Bell Timbre

>
>It also has some relevant interesting puzzles - seems there is a
>lot still to find out about how the pitch of a bell is heard -
>the pitch one hears isn't _any_ of the partials sometimes,
>and doesn't bear any clear relation such as difference
>tone to any of them either!
>

What I've learned about gongs and bells and other metals, through trying
to synthesize fake ones, is that there are usually a few partials,
randomly scattered throughout a bunch of inharmonic, ??? ones, that point
the ear towards a particular fundamental. I believe I remember that an
actual "bell"'s spectrum included, amongst other #$%^@$%, a 4-7-9 snippet
of a harmonic series (probbly with other inharmonics in between these.)
The ear is so desparate for harmonicity, it finds those babies!!
Anyway, here are some experiements I did:

http://music.columbia.edu/cmc/courses/g6610/fall1999/week3/metals.html

>Anyway, I did a timbre in FTS using the partials in the
>Data was:
>176.6 hz 390.2 hz 640.9 hz 949.0 hz 1302.4 hz 1690.9 hz 2110.2 hz
>2604.6 3380.0 hz
>which I converted to cents:
>1/1 1372.47 cents 2231.54 cents 2911.11 cents 3459.14 cents 3911.08 cents
>4294.59 cents 4659.01 cents 5110.16 cents
>Played on nine flutes, this gives:
>http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robertwalker/agogo/9_flutes_bell_h.mid
>Then the subharmonic series, again on nine flutes:
>http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robertwalker/agogo/9_flutes_bell_subh.mid
>The flutes all play identical volumes - to be more realistic one would
>need the actual volumes measured, which I found on another web page:
>http://www.oakcroft13.fsnet.co.uk/pandc.htm
>Not sure what this all means exactly, but it sure is interesting!
>I'm surprised that only 9 notes were enough to make a recognisable
>bell sound. Could actually do it in a performance if one had good
>performers! Now that would surprise everyone!

Not in France. A number of French composers formed the so-called
"Spectral School" in the 70's and 80's. These included Tristan Murail,
Gerard Grisey, JC Risset, Phillipe Manoury, and a host of others.
Their idea was precisely what you've suggested above---synthesizing
analyzed sounds with orchestral instruments. They do get some pretty
amazing sounds/harmonies out of the orchestra. (Incidentally,
notationally, they resort to 1/4 (or 1/8 with chamber music)-tone
approximation, which has proven fairly practical (i.e.---they've gotten a
lot of performances (at least in Europe), and with big orchestras).
Actually I'm over-simplifying, there are a lot of other aspects to their
work, including rhythms derived from this or that data from analyses of
this or that, but this re-synthesis of spectra by instruments is a basic
tenet, anyway.

I've tried out their techniques myself in my piece "Ooogaaah: Dungeony
Specimen Spaceship" ----towards the end, the "generative spectrum"
(analyzed from an instant of a Police song) is "re-synthesized" by a
choir of 12 voices (all mine(:)) , and a twinkling set of bells.

If you'd care to hear that: music.columbia.edu/~chris/tunes.html

Sorry for the shameless self-advertisment, but hey what are lists for.

g'day

***From: Christopher Bailey******************

http://music.columbia.edu/~chris

**********************************************

Christopher Bailey wrote,

<<I've tried out their techniques myself in my piece "Ooogaaah:
Dungeony Specimen Spaceship" ----towards the end, the "generative
spectrum" (analyzed from an instant of a Police song) is
"re-synthesized" by a choir of 12 voices (all mine(:)) , and a
twinkling set of bells.>>

I've said it before, but what the heck I'll say it again: This is a
really fun and exciting piece... I like Mr. Bailey's music a lot, and
I can't wait to hear him really jump on in the microtonal waters in
the future.

--Dan Stearns