An Enactive Approach to the Design of New Tangible Musical Instruments

In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework for the design of tangible interfaces for musical expression. The main insight for the proposed approach is the importance and utility of familiar sensorimotor experiences for the creation of engaging and playable new musical instruments. In particular, we suggest exploiting the commonalities between different natural interactions by varying the auditory response or tactile details of the instrument within certain limits. Using this principle, devices for classes of sounds such as coarse grain collision interactions or friction interactions can be designed. The designs we propose retain the familiar tactile aspect of the interaction so that the performer can take advantage of tacit knowledge gained through experiences with such phenomena in the real world.

A Framework for the Evaluation of Digital Musical Instruments

At the outset of a discussion of evaluating digital musical instruments, that is to say instruments whose sound generators are digital and separable though not necessarily separate from their control interfaces (Malloch, 2006), it is reasonable to ask what the term evaluation in this context really means. After all, there may be many perspectives from which to view the effectiveness or otherwise of the instruments we build. For most performers, performance on an instrument becomes a means of evaluating how well it functions in the context of live music making, and their measure of success is the response of the audience to their performance. Audiences evaluate performances on the basis of how engaged they feel they have been by what they have seen and heard. When questioned, they are likely to describe good performances as “exciting,” “skillful,” “musical.” Bad performances are “boring,” and those which are marred by technical malfunction are often dismissed out of hand. If performance is considered to be a valid means of evaluating a musical instrument, then it follows that, for the field of DMI design, a much broader definition of the term “evaluation” than that typically used in human-computer interaction (HCI) is required to reflect the fact that there are a number of stakeholders involved in the design and evaluation of DMIs. In addition to players and audiences, there are also composers, instrument builders, component manufacturers, and perhaps even customers, each of whom will have a different concept of what is meant by “evaluation.”

Sound Synthesis for Contact-Driven Musical Instruments via Discretisation of Hamilton's Equations

Physical modelling of musical instruments involves studying nonlinear interactions between parts of the instrument. These can pose several difficulties concerning the accuracy and stability of numerical algorithms. In particular, when the underlying forces are non-analytic functions of the phase-space variables, a stability proof can only be obtained in limited cases. An approach has been recently presented by the authors, leading to unconditionally stable simulations for lumped collision models. In that study, discretisation of Hamilton’s equations instead of the usual Newton’s equation of motion yields a numerical scheme that can be proven to be energy conserving. In this paper, the above approach is extended to collisions of distributed objects. Namely, the interaction of an ideal string with a flat barrier is considered. The problem is formulated within the Hamiltonian framework and subsequently discretised. The resulting nonlinearmatrix equation can be shown to possess a unique solution, that enables the update of the algorithm. Energy conservation and thus numerical stability follows in a way similar to the lumped collision model. The existence of an analytic description of this interaction allows the validation of the model’s accuracy. The proposed methodology can be used in sound synthesis applications involving musical instruments where collisions occur either in a confined (e.g. hammer-string interaction, mallet impact) or in a distributed region (e.g. string-bridge or reed-mouthpiece interaction).

Musical instruments. 'Instrumentos musicales'.

Se presenta una secuencia didáctica con la que se pretende dar a conocer algunos instrumentos musicales, sus sonidos y el vocabulario básico asociado a ellos, a través de una canción alegre y diferentes juegos interactivos.

Musical instruments around the world.

Presenta una gran variedad de instrumentos musicales de todo el mundo y proporciona, paso a paso, instrucciones para hacerlos. Tiene ejemplos de diferentes tipos de instrumento, así como su lugar de origen. Estos representan sólo una fracción de la variedad que hay en todo el mundo. Para saber más, hay direcciones, una lista de libros útiles y glosario.

Musical instruments and the paean in Archilochus

El presente artículo analiza la significación de la relativamente frecuente ocurrencia de la terminología musical en los fragmentos de Arquíloco, tal como auloí y ejecutantes de auloí (fr.58.12,269), liras (fr.54.11, 93a lira + aulos), la trompeta (fr. 214) y el ejecutante de trompa (fr. 269), y la referencia al peán (fr.121) en sus contextos

Musical instruments and the paean in Archilochus

El presente artículo analiza la significación de la relativamente frecuente ocurrencia de la terminología musical en los fragmentos de Arquíloco, tal como auloí y ejecutantes de auloí (fr.58.12,269), liras (fr.54.11, 93a lira + aulos), la trompeta (fr. 214) y el ejecutante de trompa (fr. 269), y la referencia al peán (fr.121) en sus contextos

Musical instruments and the paean in Archilochus

El presente artículo analiza la significación de la relativamente frecuente ocurrencia de la terminología musical en los fragmentos de Arquíloco, tal como auloí y ejecutantes de auloí (fr.58.12,269), liras (fr.54.11, 93a lira + aulos), la trompeta (fr. 214) y el ejecutante de trompa (fr. 269), y la referencia al peán (fr.121) en sus contextos

Picture book of musical instruments /

Includes index.

The music of nature; or, An attempt to prove that what is passionate and pleasing in the art of singing, speaking, and performing upon musical instruments, is derived from the sounds of the animated world. With curious and interesting illustrations.

Mode of access: Internet.