Victor Coelho

Music and Science in the Age of Galileo

I Historical, Contemporary, and Celestial Models for the Musical and Scientific Revolution in the Age of Galileo.- Music and Philosophy in Early Modern Science.- Beats and the Origins of Early Modern Science.- Music and the Crisis of Seventeenth-Century Europe.- Kepler, Galilei, and the Harmony of the World.- II Symbolical and Philosophical Perspectives on Galileo and Music.- The Artistic Patronage of the Barberini and the Galileo Affair.- Musical Myth and Galilean Science in Giovanni Serodines Allegoria della scienza.- Tickles, Titillations, and the Wonderful Accidents of Sounds: Galileo and the Consonances.- Galileo and the Demise of Pythagoreanism.- III The Musical Background of Seventeenth-Century Science: Theory, Practice, and Craftsmanship.- Was Galileos Father an Experimental Scientist?.- Vincenzo Galilei in Rome: His First Book of Lute Music (1563) and its Cultural Context.- Six Seventeenth-Century Dutch Scientists and their Knowledge of Music.- In Tune with the Universe: The Physics and Metaphysics of Galileos Lute.- Contributors.

Acoustical Impulse Response Functions of Music Performance Halls

Digital measurement of the analog acoustical parameters of a music performance hall is difficult. The aim of such work is to create a digital acoustical derivation that is an accurate numerical representation of the complex analog characteristics of the hall. The present study describes the exponential sine sweep (ESS) measurement process in the derivation of an acoustical impulse response function (AIRF) of three music performance halls in Canada. It examines specific difficulties of the process, such as preventing the external effects of the measurement transducers from corrupting the derivation, and provides solutions, such as the use of filtering techniques in order to remove such unwanted effects. In addition, the book presents a novel method of numerical verification through mean-squared error (MSE) analysis in order to determine how accurately the derived AIRF represents the acoustical behavior of the actual hall. Table of Contents: Introduction / A Review of Acoustic Measurement Techniques / The Loudspeaker as a Measurement Sweep Generator / Convolution and Filtering / Experimental Method for the Derivation of an AIRF of a Music Performance Hall / Evaluation of Results / Conclusion

The loudspeaker as a measurement sweep generator for the derivation of the acoustical impulse response of a concert hall

Precision digital technology has made the measurement of an accurate and representative acoustical impulse response function (AIRF) difficult. In using the exponential sine-sweep technique to record the acoustical parameters of a concert hall, there are several measurement issues that need to be resolved in order to determine an appropriate set of international standards. One of the issues is the type of the loudspeaker to be used as the source generator for a signal sweep. This paper presents a discussion on the role of the loudspeaker in the AIRF measurement process. Two high-quality loudspeaker systems are used and evaluated: one a direct-radiator-type near-field studio monitor, and the other a high-frequency (HF) compression driver and horn-loaded sound reinforcement system. Through an analysis of specific loudspeaker characteristics and measurement results, it is shown that the HF horn-loaded system is a suitable reference monitor for acoustic measurement of concert halls.

Filtering and removal of the effects of the transducers on the acoustical impulse response of concert halls

Digital signal processing (DSP) has enabled the exponential sine sweep (ESS) method of measuring the acoustical parameters of a concert hall to be increasingly efficient. Part of this is due to the implementation of software modules that perform specific tasks such as filtering and equalization. In using a measurement loudspeaker source for the sine sweep process, it is necessary to: first, derive a loudspeaker prefilter to ensure that the resulting output sweep possesses a frequency response that is reasonably uniform; and second, to derive a transducer inverse filter in order to remove the effects of the loudspeakers and microphones from the measured impulse response of the hall. In the present work, by measuring the acoustical impulse response function (AIRF) of three different halls, using a high-frequency (HF) horn-loaded loudspeaker system as a reference source, it is shown that the effects of the transducers may be effectively filtered and removed from the AIRF.

Performance on lute, guitar, and vihuela : historical practice and modern interpretation

1. An invitation to the fifteenth-century plectrum lute: the Pesaro manuscript Vladimir Ivanoff 2. Lute tablature instructions in Italy: a survey of the Regole from 1507 to 1759 Dinko Fabris 3. The performance context of the English lute song, 1596 to 1622 Daniel Fischlin 4. Per cantare e sonare: lute song at the end of the sixteenth century Kevin Mason 5. Authority, autonomy, and interpretation in performing seventeenth-century Italian lute music Victor Coelho 6. The soul of the lute: performance in the style brise Wallace Rave 7. The vihuela: performance practice, style, and context John Griffiths 8. Performing seventeenth-century Italian guitar music: the question of an appropriate stringing Gary Boye 9. Essential issues in performance practices of the Classical guitar, 1779-1840 Richard Savino.

Music in new worlds

Imagine that during the last week of December around 1600, a Portuguese vessel leaves Goa, the magnificent capital of the Portuguese Asian empire located 350 miles south of Bombay, for the six-month return to Lisbon. The bottom two layers of the four-deck ship are devoted to storing spices – mainly pepper, but the return cargo also includes cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, indigo and Chinese silk bought from Moorish traders. With the remaining two decks reserved for official cabins and the storage of privately owned chests, little room is left for the 100 sailors and a chicken coop. Crossing the Indian Ocean during the most pleasant time of the year, the ship docks briefly at the Portuguese possession of Mozambique (settled 1507) and arrives a month later at the Cape of Good Hope. But instead of rounding the Cape and sailing north up the coast of West Africa, past the Portuguese settlements of Benin (1485), the Congo ( c. 1480), Sierra Leone (1460), the archipelago of Sao Tome ( c. 1471), and the Cabo Verde islands (1444), which lie along the route that brought them to India, the Portuguese crew sails due west into the heart of the Atlantic bringing the ship almost within sight of the Brazilian coast before its sails catch the easterly winds that will allow it to tack north towards the Azores, the last stop of the over 10,000-mile round trip before reaching Lisbon. Along the way, descriptions and opinions of native instruments and musical styles are logged into diaries: a Congolese lute, xylophones from Mozambique, cymbals, drums and bells, and reed instruments.

Spectral verification of an experimentally derived acoustical impulse response function of a music performance hall

Spectral analysis may be used to monitor process measurement accuracy and provide verification of an experimentally derived acoustical impulse response function (AIRF) of a music performance hall. First, it is necessary to derive a transducer system inverse filter in order to remove the residual effects of the measurement hardware from the AIRF. Second, through the use of a test signal, spectral analysis of the AIRF of the actual hall may be performed and compared with that of the experimentally derived AIRF. In this manner, the present work illustrates how power spectral density analysis may be used for the numerical quantification and verification of the measured AIRF of a music performance hall.