Why We Love Music

Are we nearing the end of the "horse-and-buggy" stage of musical instruments? Can the possibilities for revolutionary procedures now looming up in the construction of musical instruments be as strategic for music as were the principles embodied in the coming of the automobile and the airplane for transportation? Those of us who remember that faithful animal and servant of man, the horse, and the conveyances he served, look back with fond appreciation upon what amounted to a sort of fellowship with a fine-performing animal and the luxury of being conveyed by him in saddle or on wheel. So future generations may look back upon the past in fond memories of the companionship they have enjoyed with their favorite instruments, which may be destined to a niche in the historical museum. But in spite of competition, the horse has survived, and so probably will the fiddle and some of its companion instruments.

It is now safe to predict that the future instrument maker will be able to produce any sound now known in nature or in art that may possibly have musical significance. We already have at hand the means by which any such sound can be adequately defined, described, specified, measured, analyzed, and reconstructed. And there is reason to think that with the conquest of new and marvelous resources for musical media, musical composition will move with strides in step with instrument building.

The musical devotee is, therefore, facing new issues, thrilling and possibly heart-rending. Can a musician adapt himself to these changes? Will he tolerate modifications of old instruments, radically new creations of instruments, revolutionary new types of ensembles, and radically new types of musical creation? Can musicians adapt themselves to these new musical media and musical forms as rapidly and completely as we have adapted ourselves to the transition from horse and buggy to automobile and airplane within the span of less than half a century? The answer is probably "no", for good reasons. Yet, sooner or later, the transition will come in the form of new musical media, new musical composition, and new types of musical appreciation and attachment.

POSSIBLE LINES OF DEVELOPMENT

We can now foresee that musical instruments will be submitted to critical analysis, with improvements even on the very best; that substitute forms in great variety may be developed for any now available musical instrument; that new instruments will be designed for the production of new tone qualities and other musical effects; that new ensembles may be built for any number or kind of instrument, so that it is within the bounds of possibility that the entire performance of the symphony orchestra, the symphonic band, and the grand opera may be performed through a single instrument operated by less than half a dozen persons; that the transmission of music by remote control of the instrument has extraordinary possibilities; that a vastly superior control of tone for precision and modulation can be realized; that the cost of musical instruments may be greatly reduced; that the number of players needed in ensemble performance may be reduced, since, on the analogy of the pipe-organ player, one individual may perform for an entire orchestra; that current music which has been hampered by limitations of the instrument may be perfected and new types of music may be introduced; that the musical instrument may become a medium for the production as well as the reproduction of song and speech; that the musical tone may be associated with other esthetic appeals, such as visual presentation of color, relief, and dramatic action—these are all within the realm of possible predictability.

The range of possibilities may be illustrated in the case of a generator for a single tone. A few years ago a graduate student came to me and said that he wanted to take as the subject for his doctoral dissertation the building of an electrical organ. I told him that if he would build a generator for a single key I would assure him a stipend for three years and all the needed facilities of the Iowa acoustical laboratories. He accepted and made good to an extraordinary degree. The tone generator he built is composed of the first sixteen partials, i. e., a fundamental and fifteen overtones in harmonic series, each virtually a single pure tone. The number of partials, the form of distribution of partials, the amount of energy contributed by each partial, the phase relationships of the partials, and the fundamental pitch are under control and may be set up in any combination. With this number of variables, mathematicians will say that any desired tone quality of harmonic structure up to more than a million kinds of tone can be produced. The ear cannot hear all these differences, but the instrument provides keys for as many steps in the entire series as may be musically significant, and the tone at each of these steps can be specified for production, described, and repeated indefinitely. Thus, it is possible to make the instrument speak any vowel in so far as it involves harmonic structure, and the harmonic composition of any musical instrument may be imitated. Provision for inharmonic elements and noise accessories which are necessary both for vowels and instruments can, of course, be installed with this generator. Given one tone with such a range of possibilities, it is but a series of logical and fairly simple steps to provide a complete musical instrument by simply multiplying notes of this kind. This is the type of development we see now in a variety of electronic instruments.

The improvement of existing instruments. Musical instruments now in use can be improved. We now have the means for the technical analysis of the character of the tone produced by any instrument as a whole or by any particular feature in its construction, so that faults and limitations can be definitely allocated. Recent investigations have revealed faults in the best of violins. Some of these faults or limitations may be corrected by change in construction. For practical purposes, a 1939 violin of American make may approximate the good qualities of the Stradivarius, and there is no doubt that improvements could be made upon the famous old instrument. The same is true in principle of all individual musical instruments now in use. One of the obstacles, however, will be the unwillingness of many musicians to face the innovation of change in the looks of their beautiful instruments so tenderly loved and guarded.

The piano, as we now have it, has limitations and defects, some of which can be reduced or eliminated by the adoption of new principles of action and activation, and by construction according to acoustical specifications, based upon the measurement of the effect of each feature upon qualitative and dynamic values of tones. For example, the characteristic tone of the piano as distinguished from most other instruments comes to a dynamic peak immediately after the hammer stroke and falls off rapidly. We have learned to make allowance for this so that in hearing music we have a tendency to hear a quarter note as of a given even loudness although the sound fades off sharply during that period. It is well known that with the drop in the loudness of the tone there is a corresponding change in the quality of the tone, which change again we have, of necessity, practically learned to ignore. If it should prove desirable, it is now quite easy to provide a mechanism which will sustain the piano tone at even loudness, and therefore uniform tone quality, during the time value assigned to it. The distribution of resonances of the instrument can be greatly improved by balancing. The necessary mechanical noises which accompany the production of tone in a piano may be largely eliminated if that should prove desirable. The acoustical engineer can now point out dozens of features in the piano which might be improved in future construction based upon analysis of the output in sound. In the same manner the organ, the king of instruments, if it is to maintain its pre-eminence in competition with substitutes, demands improvements in the light of new facilities. The more complicated the instrument, the more possibilities there are for improvement. During the last hundred years there has been a steady betterment in the mechanisms of practically all the leading musical instruments; but this movement will rise to great heights in view of the new tools for investigation and new materials and principles of construction.

New substitutes for existing instruments. Substitutes for all instruments now extant may be expected to come mainly through the development of electrical construction, although many forms of mechanical devices may be used independently or with the electrical. There is no question at all but that with such resources, substitutes for a stringed instrument, a wood wind, a horn, and many varieties of traps and accessories can be built so as to embody increased musical resources. The principles for the construction of such a violin, flute, trumpet, or any other single instrument are already in hand. The construction may embody such mechanical devices as strings, membranes, and pipes; but if so, these will be electrically energized. We may predict that substitutes for single instruments will increase in great variety and that very simple forms adapted to age and advancement in the playing of specific instruments can be supplied. The variety of means for stunt performances may be increased to an alarming degree.

New ensembles. Another significant line of development will undoubtedly appear in the matter of ensembles. By the utilization of electrical construction, a single series of generators may supply the harmonic structure of a tone from each and every instrument now in use. Thus, a bank of sixteen violins may be supplied from this single source and sixteen individual violin tones may be played in identical pitch, even dynamics, equal temporal movements, and uniform tone quality. Such uniformity would however be of limited musical significance. The important thing musically is the fact that in such a bank any desired form of artistic deviation or differential enrichment may be provided for. The same would apply to wood winds, horns, bells, drums and other percussion instruments in large part. Where further representation of mixed tone, inharmonics, or noises are demanded, they may be added. The substitute for a drum can increase the precision and range of the drum sound without the use of the drum, as, for example, in the present "NovachordNovachord". Thus, it is conceivable that with the exception of certain unforeseen limitations, the instrumentation of an entire orchestra or band can be built into a single unit operated from a single console.

From what we have seen in the way of marvelous demonstrations in recent years it is reasonable to suppose that entirely new types of complex instruments will be invented, bringing to music hitherto unknown resources. Furthermore, with the instrumental music as such, provision may be made in the instruments for words in speech and song, and the visual presentation of dramatic action in color, relief, and movement which may be controlled from the console. The goal of embodying in a single instrument or coupling units of instruments the means of performing chamber music, orchestra, band, and the grand opera, is without doubt no wilder prediction than was the prediction of radio or airplane a few years ago.

NEW MUSIC

The improvement of old instruments and the introduction of new ones will call for an unprecedented revision of old music and a creation of new. When music was written for the well-tempered clavichord it was limited to the resources of that instrument. The same is true of music for all instruments. The music had to be limited to the available resources of the instrument. It is reasonable to suppose that composers will respond from time to time with up-to-date adaptations and new creations, taking advantage of each of the new resources for range of pitch and loudness and new resources for variety in harmony and richness of tone. It is equally conceivable that the composer may set up new demands to which the inventor and instrument maker may respond on call. It is difficult to realize what extraordinary enrichment in musical resources may spring up under the impetus of new instrumental resources. There will be new treatments of scales and intervals, since the pitch control will be far more flexible than it has been. Perhaps one of the largest innovations will be in the freer use of intonation not built on any particular scale but soaring with the greatest freedom on an instrument as we now hear it, for example, in the singing of Negro spirituals. Performance scores show that these natural singers defy scales, but produce beautiful effects through their free and soaring pitch inflection. Stringed instruments have been hampered by accompaniment and by tradition and theory. We can anticipate significant developments outside of our diatonic scale which has come to be a sort of strait-jacket, at least theoretically. It has been shown, for example, that a quarter-tone instrument is not of much use unless music is written not only for these intervals but in modes, themes, and atmosphere adapted to such purpose. The pitch range of the composition will be extended; so also will the dynamic range. Countless new features can be introduced for enrichment of tone and variety of harmony. Nomenclature will develop so that the composer may not only think in definable terms but may be able to inject new elements of terminology into the score. For various types of ensembles the music will, of course, have to be written or adapted specifically. Stunt music will here find unlimited opportunities for novelty and escape from conventional tone. This may give us relief from the limitations of jazz and swing, which have been so boring in recent years. There will undoubtedly be great bewilderment as to the limits of tolerance for new media and new forms for musical creations. History has revealed clearly that the adaptation of taste and tolerance requires time, and conservatism is often a beneficent safeguard.

The most fundamental recent achievement in the building of new instruments is that of producing pure tones as well as rich tones in perfect harmonic structure without accessories. But for various reasons music has always utilized more or less inharmonic structures and has imitated, or at least tolerated, noises in the forms of hisses, twangs, and all kinds of inharmonic and noisy distortion. Recourse to discord will always be demanded in music; but it is a question as to what extent aperiodic sounds or noises are necessary. We have learned to accept the hisses, scratches, rattles, thuds, and bangs of countless varieties in musical tone. Some such accretions are present in the tone production of every instrument now in use. They have arisen as impediments in construction, but have come to be accepted as characteristics of the instrument and therefore have added greatly to the individuality of each instrument. Will the future musical public insist on having these or will there be a feeling of relief when we can get rid of them? The answer is probably in the middle ground because music, at least as we know it now, calls for a great variety of noises in the interest of realism. Possibly in the future, noise may be given a chastened and more honorable place in the family of tone qualities.

The significant thing to note here is that in new types of instruments any kind of crude sound or noise can be introduced at will. This will answer the purpose of program music in that perfectly realistic reproductions can be made of the sound of steps in marching, the slam of a door, the squeal of a pig, the bleat of a lamb, the crow of a rooster, the roar of an airplane, the sigh of the wind. A comparatively small outfit of sources for accessory noises can serve a great variety of purposes in the hands of the artist. New responsibilities for the composer in these respects may be foreseen.

PLAYING

As in the automobile, for example, the tendency is to make everything automatic and relieve the human control of effort, we are moving fast in the direction of creating automatic devices in musical instruments. It is safe to predict that a variety of instruments for children will be more easily played than at present, and that even for the virtuoso a number of the factors which have been difficult to control will be simplified and mechanized. This will be particularly true in ensemble instruments where a single player may control a large number of instruments or where three or four players, of whom one is the conductor, may render the equivalent of an orchestral performance. Barring the limitations of the instrument it is significant that in such performance the conductor will have vastly superior control of the situation in that he is in direct manual control of all those factors which in the present orchestra he tries to control through the medium of the individuals and masses of players with the baton as a sort of whip. In the new orchestra, he will sit at a panel with levers and buttons through which he will be able to control the interpretation he desires to make.

This conducting may be done with meticulous precision and apparently magical result through remote control, as was illustrated, even with the use of present instruments, when Stokowski sat at his panel in Washington, D. C. and controlled the performance of his orchestra in Philadelphia.

The musical medium whether in art or nature has four, and only four, elements; namely, pitch, loudness, time, and timbre. These are four characteristics which may be expressed in terms of the sound wave, as frequency of waves, intensity of waves, duration of waves, and form of waves. The recognition of this fact vastly simplifies the mastery of tone production in musical instruments. Let us consider the factors which may be classified under these four heads.

Pitch. New devices for the control of pitch make possible very superior control of the pitch in pitch precision, flexibility, linearity, range, varieties of scale, and harmony. Instruments can be tuned to a higher degree of precision, retuned more quickly, and kept in tune longer by the new means of tone production. Therefore, intervals can be made more exact, the pitch can be sustained with precision, any pitch aspect can be described, desired effects can be specified, and artistic adjustments can be made for musical effect.

Any desired type of flexibility may be introduced, such as the gliding attack and release, periodic or progressive changes in a sustained tone, as in the vibrato, or rise and fall in tone required during the sounding of a single note. The glide, the portamento, and a variety of other pitch ornaments may be produced. Adjustments from any size of intervals for artistic effect, such as a quarter tone or enlarged or diminished intervals, may be produced. In short, the pitch inflection can be controlled either within a single note or a sequence of notes, and just intonation or tempered scales of various sorts may be produced. The possibility of combining individual notes in harmony is unlimited. The pitch range of the instruments can be carried to any height above the present gamut of instruments, even into the region of supersonics, which may possibly have physical effects on the feeling of well-being or ill-being of the musical organism.

Loudness. The range of loudness can be extended both in the direction of increased loudness and perfectly controlled softness. The loudness of tones throughout the entire range can be equalized. All forms of dynamic shading and fading and differential steps of loudness can be introduced for artistic effect. The dynamic linearity, as in the organ, can be sustained and the fading effect, which distinguishes the piano from the organ, can be adjusted to any degree. All present pedals as well as new pedals may be introduced.

Time. Through the precision made possible for various forms of automatic action in the instrument, all temporal aspects of tone can be enhanced by precision, controlled tapering at the beginning and end of the tone, various forms of synchronization, and the balancing of the roles of time and stress in rhythm may be achieved.

Timbre. The most significant new feature is, of course, the extension and control of richness in timbre and sonance, which constitute tone quality. The range of timbre changes may extend from a pure tone to the inclusion of even more partials than the ear can hear, possibly thirty or forty, with an infinite variety of harmonic forms of distribution between these extremes. Great innovations through inharmonic and aperiodic sounds are coming. It is now possible to maintain a uniform timbre which gives an element of dignity and stability to the tone in a sustained note. But since deviation from the regular is of far greater importance, flexibilityflexibility of tone quality is even more desirable. This flexibility in timbre for the duration of the tone which determines tone quality, technically called sonance, may be provided for by various devices. For example, in the present "Novachord", the various forms and degrees of vibrato are at the command of the player and are based on scientific investigation leading to specification for this musical ornament. Given the mechanisms for harmonic structures and inharmonics, we need only the addition of rough noise of various kinds to make the tone realistic. The timbre available in the musical instrument will therefore run from the pure tone to the roughest noise.

In the above I have attempted to present a picture in rough outline indicating present trends and predictable futures for music through the improvement of musical instruments. The instrumentalist can point out many features not here mentioned. The musician may yearn for new resources in his musical medium for which he can now lay down specifications. The listeners must be prepared for startling innovations and thrilling new sources of pleasure in music. It will take generations to finish the theoretical picture I have here sketched in bold outline—but let us look forward to a progressive unveiling and revelation of possibilities. But take no alarm—the horse, if not the buggy, will survive.

THOUGHT REVIEW

General Principles

(1)

We are entering upon a new era for musical instruments.

(2)

Present instruments will be improved, new instruments will be innovated, new ensembles will be achieved.

(3)

Conforming to this progress, present music will be adapted and new types of composition will appear.

(4)

In this changing order musical tastes will undergo significant changes.

(5)

The composer may now specify new conceptions of desired features, and the technicians will provide them.

(6)

Instrument makers will be able to produce or reproduce any musical sound in nature or art.

Consider These Questions

(1)

If the violin strings are mounted on a perfect resonator with different shape from the present violin, will that be a violin?

(2)

If the piano can be built so as to eliminate all accessory noises, will pianists like it?

(3)

If the playing of new instruments will be made easier and better, will that tend to increase the number of students in music?

(4)

If all the good characteristics of present musical instruments can be reproduced in a much smaller number of instruments, will that be welcomed by the musical public?

(5)

If we are to have quarter-tone music, which is now possible, why will this demand new music aside from the size of the interval?

(6)

If an electronic organ could be built to do all that the best pipe organ now does, if the visible part were reduced to the appearance of a little writing desk, and if speakers were concealed in the walls throughout the building, how would the worshipper in church react to that situation?

(7)

Children now build their radios from purchased or home-made parts. It will be still easier for them to build a variety of musical instruments. Will they do it and with what effect?

(1)

At the Riverside Laboratory, Colonel Fabian built an organ with the pipes distributed throughout the three stories of a large building. The effect was as if the whole building were one grand organ. No matter how many sources there were for the same note, the tone of that note would always be heard as coming from a single source, the location of which depended upon the relative distances and intensities of the various sources. The result was "magical". Discuss the possibility and the significance of using this principle of installation in a house or in a cathedral.

(2)

It is possible to build a comparatively simple instrument which can yield pure tones throughout the musical register. Consider what role such an instrument might carry in an orchestra.