THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA VOLUME 30, NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY, 1958

Letters to the Editor

Measurement of Sonic Velocity in Physical Basis of Piano Touch

Wax Cylinders* Ju•-•us G. B.•RON
WALLACE G. CLAY'• AND WILLIAM S. PARTRIDGE 317 Fairview Avenue, Iowa City, Iowa
High Velocity Laboratory, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (Received October 5, 1957)
(Received November 22, 1957)
HE question
whether
thequalityofa single
pianotonecanbe
influencedby touchwithoutchangingthe loudness
or with-
A SIMPLE method
cylindershas beenfordetermining
usedrecently atthe sonic
this velocity
laboratory. inwax
Figure 1• out use of any of the pedals has been often discussed.Most
illustrates,in blockdiagramform, the apparatususedto determine musicianshave assumedsucha possibility.A numberof physi-
the sonicvelocityin wax cylindersabout 50 cm in length and 2 cm cists•-5 have deniedit. They argue that the hammer is never in
contact with the key at the instant when the hammer strikes the
strings;therefore,both intensityand quality of the tone depend
Audio
on a single variable, the velocity of the hammer at the instant
Aud,o
$,gnal of contact.To provethis, Hart, Fuller, and Lusbyørecordedsound
Generator
Amphher
J f [Tronsducer
"Wox
Cyl;nder curvesof pianotonesproducedby the samevelocityof the hammer
but by differenttouches.The curveswereexactlyalike.
r .... The followingis an attempt to showthat, in spiteof the experi-
ment just cited, musiciansmight be right in their contentionthat
( , piano tone can be influencedby touch.
The velocityof the hammerdoesdeterminethe toneoriginating
from the strings.In addition, however,the piano tone contains
elements caused by interactions between parts of the piano
mechanismand by the impactof the fingerof the player uponthe
key and, indirectly, upon the key bed. All these additional ele-
FIG. 1. Block diagram of the velocity measuring equipment.
mentsare noises.They are presentonly at the beginningof the
in diameter.The frequencyof the signaltransmittedto the trans- pianotoneand, to a muchlesserextent,at the endof it. They were
ducerwas varied until a maximumsignalamplitudewas picked not recordedby Hart, Fuller, and Lusby.Their curvesare strictly
up by the crystalat the end of the cylindershownin the diagram. periodic, showingno decreaseof the amplitude of subsequent
Harmonicsof the fundamentalfrequencycouldbe identifiedas cycles.Therefore, these curves representlate, that is, noiseless
the frequencyof the signalgeneratorvaried. The phonograph partsof the pianotone.On the otherhand,if the averagespectrum
pickup was usedto determinethe null point or antinodeon the of the wholepiano toneis recorded,as it was doneby Meyer and
cylinder.The sonicvelocity was then obtainedby measuringL, Buchmann7then, in additionto the linesof partials,an impressive
the distancefrom the phonepickupto the crystalat the end of continuousspectrum becomesevident.
the cylinder,and usingthis distancein the equation The possiblemusicalimportanceof noiseelementsof the piano
C=XF=4LF, tone was first describedby Ortmann,8 then by B•ron and Hell6. 9
Lately, the generalmusicalsignificance of noisewas emphasized
whereF is the frequencyof the audiosignalgenerator. by Bartholomew?
The foregoingmethodwasusedto determinesonicvelocityas Is the quality of the piano toneinfluencedby its noiseelements?
a functionof temperaturein wax. The cylinderwasfirst cooled Evidently, this questioncannot be answeredif one definestone
to a temperatureof 0øCand thenallowedto warmby beingplaced quality as the line spectrumof the tone (as it is generallydone)
in room-temperaturesurroundings.Velocity measurementswere becausethis definitiondisregardsthe noiseelementsab eve.This
madeas the cylinderwarmedup. Figure 2 showssonicvelocity classicaldefinition is unsatisfactoryfor still another reason: it
presumesa constantintensity of the tone, a steadystate. Actually,
many musical tones show more or less characteristicdamping.
Also the dampingof the partials of the sametone may be quite
different.TM A similar view was expressedrecently by Young.•
Speakingof the role of transients and inharmonicity of piano
0.8
tone, he stated that a steady-statespectrumwas inadequatefor
characterization of this tone.
Indeed, if the spectrum of the string tone of a piano were
0.6 sustainedconstant for any length of time, the resulting steady-
state tone couldnot be recognizedas that of a piano. Furthermore,
I I I I I ,
as Meyer and Buchmann? pointed out, a single reversal of a
0.4
0 5 I0 15 20 25 30 piano tone (e.g., playing it backwardon a phonographrecord)
makes it sound like a tone of an accordion. This is so because there
Temperature, øC
FIG. 2. Sonic velocity of a wax cylinder as a function of temperature.
is a sharp, more or lessnoisy peak at the beginningand not at
the end of a piano tone. From this, one may be led to the following
as a function of temperature.Sincethe wax cylinderwas not in a conclusion:what characterizesthe tone quality of an instrument
temperaturebath, it wasnot uniform with respectto temperature. is not alwaysa steady-statespectrum;eventhe "dampedperiodic"
This nonuniformitywas probably not serioussincethe low value sound curve of a musical tone, containing transients, is not
of heat conductivity in wax would causea very large temperature necessarilyenough to characterize an instrument. In the case of
gradientcloseto the surface,while the majority of the cylinder the piano (and even more so in the casesof "noisy" instruments
had a small temperaturegradient, especiallyas the cylinder suchas the drum, cymbal, etc.) the noiseelementsmust be added
approachedroom temperature. in their proper sequence.
Two facts may be mentionedconcerningthe role of the noise
* This research was supported by the U.S. Air Force through the Office
of Scientific Research of the Air Research and Development Command elementsof the piano tone. Firstly, thesenoisesare clearly audible
under Contract No. AF 18(600)1217.
J' Now with the Lincoln Laboratory, Cambridge, Massachusetts. even in a large concert hall if they are producedseparatelyby
• The material used here was a paraffin-petrolatum mixture marketed "t)laying" the piano with action pulled out so that the hammers
by the Sure Seal Company, Salt Lake City, under the name of Sure Seal
Home Canning Wax. Density =0.9432 g/cm• at,23C ø. c•'•nnot::•strikeSthe.•strings.
Secondly,
mostof thenoises
canbe
151
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 152 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

avoided without altering the intensity of the string tone. One caseof acousticredundancy,
interestingbut not surprising.
way to do this (there are others) is to pressdown the key rather Another might ask the question,"Is there a causeand effect
than to strike it. Pianists call these two kinds of touch non- relationship
between
voweldurationandthevoicing
of a following
percussiveand percussive. consonant?"Belasco'ssuggestionof "force of articulation"
Let us return to the broaderconceptof tone quality advocated impliesa kindof physiological
basisfor thisvariability.
above. It seems to be needed for characterization of tones of It was the purpose of the present writers to examine the
different instruments.løIt is hardly logicalto reject it when one is relationship between vowel duration and consonantin another
confronted with the finer discriminationbetween tone qualities languagesystem,with an eye toward learningwhether there
of the same instrument. appearsto be any physioacoustic
constantgoverningthe dura-
Oncethis conceptis accepted,the possibilitythat noiseelements tion of stressed
vowels,or whetherthis apparentrelationship
is
may influencethe piano tone in a perceivablemanner becomes primarily a matter of linguisticstructure.
obvious.Important parts of thesenoiseelementscan be controlled Spanishwaschosenfor the followingreasons- Like English,
by touch. Therefore, there is no reason to deny the physical it used"voicing"to distinguish severalconsonant phonemes,
possibilityof the role of touch in piano playing. Many people Ipl - bI, [t - Id, and Ik - Ig ßTheseare the onlycontrasts
(among them the present writer) firmly believe that they are in termsof voicingand further,in intervocalicposition,the con-
able to perceivethe effectsof differencesin touch. They have trastisbetween voiceless
stopandvoicedfricative.UnlikeEnglish,
been told many times that their contentionis basedon imagina- ['s• and [-z• are allophones
of sl and neveroccurin contrastire
tion. This is not necessarilyso. Piano touch may have sound position,nor is therea voicedcounterpart of It5 or If ßOn a
physical foundation. This possibilityshouldnot be disregarded quantitativebasis,it can be saidthat Spanishmakeslessuseof
becauseit may pave the way to rational teachingof the art of voicingas a distinctivefeaturethan doesEnglish,sinceEnglish
piano touch. usessevenpairs distinguished by voicing, Isl- z, Itl- Id,
• A. Wood, The Physics of Music (Dover Publications, New York, 1943), [kl- Igl, IPl- Ibl, If -I,I, ItSl- Idl, and 101-I1, ascom-
p. 96. paredto the threepairsusedin Spanish.In an effort to assurea
• J. H. Jeans, Science and Music (Cambridge University Press, London,
1937), p. 98. firmer basisof comparabilityin terms of instrumentationand
a C. A. Culver, Musical Acoustics (Blakiston Company, New York, 1947), measurement methods,as well as a partial replicationof Denes'
pp. 112-113.
4 W. F. G. Swann, J. Franklin Inst. 239, 163-184 (1945). findings,Englishwasalsoincludedin the studyß
• E. Richardson, Sound, a Physical Textbook (Edward Arnold and Twowordlistswereprepared, onein Spanish andonein English.
Company, London, 1949) p. 105.
0 Hart, Fuller, and Lusby, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 6, 80-94 (1934). The Englishmaterialsconsisted of 38 monosyllabic wordscon-
7 E. Meyer and G. Buchmann, Sitz. ber. preuss. Akad. Wiss., Physik. tainingthe vowel i I, followedby all possible
consonantsß These
math. K1. 32, 735 (1931). words were all in contrast on the basis of some feature of the final
80. Octmann, The Physical Basis of Piano Touch and Tone (E. Dutton
and Company, Inc., New York, 1925). consonant, yieldingsuchitemsas"neat,need,knees,niece,kneel,
9 j. B/•ron and J. Hol16, Z. Sinnesphysiologie 66, 23-32 (1935).
•0W, Bartholomew, Acoustics (Prentice-Hall Inc., New York, 1942), seat,seed,seep,seen,seem,seal,sear,siege,seek,etc.... "These
pp. 160-161. wordswerearrangedin the list sothat no contrastingpairswere
n L. D. Mahajan,Indian J. Phys. 4, 515-531 (1929).
• R. W. Young, Acustica 4, 259-262 (1954). contiguousß The list for Spanishcontained90 bisyllabicparoxy-
tonicwordsemployingfive vowelphonemes in the tonicposition.
The consonants were again representative of all possiblecon-
sonantsthat wouldyieldactualwordsin the language. Contrasts
suchaspato,pavo(palCo), palo,paso,pago,prado,pito,pino,piso,
Note on Vowel Duration Seen pido,pico,etc. The sameprincipleof orderingwasfollowedß
Cross-Linguistically The Englishlist wasread by two native speakers of American
SAMUEL A. ZIMMERMAN AND STANLEY M. SAPON English,representing differentdialectareasß
The Spanishlist was
The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio readby twonativespeakers of Spanish representingtwodifferent,
(Received November 21, 1957) but similardialectareasin Latin America.Thesereadingswere
The influence of a following consonant on the duration of a tonic vowel
recordedon magnetictape and then submittedto analysison a
in English raises serious linguistic implications. The present paper at-
tempted to study the problem cross-linguistically using English and Spanish. TABLE I. Mean durations of stressed vowels in msec.
Readings of word lists in the two languages based on pairs contrasting in
terms of voicing revealed that the two languages are qualitatively similar
but quantitatively different from the point of view of the duration of a
vowel preceding a sonant. The over-all vowel range of Spanish is consider- Before Spanish Before English
ably less than that of English, and difference in duration related to sonants
is also much smaller. p 93.2 p 126.2
/• 130.0 b 200.0
t 104.6 t 140.1
TTENTION
has
been
focused
recently
ontheproblem
of
vowel duration as it relatesto the perceptionof voicing of • 136.0 d 263.3
followingconsonants, and as to the precisenature of the acoustic k 108.7 k 102.9
cuesto linguisticallysignificantcontrasts) Explanationsfor this 'r 137.3 g 190.3
s 97.9 s 139.6
variationin vowellengthhave alsobeensoughtfrom the point of ßßß z 261.4
view of articulatory determination,consideringsuch effectsas
manner and place of articulation/' and through the notion of tS 130.1 tS 134.6
•'force of articulation. "a ß" d• 237.8
m 112.1 m 203.9
In particular, it was the paper of Denes that stimulated the
n 115.3 n 194.8
present study, sincethe implicationsfor linguistic structure are • 135.0 ßßß
important. In Englishphonology,classicallyviewed,voicingis a x 107.7 ßßß
distinctiveelement,and we might assumethat vocalicvariations f 109.0 f 171.6
are noncritical side effects. Since both Denes and Lisker have r 131.5 ßß ß
demonstratedthat manipulationof durationcan accountfor the F 122.0 ßßß
perceptionof voicingin the presenceof conflictingspectralinfor- X 132.5 ß ß

mation, a variety of interpretationsis possible.One would begin • 123.3 • 214.5

with the observationthat, both in termsof vowelsand consonants, All surds 109.2 145.0
duration constitutesan important factor in the perceptionof All sonants 127.4 228.3
"voicing"in English,and onecouldsaythat two acousticcuesare Difference 18.2 83.2
operatingin supportof one linguisticfeature. This would be a

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