It is received wisdom among singers that the reason a trained singer can cut
through an orchestra is that there is a hole in the frequency spectrum of an
orchestra around 3000 Hz--just where the singer's formant is. When I hear a
trained baritone singing, I find the pitch hard to discern because of the
"screeching" of the singer's formant. Of course it's not exactly at 3000 Hz,
but at a harmonic of the fundamental pitch he is singing. Maybe the Viennese
horn has a "Viennese horn formant" aroung 3000 Hz. Then, of course, the
Viennese horns and singers would be competing for the same channel...
Herb Foster
--- Christopher Earnest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I certainly agree with Hans that the German sentence I quoted, while
> understandable, doesn't really make sense. Note that I didn't say I liked
> the sentence -- just the accuracy of the translation, and the word "spliaa",
> which is much more onomatopoetic than the original "Kieksen" (which sounds
> to me like a kind of chirping).
>
> I have another question which Jobstl's paper raises. In making many of his
> points, he uses graphs showing measurements of actual horn sounds. On one
> important point, though, he doesn't. He states:
>
> quote (in translation):
>
_______________________________________________________________________________
> Because the listener's impression of loudness is primarily a factor of tone
> color rather that the actual measurable sound intensity, the Viennese horn
> produces an impression of fortissimo with less volume level.
>
> And due to its higher amount of overtones (at the same objective volume
> level) the Viennese horn is less apt to be "covered" by other orchestra
> instruments, and is better heard through the orchestra than a double horn
> played at the same dynamic level.
>
>
________________________________________________________________________________
>
> This certainly sounds plausible, but I wonder if there is any evidence to
> back up his point?
>
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