Vibrations and how they get to your ears.
Noise for airports is a blog about culture, sound, music, and technology.
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Updated (sometimes) by Nick Seaver.
Apparently a violin made from wood treated with fungus sounds “better” than a Stradivarius!
Judging the tone quality of a musical instrument in a blind test is, of course, an extremely subjective matter, since it is a question of pleasing the human senses. Empa scientist Schwarze is fully aware of this, and as he says, “There is no unambiguous scientific way of measuring tone quality.” He was therefore, understandably, rather nervous before the test.
Yeah…
No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made.
The Washington Post had Joshua Bell play a Stradivarius in the DC Metro to see if people would stop and notice. They didn’t (except for one person who had seen him recently in concert). So it seems that part of “the finest classical music in the world” relies on people having certain expectations or being in a certain place. Joshua Bell is obviously a talented classical violinist, but the kinds of “best” and “most” in this story are contingent on a number of supposedly “extramusical” concerns. (Also, I don’t think I like what the Post is implying with their “Pearls Before Breakfast” headline.)
(via washington post)
