Trends in Acceptable Tone-Quality as Evidenced in Modern Musical Instruments
Abe Pepinsky · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1941
Taste in tone-quality, like style in dress and foods, is subject to fad and fancy. Past epochs evidence the influence of unique instrumental tone-color on vocal timbre. Instruments, in turn, were designed to imitate desirable vocal quality and that of other musical instruments. The last decade has revealed a number of electronic machines simulating other instruments, and generally using the pipe-organ as a prototype. Most organists resent such innovations because the “stops” representing various instrumental effects do not sound like those of their pipe-organ. Traditional organ-stops, however, offer themselves only a first approximation of the instruments they represent. Musicians and laymen have in general been greatly intrigued by the possibilities of these new music-makers. Psycho-physical data also indicate that these machines produce a nice approximation of steady-state tones. The trained ear, however, demands at least two refinements (thus far elusive) for a satisfactory reproduction of the characteristic effects of conventional instruments: (1) Differentiation of various instrumental registers, and (2) varied attack, typifying bowed, plucked or embouchure-controlled instruments. The infinite array of tonal effects produced by such modern musical instruments has further stimulated the composer's creative urge, although a predilection for well-defined regions of overtone structure is indicated.