PATRIZIO BARBIERI THE INHARMONICITY OF MUSICAL STRING INSTRUMENTS (1543-1993) WITH AN UNPUBLISHED MEMOIR BY J.B. MERCADIER (1784) GA) \y FIRENZE LEO S. OLSCHKI EDITORE MCMXCVIITIACCADEMIA NAZIONALE DI SANTA CECILIA ROMA STUDI MUSICALI pubblicazione semestrale fondata da GUIDO M. GATIL Direttore NINO PIRROTTA Consiglio di ditezione Remo Giazotto - Nino Pirrotta - Agostino Ziino Anno XXVIT - 1998, N. 2 1D. Harran, New Variations on O rosa bella, now with a Jewish ricercare 2 . . Pag. 241 it S. Gere, New Ligh on the Milanese Carer of Hoste da Reggio» 287 E. Cartel, The First Publications in aah re erainee| Castrucci and Basanti... - > Bil X. Cenvantis, History and Sosilogy of ibe Italian Opera in London (1705-45): the Evidence of the Dedications of the Printed Librettos » 339 P. Barpert, The inbarmonicity of musical string instruments (1543- Doses iw ek cee eR ET » 383 B. M. Antoun, «La musica 2 le della musica in una famiglia nob ne e vicezione italiano. » 421 Alla redazione di questo numero ha Amiinisivazione: Casa Editrice Leo S, Olschki + Casella postale 66 + 50100 Firenze, | Viuazo del Pozzetto + 50126 Firenze * Conto corteate posiale 12707501 © Tel. 05576530684 + Fax 055/6530214 + E-mail: celso@olschki.it. Abbonamento 1998 (2 fascicali): Italia Lire 80.000, Estero Lire 110.000 Abbonamento 1999 (2 fascicoli: Italia Lire 80.000, Estero Lire 110.000 Pubbliceto nel mese di dicembre 1998Patrizio BARBIERI THE INHARMONICITY OF MUSICAL STRING INSTRUMENTS (1543-1993) WITH AN UNPUBLISHED MEMOIR BY J.-B, MERCADIER (1784) * 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Inbarmonicity — Before moving on to the historical treatment, and to the respective bibliographical references, I will here briefly outline the purely technical aspects of the problem, along with the use of symbols. 1. On an ideal string, ie. one that is perfectly flexible, the partials emitted are whole-number multiples of the fundamental. If we assume the latter's vibration frequency to be 1, the partials will be in the ratio 1:2:3:4:5.... 2. In reality, however, the strings used on musical instruments are not perfectly flexible. For strings of small stiffness, allowed to vibrate freely after excitation and with their extremities hinged on fixed sup- ports, a satisfactory approximation is the following: fyanf(l+bn2) q) where f, = vibration frequency of the partial »; sd, 2,3, Bypnt fy = fundamental frequency of the same string without stiffness; } = coefficient expressing the degree of stiffness. For a string of length L, radius R, density o, Young’s modulus E and put in tension by a force F, we have: * The present article is a substantially expanded version of the paper Corda reale vi- brante ¢ strumenti musical: evoluzione storica del problema, con alcuni inediti rilevamenti dé J-B. Mercadier (1783), presented on 29 October 1994 to the Congress «Strumenti - Musica - Ricerca», Cremona, Ente triennale internazionale degli strumenti ad arco.384 PATRIZIO BARBIERI If, for example, L=1 m, R=0.5 mm, 9=7,800 kg/m? (steel), E=20,000 kg/mm? and F=15 kg, the first four partials will be in the following ap- proximate ratios (assuming f,=77.45 Hz to be equal to 1): 1.000: 2.002:3.008:4.020:... As we see, they are no longer exact multiples of the fundamental and, furthermore, are increasingly distanced from one another. The movement of the string ~ still assuming it vibrates freely — will therefore no longer be periodic. Therein lies the phenomenon of inharmonicity.* If the two extremities, instead of being hinged, are clamped, (1) is modified as feanf(.+a+bre) 2 where 2% 4s iN The degree of inharmonicity, with reference to the corresponding par- tials of the ideal string, is given by the factor 4 =l+a+be 6) (with a=0 in the case of hinged extremities). For practical purposes, ho- wever, a more significant value could be obtained by referring to the fun- damental frequency f; of the real string, that is mee , y= 4 GB) Such factors are normally expressed in cents (the cent is acoustically equal to a 1,200th part of the octave, ite. to the ratio 2100; 1 = 1.00058). 3. With high levels of stiffness, the string becomes a bar capable of vibrating by its own elasticity without the aid of the external force F. The phenomena already described for the stiff string will be markedly accen- * ‘The teem ‘inharmonicity’ is commonly used with this meaning in the technical litera- cute, Its origin is easily explained if we remember that the partials of an ideal string give rise to the arithmetical series 1, 2, 3, 4, .... commonly called ‘harmonic’ because it would become so if, as was customary in past centuries, the sounds were expressed in vibrating lengths on the mo- nochord: 1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, ... In English (unlike other languages) the implicit contradiction of applying the term ‘inharmonic’ (or, rarely, anharmonic’) to ‘harmonics’ can be avoided by re- ferting to the latter as ‘overtones’, ‘partials’ or simply ‘modes’.‘THE INHARMONICITY OF MUSICAL STRING INSTRUMENTS (1543-1993) 385 tuated. (Only where the ends of the bar are hinged, will the partials, though progressively distanced from one another, be multiples of the fundamental and stand in the ratio 12:22:37:4?:...) 4, Stiffness is not the only source of inharmonicity in vibrating strings. We shall see below that the oscillation of the supports, over which it is stretched, may also have a decisive influence. 1.2. Subjects discussed — The subjects discussed in the present article will be distributed as follows. §2. Historical genesis of formulas (1) and (2). Unpublished docu- ments reveal that, contrary to what has hitherto been believed, Jean-Bap- tiste Mercadier was the first (in 1783) to demonstrate that the stiffness of the string altered the frequency of the harmonics emitted (as from the Ist) - a finding that could affect the exact division of the monochords used by the musical theorists. In 1881 Rosario Alessi projected and mar- keted a small portable monochord that, for the first time, took into ac- count the correction due to that factor. §3. The problem of the inharmonicity of harpsichords and pianos; its effect on tuning criteria, accounting also for both psycho-acoustic factors — already observed towards the middle of the 18th century — and purely ‘cultural’ factors. §4. Stiffness of the strings and detuning in instruments with finger- boards. Silvestro Ganassi (1543), Juan Bermudo (1555) and Adriaan Me- tius (1625) were the first to allude to such factors affecting the positio- ning of the frets and the bridge. Research on the violin, on the other hand, is very recent. It is interesting to note that, on questions that specifically concern musical instruments, certain statements by ‘practical musicians’ antici- pate observations of a more scientific cast that not even the treatises of the ‘mathematicians’ had contemplated at that date. 2. THE INHARMONICITY OF THE VIBRATING STRING: HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 1636 — We owe the first systematic investigations into the vibration of cylindrical rods to Marin Mersenne.? Referring to cases where the rods are similar to one another (L and D being, respectively, the length ? Mann Messenne, Harmonie Universelle (1, Paris, Cramoisy, 1636, «Traitez de la na- ture des sons, et des mouvements de toutes sortes de corps», pp. 175-180. 0386 PATRIZIO BARBIERI and diameter), he finds that to obtain a given ratio between their funda- mental frequencies f we need: Ly:L,=D,:Do=fih (4) By doubling, for example, the diameter and length of a given cylinder, one obtains another that vibrates at the lower octave. This rule is exact and is expressed in another form in a table - drawn up to facilitate the correct design of a xylophone - that explicitly implies that the volumes V and the fundamental frequencies f of two similar cylindrical rods are re- lated as follows: VitV3 6) which is the same as saying that f is inversely proportional to the cube root of V2 While Mersenne’s findings concerning similar cylindrical rods give correct results, the same cannot be said for his remaining experiments on dissimilar cylindrical rods (which again were carried out in the presence of «excellens geometres et musiciens»). Quite possibly, however, these ertots, which in some cases exceed one or even three octaves, are explai- ned by the fact that he compared mode frequencies that were not homo- logous. In fact he observes that he did not find it easy to orient himself among the various «sounds» emitted, especially when the L:D ratio in- creased. As a result, he had to stop when he reached L:D=36:1, ive. when he was indirectly posing the problem of the stiff string, He also examines the analogy between ordinary vibrating strings and cylindrical rods, though in the process he formulates incorrect physical hypotheses on the divergencies in their dynamic behaviour. Nonetheless, when he moves on to the stringing of musical instruments, he sticks to this ana- logy, since “— his tables regarding harpsichords and spinets are in perfect agreement with (4); — for instruments with fingerboards, as necessarily L=constant, he merely prescribes that for each pair of contiguous strings D,:D; must be equal to fa:f; (where f refers to open strings); the best known conse- » Thid., table on pp. 179-180. See also CurrroRD Txurspeit, The rational mechanics of fle- ible and elastic bodies 1638-1788, Tusici (= Zurich], Orell Fissli, 1960, p. 32 (who on this fi nal point, however, observes contradictions elsewhere in Mersenne’s oeuvre). + Manny Mexsewne, Harmonie Universelle(..], Patis, Cramoisy, 1636, «Traité des in- stcuments 3 chordes», pp. 120-122,