THE FUTURE OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
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
"Novachord". 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.
SPECIFICATIONS FOR INSTRUMENT CONSTRUCTION
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, flexibility 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?
Discuss These Situations
(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.