applications of acoustical principles in everyday life: Microphones and Other Transducers, Sound in Concert Halls and Studios, Sound and Noise Outdoors; and Underwater Sound.

"What singles this book out is the sheer diversity of instruments covered this is a very welcome book. It is fair to say that the science of percussion instruments would not have advanced anywhere near so far without the tireless enthusiasm and passion of Rossing and his students."Nature, 2001"It forms a very nice survey work on an entire class of musical instruments I recommend it to anyone interested in acoustics and the physics of musical instruments."American Journal of Physics, Sept 2001

Some years ago we set out to write a detailed book about the basic physics of musical instruments. There have been many admirable books published about the history of the development of musical instruments, about their construction as a master craft, and about their employment in musical perfor mance; several excellent books have treated the acoustics of musical instru ments in a semiquantitative way; but none to our knowledge had then at tempted to assemble the hard acoustic information available in the research literature and to make it available to a wider readership. Our book The Physics of Musical Instruments, published by Springer-Verlag in 1991 and subsequently reprinted several times with only minor corrections, was the outcome of our labor. Because it was our aim to make our discussion of musical instruments as complete and rigorous as possible, our book began with a careful introduction to vibrating and radiating systems important in that field. We treated simple linear oscillators, both in isolation and coupled together, and extended that to a discussion of some aspects of driven and autonomous nonlinear oscilla tors. Because musical instruments are necessarily extended structures, we then went on to discuss the vibrations of strings, bars, membranes, plates, and shells, paying particular attention to the mode structures and characteristic frequencies, for it is these that are musically important."

Intended for students in the visual arts and for others with an interest in art, but with no prior knowledge of physics, this book presents the science behind what and how we see. The approach emphasises phenomena rather than mathematical theories and the joy of discovery rather than the drudgery of derivations. The text includes numerous problems, and suggestions for simple experiments, and also considers such questions as why the sky is blue, how mirrors and prisms affect the colour of light, how compact disks work, and what visual illusions can tell us about the nature of perception. It goes on to discuss such topics as the optics of the eye and camera, the different sources of light, photography and holography, colour in printing and painting, as well as computer imaging and processing.

While the history of musical instruments is nearly as old as civilisation itself, the science of acoustics is quite recent. By understanding the physical basis of how instruments are used to make music, one hopes ultimately to be able to give physical criteria to distinguish a fine instrument from a mediocre one. At that point science may be able to come to the aid of art in improving the design and performance of musical instruments. As yet, many of the subtleties in musical sounds of which instrument makers and musicians are aware remain beyond the reach of modern acoustic measurements. This book describes the results of such acoustical investigations - fascinating intellectual and practical exercises. Addressed to readers with a reasonable grasp of physics who are not put off by a little mathematics, this book discusses most of the traditional instruments currently in use in Western music. A guide for all who have an interest in music and how it is produced, as well as serving as a comprehensive reference for those undertaking research in the field.