Posted by Rick Denney on October 09, 2000 at 08:24:08:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: double pedal C posted by joseph on October 07, 2000 at 16:04:46:
It's a trick of the harmonics of the horn that produces the image in the ear of the listener that you are playing a low note, when in fact all they hear are higher harmonics resonating in the horn. Most people even have trouble hearing the pitch of a pedal C, let alone the double pedal. At 32 Hz, you can hear the individual beats.
(20 Hz to 20 KHz is the ideal range of human hearing. Most people never hear more than about 30 to 16,000 even in their prime, though they can feel lower values. The older you get, the lower the top end. I can no longer hear the 14 KHz whine of television screen flyback transformers.)
While in Australia, I heard several expert demonstrations of didgeridoos. This is a straight horn made of a young gum tree hollowed out by (yes) termites. The horns are about four or five feet long, and have a bore of about an inch or more, conically (but not cleanly) increasing to about three or four inches. The "mouthpiece" is a wax ring around the narrow end of the horn. The only note that is played on the horn using a buzz is the pedal. But proper technique on this instrument requires the player to also vocalize notes (as in multiphonics), with a pitch close to the pedal or one of its harmonics, to induce very high harmonics at the upper end of hearing range. The pitch of the vocalized note is varied slightly, producing larger effects in the hearable harmonics. I resisted the temptation to buy one (even though we bought damn near one of everything else made in Australia and New Zealand), because the skill required seemed far beyond what I was willing to develop. Especially when the players started with the circular breathing (another standard technique).
Harmonics are fun.
Rick "And we though multiphonics was a new thing" Denney