Product Description

Landmark book by leading expert, hailed for its astonishingly clear, delightfully readable explication of everything acoustical important to music-making. "Comprehensive...rigorous...well-organized ...will surely be the text of choice."—American Scientist. "Recommended for music lovers and audiophiles"—Stereo Review. Over 300 illustrations. Examples, experiments and questions conclude each chapter.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #209476 in Books
• Published on: 1990-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

Customer Reviews

Benade is One of the Greats in This field
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.

An Outstanding Book, Designed to Make You Think
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.

An excellent introductory book without too much mathematics
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.