Abstract
THE prevalent practice in organ-building of the present day is to use for the middle C a pipe too large in scale, and with mouths cut too high, the result being, according to the author, that the Diapason tone, which rules every other stop in an organ, has deteriorated in quality. A pipe which will give an ideal Diapason tone is specified, and the defects in organs which do not conform to the conditions laid down are criticised. The protest as regards church bells is chiefly directed against excessive thickness. In pianofortes the destruction of pure tone is held to be due “to an increase of heaviness in the hammers for the pounding of the strings, to an excess of rigidity in the framework and setting, counteracting the vibrating motion of the strings—to an excess of scale in the length of strings—to the production of false harmonics, and the absence of due proportion between the groundtone and the harmonics, and generally to the making of more noise than music in the quality heard.” The brochure contains some interesting information on the principles of the construction of organ-pipes, bells, and pianofortes.
A Protest against the Modern Development of Unmusical Tone.
By Thomas C. Lewis. Pp. 46. (London: Chiswick Press, 1897.)
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A Protest against the Modern Development of Unmusical Tone. Nature 56, 9 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056009a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056009a0