Input impedance curves for the reed woodwind instruments

John Backus

Citation: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 56, 1266 (1974); doi: 10.1121/1.1903418
View online: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1903418
View Table of Contents: https://asa.scitation.org/toc/jas/56/4
Published by the Acoustical Society of America

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Input impedance curves for the reed woodwind instruments
John Backus

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90007

(Received 6 September 1973)

Equipment has been developedwhich will automatically plot the input impedancecurves of the
reed-excitedmusical instruments as a function of frequency. Sound from a regulated driver unit is
passedthrough a high acousticalimpedance into an adapter unit attached to the mouthpieceof the
instrument. This impedance is in the form of a capillary of annular cross section, and is designedto
have an approximately constant impedancemagnitude over the frequencyrange used. The
sound-pressureamplitude generated in the instrument is measuredby means of a microphone whose
output is applied to a chart recorder, so that a graph of input impedanceversusfrequencyis
obtained. Representativeimpedance curves were run for selected notes on the clarinet, oboe, bassoon,
and saxophone.Input impedancevalues range from 400 to 1600 cgs acousticohms for the various
instruments.For the low notes on the clarinet, the resonancefrequenciesare compressedin relation
to the harmonics of the fundamental mode, the higher resonanceshaving low frequenciesthan the
correspondingharmonics.For low notes on the bassoonand oboe, the situation is the opposite,the
resonancesbeing stretchedin relation to the harmonics.For high notes on the oboe and bassoon,the
frequencyof the blown tone may be considerablymore than a semitonebelow the frequencyof the
resonanceon which the instrument is operating.

Subject Classification: 75.35.

INTRODUCTION for an instrument can therefore be expected to be an

The musical wind instruments, as'they have evolved
to the present, may be grouped into two classes, de-
pending on the method by which their air columns are
set into vibration to generate musical tones. One class
comprises those instruments such as flutes, recorders,
flue organ pipes, etc., which are excited by blowing a
stream of air across one end of the air column; since
the column is essentially open at this end, it is being
excited at a resonance frequency for which there is a
low input impedance at the point of excitation. These
instruments will not be considered in this paper. The
other class comprises those instruments excited by
reeds, such as clarinets, bassoons, etc., which use
reeds made of cane, and the brass instruments, which
utilize the players' lips as reeds. In these instruments,
the reed serves as a valve which is opened and closed
by the pressure variation in the mouthpiece to which the
reed is attached, and which admits puffs of air from the
player's mouth to the air column at that time during
each cycle that the oscillating air pressure at the end
of the air column is a maximum. Energy is then being
supplied to the system to maintain the air column vi-
brations. The air column is then being excited at a
resonance frequency for which there is a high input im-
pedance at the point of excitation.
The actual playing frequencies of a reed instrument
are therefore approximately the same as the resonance
frequencies measured for the air column with the reed
end closed, and thus correspond to the high impedance
peaks of the input impedancecurves. x The intonationof
a given instrument will then depend critically on the fre-
quencies of the impedance peaks. Furthermore, the
steady tone of the instrument is complex, containing
harmonics whose amplitude will certainly depend to
some extent on the deviation of the frequency of a given
harmonic from the frequency of a nearby impedance
peak. The curve of input impedance versus frequency
important factor in its musical behavior. Equipment
developed at this laboratory now makes possible the
rapid quantitative plotting of such impedance curves and
furnishes a direct comparison of the resonance frequen-
cies of an instrument with the frequencies of the har-
monics of its fundamental mode. The purpose of this
paper is to exhibit and give some discussion of typical
curves for selected notes of the reed-excited woodwind
instruments--the clarinet, bassoon, oboe, and saxo-
phone.
I. EQUIPMENT
In an earlier publication,•' the resonancefrequencies
of the clarinet were found by closing the reed aperture,
exciting the instrument from an external sound source,
and measuring its response by means of a microphone
placed in the mouthpiece. The output of the microphone
was applied to a chart recorder, and the curve of micro-
phone response versus frequency as plotted by the re-
corder displayed peaks at the resonance frequencies of
the instrument. This external excitation method ap-
peared to be satisfactory for the clarinet; however,
when applied to the bassoon, it gave curves whose peak
heights and shapes varied greatly with the position of the
external sound source. When applied to the trumpet, the
method gave curves having peaks at higher frequencies
that were subsequently determined to be spurious. Fur-
thermore, the external excitation method applied to an
instrument gives only its resonance frequencies, and
does not give quantitative values of its input impedance.
To avoid these difficulties and to obtain quantitative
input impedance curves, a system related to that re-
portedby Webstera was developed. In this method, an
acoustic current of constant amplitude is supplied to the
mouthpiece end of the instrument and is thus impressed ß
across its input impedance. The acoustic current is
supplied by an acoustic impedance in series with the

1266 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 56, No. 4, October 1974 Copyright ¸ 1974 by the AcousticalSociety of America 1266
1267 J. Backus'Impedanceof reedwoodwinds
VOLUME
DRIVER
SERIES
IMPE•)ANCE
'• ,
1%MICROPHONES
AMPLIFIER
IPREAMPI
REGULATOR
LEVEL
OSCILLATOR
RECORDER
(a)
E this is not unexpected, since the parameters of such
(b)
FIG. 1. (a) Acoustical arrangement for checking series im-
pedance configurations. (b) Equivalent electrical circuit for
this arrangement.
mout{hpiece
of the instrumentanda regulateddriver
unit;. if the magnitude of this series impedance is large
compared to the input impedance of the instrument, the
acoustic current will be essentially constant. A micro-
phone inserted into the mouthpiece will then give a re-
sponse proportional to the input impedance, so that
curves of impedance versus frequency may be obtained.
To get quantitatively meaningful impedance readings, it
is necessary that the high acoustic series impedance
have a magnitude essentially independent of frequency.
The arrangement shownin Fig. l(a) was used to try
various configurations and observe their frequency de-
pendence. The series impedance to be tested was at-
tached to a driver unit (Altec 730C) whose outputwas
kept constant by means of a monitoring microphone
(Altec 21 BR-180) attachedto a level regulator (General
Radio type 1569) which regulated the voltage supplied to
the driver by an audio oscillator and amplifier.
series impedance was terminated in a small volume;
the sound amplitude produced in this volume was mea-
sured by a second microphone, the response microphone
(Altec 21 BR-150). The sound-pressure level in the
volume could then be plotted as a function of frequency
by the use of a level recorder which records the level
of the response microphone output. The recorder also
mechanically varies the frequency of the oscillator sup-
plying the driver.
The equivalent electrical circuit for this acoustical
system is shownin Fig. l(b). The magnitude of the
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 56, No. 4, October 1974
1267
voltage e appearingacross the reactanceXc in series
with the impedance Z and the source voltage E will be
e= +
provided I ZI >>xc. For the acoustical system, this be-
comes
e= (E/Z)(pc•'/wV) ,
where p is the air density, c the velocity of sound, 09
(2)
the angularfrequency, and V the volume. Hence, if the
series impedanceZ is independentof frequency, the
curve plotted by the level recorder as the frequency is
increased shouldbe a straight line with a negative slope
of 6 dB per octave.
A number of different impedance configurations were
tried in the arrangement of Fig. l(a). The volume V
was a section of tube of 1.58 cm i.d. and length 1.52
cm, comprising 3.2 cms. Capillary tubes and tubes
filled with wires or steel wool all gave traces on the
level recorder which were curved in varying amounts;
configurationsare frequencydependent.
4,s The equa-
lly,= • +h....... +• •'•'•'• .... of tubes containing al-
ternating air flow are similar to those for the impedance
of wires to alternating current flow, so that the skin ef-
fect is important.6 For gases,the effectof viscosity
on the gas flow near a boundary surface is governed by
the viscous boundary-layer thickness 5u, given by
5u= (V/Pw)•/• , (3)
where •7is the viscosity of the gas; the effect of the sur-
face is diminishedby the factor 1/e in a distance
from the surface. For air at 23 øC at a frequencyf,
Eq. 3 becomes
5,,=0.156/(f) •/• . (4)
In radio frequency work a resistance independent of
frequency is obtained by forming resistive material into
a cylindrical shell of thickness small compared to the
skin depth. This suggested trying as a series imped-
ance a cylinder of air of annular cross section. If R is
the mean radius of the annulus, D its thickness (small
comparedto R), and1 its length, its impedanceis given
by?
Zx= (1/2vR)[12V/Ds+j(6/5)(wp/D)]l. (5)
The
O. 168 cm
TUBE // x ROD
FIG. 2. Configuration of an approximately frequency-independent
series impedance.
1268 J. Backus:Impedanceof reedwoodwinds
The first term on the right of Eq. 5 is the Poisueille
resistance for this configuration; the second term is an
inductive teacrance which is small compared to the re-
sistance for low frequencies and small D. This ex-
pression should be expected to hold for frequencies such
that 1 is considerably less than the wavelength of sound
in the annulus. 8
From Eq. 4 above, we see that at a frequency of 1000
Hz, the boundary-layer thickness is about 0.005 cm, so
we should expect an annulus thickness of about 0.01 cm
to be appropriate. Various configurations of this kind
were tested in the arrangement of Fig. l(a). The one
finally settled upon is shown in Fig. 2. It consists of a
stainless steel tube of 3/32 in. o.d. and 0. 074 in.
(0.,188cm)i.d. hhvinginsideit a pieceof drill rodof
diameter 0.066 in. (0. 168 cm). Three No. 36 B. & So
gauge copper wires, spaced as shown, keep the rod
concentric inside the tube, thus providing an annular
space of thickness 0.004 in. (0. 010 cm). The length of
the assembly is 2.5 in. (6.3 cm). The level recorder
trace for this configuration is shown by the upper curve
AinFig. 3. It falls 6 dB per octave to within 0.5dBin
the range 100-2000 cps, departing by 1 dB at 2700 Hz,
so has an impedance magnitude reasonably frequency
independent over this range; this is most of the range
of interest in the investigation of musical instruments.
This is rather surprising, since the length of the as-
sembly is about a half the wavelength in air at 2700 Hz,
and one would expect that the approximations made in
obtaining Eq. 5 would no longer be valid.
For comparison, the lower curve B of Fig. 3 shows
the recorder trace using a capillary tube of length 6.3
cm and diameter 0. 061 cm as a series impedance; it
obviously is far from frequency independent. In the fre-
quency range of Fig. 3, the ratio of the tube-radius to
the boundary-layer thickness 6v ranges from 2 to 10.
As shown by the curves in Ref. 4, this is the region
where the transmission parameters are changing con-
siderably with frequency as compared to the low-fre-
lOO 500 1K 3 K
FREQUENCY - HZ
FIG. 3. (a) Level recorder trace of the output of the response
microphone, for the configuration of Fig. 2. (b) Level recorder
trace for a capillary tube.
J. Acoust.Soc.Am., Vol. 56, No. 4, October1974
1268
RUBBER
RESPONSE •
MICROPHONE
FIG. 4. Adapter for plotting input impedance curves of cylin-
drical tubing.
quency values. In Fig. 3, the curve B for the capillary
has been displaced 20 dB downward to keep it on the
chart. The capillary thus has both a smaller impedance
and a smaller area than the annular impedance configu-
ration.
Using the dimensions of the series impedance given
above, we find the Poiseuille resistance to be 2.4x 104
cgs acoustic ohms. This was checked by measuring the
air flow through the impedance under a measured pres-
sure difference; the result was 2.3x 104acousticohms.
Given a frequency-independent series impedance, the
magnitude of the input impedance of an acoustical sys-
tem such as a musical instrument can be measured
quantitatively with suitable alterations of the arrange-
ment of Fig. l(a). The small volume terminating the
series impedance is replaced by an adapter fitting the
particular type of instrument to be measured and which
accommodates the response microphone. The level
recorder is replaced by a chart recorder to plot the out-
put voltage of the response microphone directly. With
these modifications, the series impedance supplies an
essentially constant acoustic current to the instrument
under measurement, and the output of the response
microphone will be proportional to the magnitude of the
instruments input impedance. The chart recorder then
gives a graph of input impedance versus frequency when
the oscillator frequency is swept through the desired
range.
In practice, the series impedance cannot be made in-
definitely large, so we may expect the measured imped-
ance values to be somewhat in error when they are not
small compared to it. Other sources of error also
exist, such as small variations with frequency of the
level regulator controlling the driver input. Hence, an
overall check was made which gave a calibration of the
arrangement as a function of frequency. A piece of
3/4-in.-o. d. brass tube of inside diameter 1. 576 cm
(0. 620 in. ) and 102 cm long was capped on one end and
used as the impedance tube in the arrangement described
in an earlier publication.9 For a closedtube containing
a standing wave, the ratio r of the pressure at a mini-
mum of the wave to that of the pressure maximum at the
1269 J. Backus:Impedanceof reedwoodwinds
closed end is •ø
r= tanhaxmax,
where x is the distance of the minimum from
end and a is the (small) attenuation constant. This con-
stant is proportional to the square root of the frequency
f and inversely proportional to the radius a of the tube,
and measurements at a number of frequencies gave, for
the brass tube used,
,a= a. O6xlO'•f•l•'/a . ' (7)
This checks well with the results in the literature. •o,•
It may be shown that for a tube of length I and cross-sec-
tional area Ao, the impedance at a resonance is given
by••-
Z= (pC/Ao)al,
provided al << 1. Using the value for a given above, we
find
Z= 4.30x 10S/(alf{/a),
in cgs acoustic ohms.
The values of Z calculated from Eq. 9 may now be
used to calibrate the equipment. The 102-cm tube was
mounted in the adapter shown in Fig. 4. In this adapter,
the series impedance enters through a rubber plug which
projects into the tube a short distance; this is to com-
pensate for the extra volume added to the tube by the re-
sponsemicrophone(0.35 cma) and the channelleading to
it. Since the impedance of the tube at a given resonance
frequency is known from Eq. 9, it is possible to set the
driver input to the series impedance, as measured on
the monitoring microphone, to give a full-scale chart
recorder reading as corresponding to any selected num-
ber of acoustic ohms.
Figure 5 shows the impedance curve obtained for the
102-cm tube; full scale is 500 ohms. The impedances
at certain resonances, calculated from Eq. 8 above,
I 2 3 4
168.5 HZ HARMONIC NUMBER
J. Acoust.Soc.Am., Vol. 56, No. 4, October 1974
1269
are shown by open circles; a curve has been drawn
through them to aid in comparison. Agreement is quite
(6)
good over most of the range from 150 to 2500 cps, the
the closed equipmentgiving readings some 10%low at the two ex-
tremes. Using the impedances measured and the cali-
brations of the monitoring and response microphones,
we calculate the series impedance to have a magnitude
2.4x 104ohms, whichchecksthe previouslyobtained
values.
The marks along the bottom of the chart of Fig. 5 are
the positions of the harmonics of the fundamental, made
by the circuit described in Ref. 1. In this, as in sub-
sequent charts, the positions of the harmonics are shown
by short vertical lines above the scale of harmonics.
The positions of the resonance peaks are shown by lines
(8) belowthe bottomline of the char•tso aS to simplify
comparison of the resonance frequencies with the har-
monic frequencies. To estimate musical intervals on
the charts, we note that the space between two adjacent
(9) vertical lines corresponds to 155 cents. The frequency
of the fundamental of the harmonic marker circuit is
also given on the chart.
In Fig. 5, the peaks have been set to coincide with the
harmonics at the high-frequency end of the chart; the
first few low-frequency peaks then deviate somewhat
from the harmonic frequencies because of the lowering
of the sound velocity in the tube at these frequencies due
to viscosity. For a tube of radius a large compared to
the viscous boundary-layer thickness tSv, the velocity of
sound c' is •3
c': c[1-•i'/a42]. (10)
Here •' is the equivalentboundary-layerthicknessdue
to bothviscosityandheat conduction,andis givenby•4
(11b)
FIG. 5. Input impedance curve for a
tube of 1. 576 cm i.d. and length 102 cm.
Circles joined by the curved line are
values calculated from Eq. 9 in text.
Full scale is 500 cgs acoustic ohms.
Marks along the bottom line show loca-
tions of the harmonics of the lowest
resonance.
6 8 10 12
1270 J. Backus: Impedanceof reed woodwinds
MOU
SERIES
IMPEDANCE
'• MICROPHONE
FIG. 6. Adapter for clarinet and saxophone.
where •it is the thermal boundary layer thickness, • the
ratio of specificheats, andC•/K is the Prandtlnumber.
This givesan equivalent viscosity• whichincludesthe
effect of heat conduction•;for air undernormal condi-
tions, •= 2.27. The equivalentboundarylayer thick-
ness is then given by
•' = 0.23/(f) •/•' .
At the fundamental frequency 168.5 Hz of the tube of
Fig. 5, the correction term in Eq. 10 works out to be
2.3•, whichwill give a correspondingpercentagere-
duction in frequency. This amounts to 39 cents, which
checks very well with the displacement shown in Fig. 5
for the fundamental.
Input impedance curves were run for a number of
instruments, using the series impedance connectedto an
instrument adapter such as sketched in Fig. 6. Each
adapter was designed to supply the same volume to the
instrument as the reed it replaced; this is discussed
further below. For each impedance curve given below,
the range of sounding frequencies was determined by
blowing in the usual manner; this range is shown at the
appropriate position on the chart by a short horizontal
line between two short vertical lines which mark the ap-
proximate extremes of the blowing range. The harmonic
marker circuit is set at the resonance frequency, not
the blown frequency. To obtain the positions of the har-
monics of a blown tone, the harmonic scale may be
moved bodily until its fundamental coincides with the
frequency of the tone; i.e., each harmonic on the loga-
rithmic scale moves the same amount. Frequencies
were measured on a stroboscopic frequency meter
(Stroboconn©).
II. IMPEDANCE CURVES
A. The clarinet
Impedance curves for the clarinet were made using
the adapter shown in Fig. 6. Results are shown in Fig.
7 for the low (chalumeau)register, and in Fig. 8 for the
high (clarinet) register, for the notes indicated. (The
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 56, No. 4, October 1974
1270
quotation marks indicate "written" notes; the instrument
sounds a whole tone lower.) Full-scale reading is 1000
ohms. The instrument used was the same Bundy plastic
clarinet used in Ref. 2. These curves may be com-
pared with the corresponding ones in Ref. 2; it will be
seen that they are somewhat similar, but the earlier
ones of course did not give quantitative impedance
values. Certain aspects may be noted: the played res-
onance always has the highest impedance, except for the
notes at the top of the clarinet register and higher. The
lowest resonance has an impedance of 800 to 1000 ohms
in the chalumeau register; the next resonance, of ap-
proximately three times the frequency, has an imped-
ance of 500 to 700 ohms. Otherwise, the results of Ref.
2 are corroborated. In both registers, the instrument
plays 40 to 70 cents flatter than the frequency of the
resonance on which it is operating. In the chalumeau
register, the peaks are compressed, so that the fre-
quencies of the prominent resonances are progressively
more and more below the corresponding harmonic fre-
quencies. In the clarinet register, the resonances are
randomly distributed in relation to the harmonics.
B. The bassoon
Impedance curves for the bassoon were made using
the adapter shown in Fig. 9. Curves were run for three
bassoons: (1) the laboratory instrument, a Kohlert
bassoon(Ser. No. 221912) rebuilt by the author; (2) a
(12) Heckel bassoon (Ser. No. 11563) loaned by the USC
Music Department; and (3) the author's owninstrument,
used in orchestral work, a Hiiller bassoon(Set. No.
4329z•). The curvesfor the three instrumentswere quite
similar for a given note, so only one series is shown,
that for the Hiiller bassoon. The differences between
this instrument and the Heckel bassoon (the brand to
which practically all bassoonists aspire) may be musi-
cally significant, but at this time we cannot say. Fig-
ure 10 showsthe curvefor the lowestnoteB• onthe in-
strument; it is extensive enough to warrant a separate
display. Figure 11 gives curves for the notes indicated,
up to the top note F s of the first register; higher-fre-
quency portions of the curves have been truncated some-
what to keep the figures within bounds, but the omitted
portions do not appear to be significant. Figure 12
showsnotes in the higher register, past the "break."
Full scale in all bassoon curves is 1500 ohms.
The curves for the bassoon show characteristics which
in many ways are the opposite of the clarinet curves.
For the lowestnoteB•, there are manywell-defined
resonances; however, the peaks are stretched in fre-
quency, instead of being compressed as they are in the'
clarinet, so that the resonance frequencies are progres-
sively higher (sharper) than the corresponding harmonic
frequenciesø The 12th resonance, for example, nearly
coincides with the 13th harmonic. For this note, the
instrument plays some 30 cents higher than the frequen-
cy of the lowest resonance, presumably because of this
sharpening of the higher resonances; the lowest tone
is ric,h in harmonics, and their frequencies will be a
closer match to those of the corresponding resonances
if the frequency of the fundamental is raised somewhat
above that of the lowest mode.
1271 J. Backus: Impedance of reed woodwinds 1271

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ill,. il!l.11111i

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J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 56, No. 4, October 1974 -

 1272 J. Backus: Impedance of reed woodwinds 1272

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J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 56, No. 4, October 1974

1273 J. Backus:Impedanceof reed woodwinds
RUBBER MICROPHONE
SERIES
••
IMPEDANCE
)•
FIG. 9. Adapter for bassoon.
The lowest resonance of the full-length instrument
givenin Fig. 10 is 57.9 Hz. Accordingto Benade,16
the nth mode frequency of a closed truncated cone (the
length of the truncated part being small) is given (to the
first order) by nc/2L, where L is the lengthfrom the
vertex of the cone to the large end, that is, the actual
length plus the cutoff portion. This does not agree well
with the present measurements. The author's
tory instrument, for example, measures 250 cm from
the small tip of the bocal (the tapered metal tube on
which the reed is placed) to the large open end at the
bell. From the dimensions of the bocal, we can calcu-
late the cutoff length to be 29.5 cm. The diameter
the bore increases from 0.41 cm at the small
bocal to 3.78 cm at the end of the bell. Using these
dimensions
with c= 3.45x 104cm/sec, we calculatethe
fundamental frequency to be 61.7 Hz rather than 57.9
Hz. This is a discrepancy of 110 cents. From a chart
givenby Nederveen,• we can calculateabout35 cents
of this to be due to boundary-layer effects in the bore of
the instrument; the remainder must obviously include
the effect of closed tone holes.
I 2 4 6
57.9 Hz HARMONIC NUMBER
FIG. 10. Impedance curve for the lowest note Bhl on the bassoon. Full scale is 1500 ohms.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 56, No. 4, October 1974
1273
Benade also gives a correction term to the expression
for the mode frequencies of the cutoff cone, according
to which the frequencies are sharpened by an amount
proportional to the square of the mode number, cot-re-
sponding to the stretching of the resonance frequencies
observed in Fig. 10. However, his correction term is
grossly in error. Using the above dimensions in the
correction term for the sixth mode, for example, we
find the correction to be 0.003 cents, whereas from
Fig. 10 we can estimate the sixth mode to be 80 cents
sharp with respect to the sixth harmonic.
As the scale is ascended, we see from Figø 11 that
the higher resonances lose their distinctness. For Gz,
for example (the lowest note in the basic scale), only
the first four resonances appear to be important. At
as
Bz there are three prominent resonances approximately
matching the harmonic frequencies; at C s there are only
t•vo matching resonances, and at Fs, the highest note in
the low register, there is only one. Above about Gs it
appears that the relationship bet•veen the resonances and
the harmonics is purely random. Note also that up to
labora- Cs the lowest resonancehas the lowest impedance(in-
stead of the highest as in the clarinet), ranging from
400 to 1200 ohms. This probably accounts for the con-
siderable unpredictability in playing the low notes on the
instrument. From Cs up the input impedance ranges
of from 1200 to 1500 ohms. Note also that above Gz the
end of the instrument plays lower (flatter) than the frequency of the
resonance.
Abovethe "break" (bet•veenF#s and Gs) the notesare
played by progressively opening vent-holes higher up on
the instrument. The effect of the vent-hole can be seen
for the notes Gs and C4 in Fig. 12; the lowest resonance
is considerably reduced in impedance and raised in fre-
quency. Above D4 the so-called "forked" fingerings are
used, in which open and closed fingerholes are inter-
.::j
8 10 13 16 20
1274 J. Backus:Impedanceof reedwoodwinds 1274

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1275 J. Backus:Impedanceof reedwoodwinds 1275

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o

J. Acoust.Soc. Am., Vol. 56, No. 4, October 1974

1277 J. Backus:Impedanceof reed woodwinds 1277

spersed. For the note F 4 the instrument is operating on

the third resonance, and for the note Cs (about the upper
limit of the instrument) there is some ambiguity as to
which resonance it is using.

Onobserving
theactualplayin•frequencies
asshown
on the charts, we note that not only does the bassoon
have a much wider flexibility on a given note than the
clarinet (over a semitone for some notes) but also that
the playing frequency gets progressively more and more
below the resonance frequency as the scale is ascended.
As seen in Fig. 12, for example, the playing frequen-
cies for notes in the higher register are generally more
than a semitone below the resonance frequencies. This
is a considerable discrepancy, so additional experiments
were done to check this matter, using the external exci-
tation method. An adapter was constructed on a bassoon
1 ß
bocal about 6 cm from the tip; a Briiel & Kjaer •-tn.
microphone(type4136) couldbe insertedinto this adaPt-
er so as to measure the pressure at this point. The in-
strument was fingered to a given note by inserting corks
into the appropriate holes and wedging down the appro-
priate keys. A playable bassoon reed was sealed along
its sides with flexible cement and inserted into a simple
artificial embouchure consisting of two pieces of foam
neoprene in an adjustable clamp. The reed was placed
on the bassoon,.blown to soundthe instrument, the
artificial embouchureadjustedto get the note approxi-
mately in tune (as a player would do), and the playing
frequency measured. A small loudspeaker energized
by an oscillator and amplifier was then placed near the
first open tone-holes to excite vibrations in the instru-
ment, and the re.sonance frequency for the fundamental
mode found by observing the response of the microphone
on the bocal as the frequency was varied. This was
done (a) with the reed (with its embouchure)in place and
its open end closed with a small piece of modeling clay;
(b) with the bassoonadaptershownin Fig. 9, havingthe
microphone in place and the hole for the series imped-
ance plugged; and (c) with the bocal tip closed by a cork.
The lowering in frequency between conditions (c) and
uJ (a) variedfrom imperceptiblefor the lowestnoteB• up
m
to a maximum of 90 cents for notes in the range F s to
•)
•.• z F 4. For condition (b) the lowering was up to 25 cents
less thanfor (a), so this muchof the abovediscrepan.cy
z
o can be ascribed to the fact that the bassoon adapter had
a volume somewhat less than that of the reed. The reed
volume, measured by sealing, weighing, filling with
water to the point of bocal insertion, and reweighing, is
0.7 cms. Assuminga frequencyloweringproportional
0 to volume, we can calculate the volume of the adapter
(using an average of the measurements) to be about
0.5 cms.

The compliance of the reed has the same effect as in-

creasingthe reed volume. Nederveen,•8 on the basis of
measurements on bassoon reeds, calculates that the
equivalent volume due to reed compliance is 0.9¾0,
where ¾0is the volume of the truncated part of the cone
(1.30 cm• in the author's instrument). This is sufficient
to accountfor the abovediscrepancy,but is not sub-
stantiated by the present experiments. By using weak
external excitation and closing off the reed with a film

J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 56, No. 4, October 1974

1278 J. Backus:
Impedance
of reedwoodwinds 1278

,• ;11!i•i !i . ,
?ri
I'••,
• ' •- •"-
i•1i
•' i•' i,,',•
....
".I•
iii:
'"'
IIT' ,I.
, ........ iii i

' ' '

•I I :. ii I

i-i ,,,
•I , ii II !• i•iiil•illIll •1 ,,
III
•.1!•,,•ll•,!,lill
•,',• • 'l'
i,I
• , ,I,.

IIi•
.-il :-=• :
. •,I II.,,i!.1•.,,.•,,:.,.,•. •!•,,.•,
,. ,,'., I.' '!' :J' I!! i•: ,111I• ,;•',I•.I,il! ,•.. "J
, ,, ., ',
,, lJ,,
'1' ' III, ß ,,,., . ,, . :l•,.'! I I!1•i•II,'

ß ,•,,,.',
Ii '..,'.ii•
',• •11;
'' I ''

• .' ii •, [•liiii
-........... •I?,•
•-• .'.
;• __ ! ........................

J.Acoust.
Soc.Am.,Vol.56,No.4, October
1974
1279 J. Backus'Impedanceof reedwoodwinds 1279

of soap solution, we can measure the resonance fre- III. CONCLUSION

quencywith the reed free to v{brate. Under these con-
The impedance curves given above represent one step
ditions it is found that the frequency is lowered by
in the direction of understanding the acoustic behavior
amounts up to 25 cents by the reed compliance. This
correspondsto an additionalvolumeof 0.25 cms, which of the reedwoodwind
•nstruments.Theyraise a number
of further questions; for example, is the stretching of
is about one-fifth of Nederveen's value. A large part
the resonances relative to the harmonics in the oboe and
of the discrepancy between resonance frequency and
blowing pressure thus is still not accounted for.
bassoon,as comparedto the compressing
of the reso-
nances in the clarinet; a necessary factor in their
proper operation? Would they function better or worse
C. The oboe
if •here were no stretchingor compressing?Howwould
the tone quality of the instrument be affected by getting
a better match between the higher resonances and the
Impedance curves for the oboe were made with an
harmonic frequencies ? Would the low notes on the bas-
adapter similar to that of Fig. 9 for the bassoon, but
soonbe easier to play if the low resonanceswere of
smaller in size, and accommodatingthe Bri]el & Kjaer
higher impedance? (This practical question is of inter-
No. 4136 microphone as the response microphone.
est to the author, who plays this stubborn and uncooper-
Curves for the oboe are shown in Fig. 13 for the low
ative instrument. ) It is hopedthat these and other ques-
register and Fig. 14 for the higher register, for the tions will be answered when we achieve a better under-
notesindicated;full scaleis 2000ohms. Theinstru- standingof the interactionof these complicatedreso-
ment usedwas a Loree oboe (Set. No. BB40, loanedby
the USC Music Department), which for nowwe may as-
nancesystemswith •hereedwhichis supplying
theen-
ergy to make them oscillate; work in this direction is
sumeto be representative
of oboesger{erally. As with continuing.
the bassoon, the curves have been truncated on the as-
sumptionthat the higher-frequencyportions are not of ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
interest. Only two notes are shown for the upper reg-
ister, since the curves for two notes an octave apart in This work was supported by the National Science
the two registers are very similar except for the lowest Foundation, whose assistance is gratefully acknowl-
resonance; this resonance is lowered in impedance and edged. Thanks are also due to the music department of
raised in frequency by the opening of the vent-hole with the Universityof Sou[hem
California,whichwasper-
the octave key. As with the bassoon, the instrument suaded to loan some (if their finest instruments to the
plays at a lower frequency than the operating resonance, author for use on this project.
by more than a semitone for some of the higher notes.
External excitation experiments using a sealed-off reed
showed that this discrepancy was not due to an inadequate ij. Backus,
J. Acoust.
Soc.Am.35,305-313
(1963).
2j. Backus, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 43, 1272-1281 (1968).
volume on the microphone adapter used with the oboe.
3j. C. Webster, J. Acoust. S0c. Am. 19, 902-906 (1947).
4A. H. Benade, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 44, 6]6-623 (1968).
D. The saxoPhone 50. K. Mawardi, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 21, 482-486 (1•J49).
61. B. Crandall, Theory of Vibrating Systemsand Sound(Van
The saxophone couples a conical air column to a Nostrand, New York, 1927), p. 229 fl.
clarinet-type mouthpiece, so it is of interest to see how ?S. N. Rsehevkin, Theory of Sound(Pergamon, London, 1963),
its resonance curves compare with those of the other in- p. 233.
struments. Impedance curves were therefore run on an
8Rel. 7, p. 234.
9j. Baekus,andT. C. Hundley, J. Aeoust. Soe. Am. 49, 509-
E• alto saxophone
(BundyNo. 569859),usingthe same 519 (1971).
adapteras usedwiththe clarinet. Figure 15 gives løR. D. Fay, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 12, 62-67 (1940).
curves for four notes on the instrument; full scale is ilL. L. Beranek,AcousticMeasurements(Wiley, New York,
1000 ohms. The quoted notes are again the "written" 1949), p. 73.
notes,sounding
for thisinstrument
a majorsixthbelow 12G.T. Kemp and A. W. Nolle, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 25, 1083-
where written. We note that the high resonances on this 1086 (1953).
instrument disappear even more completely than they do •3Rayleigh,Theory of Sound(Dover, NewYork, 1945), Vol. II,
p. 326.
on the other conical instruments; at the top note"C5" of 14Ref.13, p. 325.
the low register there are only two resonances. We note 15L. J. Sivian, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 7, 94-101 (1935).
also that the two lowest resonances appear to be exactly 16A. H. Benade, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 31, 137-146 (1959).
an octave apart over the range of the instrument. The •?C. J. Nederveen,AcousticalAspectsof Woodwind Inst•ments
high notes play considerably below the resonance fre- (Fritz Knut, Amsterdam, 1969), p. 42.
quency, but not by as much as in the oboe. •8C. J. Nederveen,J. Acoust.So½.Am. 45, 513-514 (1969).

J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 56, No. 4, October 1974