Findings from The Institute of Musical Acoustics

A recent web site find had me wanting for better skills in the German language. Fortunately, the Institute for Viennese Sound Style IWK (Musical Acoustics) site does have some English translations for most of its pages.

Two specific areas that are fascinating to read present studies on the Viennese horn and in slow-motion embouchure films.

The Viennese horn study

This Vienna horn found on Flickr has a built in echo/stopping valve. Click for a larger view.

The Viennese Horn study was funded by the Austrian government and was executed over a two-year period between 1985 and 1987. While this is a study from over 20 years ago, it does offer some interesting information that backs up several theories that I have heard over the years about Vienna horns.

The frames-based layout of this web site makes it difficult to provide direct links, but with a little digging I found the study here:

• Viennese Horn Study

As a byproduct of this work, new scientific ground was broken. It became evident that many of the measurement methods used were simply not precise enough. Previously, only differences between types of instruments were tested, and not different models of the same instrument.

Therefore this work created not only new concepts but also required development of completely new measurement techniques. The following is a short overview of the Viennese F-horn’s special characteristics, which are influential not only to its sound and tone color, but also require specialized playing techniques.

More specifically, the researchers found that…

… Viennese horn players must control their lip tension more exactly than double-hornists to avoid landing on the neighboring peak. Playing in high positions on the Viennese horn requires more concentration and better efficiency of motor skills.

Also, the findings backup up the notion that the double-piston valve produces smoother slurs, while the rotary valve has advantages with faster, technical passages.

Interesting too is that the Viennese horn produces an impression of a loud, fortissimo while at a lesser volume level than a double horn. According to the study, this phenomena is due to the Vienna horn’s greater amount of overtones, which help its sound to project.

The embouchure videos

The embouchure videos of David Wilken on YouTube have been a great education in studying the mechanics of embouchure and how different the mechanics can be from player-to-player.

The IWK site has a few other videos worth looking at. The major difference between these and Mr. Wilken’s videos being that the IWK videos are filmed at a straight, dead-on angle – as opposed to being filmed at a side angle.

• Videos of Lip Vibrations & other Visualizations of Trumpet playing research studies