Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics: Second, Revised Edition (Dover Books on Music)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I studied with Dr. Benade, taking his course in musical acoustics, at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, some years ago. Dr. Benade was a brilliant and dedicated scientist in the area of musical acoustics, but he was highly opinionated and sometimes inflexible. He refused to accept, for example, that flutes could produce "whisper tones", a standard 20th Century player's/composer's technique which I have used many times in my compositions (and can perform myself on the flute).

Nonetheless, this book is a very important book to read and own if you are interested in the fundamentals of the acoustics of musical instruments (not performing spaces as other reviewers have pointed out). This book was the text which Benade used to teach his courses. Add this to your collection of musical acoustics books...and be sure to include "Horns Strings and Harmony", Benade's earlier book, as well as the book by John Pierce and of course the book by Helmholtz.

While Benade's first book, "Horns Strings and Harmony", has some errors which he himself later acknowledged, "Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics" is one of the seminal books in the field. That doesn't mean that it is perfect in every respect, but it introduces a broad range of concepts in musical acoustics without the use of advanced mathematics, in a writing style that will appeal to the musician in addition to the scientist. The fine details of his theories regarding psychoacoustics, particularly pitch perception, have been challenged. But his general concepts are well accepted, and he presents them in a way that makes the reader think. His descriptions of experimental techniques (which generally aren't very complicated) have inspired me and others to repeat his experiments. Sometimes, results don't agree - that's when you have to think. Psychoacoustics relies on neurology and psychology, two sciences that, despite much brilliant work over the last 100 years, are still in their infancy. So, you can't judge his theories on psychoacoustics in the same light as his description of wave propagation, room modes, and perturbation functions in clarinets.

As a musician and an engineer, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in how music and physics intersect. This is not the book to answer all your questions - it is the book to get you started on asking the right questions.

In my opinion, a wonderful work that introduces the principles of waves and vibrations, musical perception and instrument physics without too much mathematics. Specific chapters on violin, piano, clavicord and harpsichord, winds (brass and wood). Several references to guitar. The book is a little old, which shows in the references, but is an excellent text for self study. Most chapters have at the end a list of interesting experiments that one can perform. Overall a must first book if you are interested in the field.

I think this book has taught me more about the instrument I make (uilleann bagpipes) and it does not even mention it. When it says fundamentals in its title it means it. you will get to the bottom of why instruments work in thye way they do and so improve yuor own acoustical design.

This book is an excellent introduction to the topic. Benade explains the subject assuming that the reader has no background in science (good for musicians) and no background in music (good for scientists). He writes the book as if he's translating a mathematical proof into plain English. Benade starts from scratch (even the notion of pitch is considered alien) and builds wonderfully intuitive understandings. Yes, this is an old book, so if you are NOT new to this field (and not afraid of math) then you'd be more interested in one of the Rossing books. But on the plus side, because the book was written before Benade had access to modern laboratory techniques, the "experiments" described in the book are all simple to understand and can be done at home. Unlike the Rossing books (which I also highly recommend), Benade's book does not read like a textbook or a reference source. It is very easy-to-read, so you can actually benefit from just sitting down and reading it (though Benade does provide problems at the end of the chapter for the dedicated reader).

In response to one of the unfavorable reviews posted, I do not find any fault with Benade when he states (p. 66) that "lopping off the higher frequency ... harmonics does not alter the perceived pitch of the sound." In fact, this statement comes right after an in-depth explanation of how the higher frequency partials DETERMINE the pitch for INHARMONIC sounds (e.g. chimes and bells). Perhaps the reviewer was confused by Benade's terminology. As explained on p. 63, Benade uses the word "partial" generically to describe higher frequency components. Benade reserves the term "harmonics" for partials that have whole-number relationships.

I wouldn't use this work as a college textbook, but I would certainly add it to the students' list of additional recommended references.

This book, like practically all Dover science books, is a reprinted old book that does not incorporate any of the recent research in acoustics. For example, much research on acoustics as related to the design of a theatre is not in here. However, if you have a good grasp of fundamental physics (say, you took some good college physics classes but it has been quite a few years back), and now you just want to see how the physics you learned apply to the making of musical instruments, this book provides a nice overview.

This book starts out promising, but it takes a turn for the worse very quickly. The author tries to explain all the details of the acoustics in lay terms without using any equations that a high school student wouldn't know. The result: a book with too much repetitiveness, very little information density, and overall very boring. One of the few books that I would consider sending back. I'll be looking for another book.

This is a great book for musicians (or soundpersons) who are not afraid of some high school level physics. Benade, a musician himself, gives details about individual instruments, their playing quirks, and imperfections in intonation. If you like to tinker with instruments, this book is for you. There is an amazing amount of detail. Your respect for instrument designers will grow as you learn about the compromises they must deal with.

Long ago this was a standard text on musical acoustics. I still keep it on my shelf of acoustics books, but would caution anyone starting out that the book is very outdated in style, choice of topics, and focus. That said, I find it often handy to have more than one textbook style to study material from. Smooths out the choices of topics and the idiosyncrasies of the authors.

So, if you're looking to supplement an acoustics text, or looking at the history of acoustics, go for this book. For a starting textbook you'd be better served elsewhere. Rossing for example.

The best book on this topic that I have seen. Benade is a master of writing clearly and giving great examples that help the reader to visualize or imagine why sound is acting the way it does. I am using it in my quest to design a new kind of guitar, and it is extremely helpful. I also have Horns String and Harmony by Benade. He is a nuclear physicist with a penchant for audio, and I am glad he beat his weapons into flutes.