A research program on the ‘‘tenora,’’ a Catalan folk woodwind.
Ana Barjau · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1992
The ‘‘tenora’’ is a Catalan folk woodwind with a conical bore and a double reed. The modern ‘‘tenora’’ evolved from the medieval tenor shawm to fit the needs of more demanding composers and players. This evolution has been mainly artisanal, and as a consequence there is not a standardized design for the instrument. Although much better than old shawms, all tenoras show a non-negligible degree of imperfection in the tuning, stability, and spontaneity of many notes. In order to improve this instrument without impairing its identity, a small group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Barcelona started a research program that includes three main parts: experimental measurements (acoustical impedance, impulse response, starting transients, and tuning) to characterize its acoustical identity, theoretical model of the instrument (bore model and reed model) and simulation of it, and redesign algorithm to improve the existing instrument. This research program and its latest results will be presented in this paper. The attention is focused on the last two points, whose development has led to interesting theoretical work applicable to other instruments.