Well said David, Leonard makes a point, and a good one. The consitancy of an unstopped string is less important than in a stopped string. But you are right, it is still important. A we all know the string vibrates in a complex pattern and the subdivisions of the vibration make the overtones that produce the tonality. In fact that very thing is what makes the differences in timbre and tonality of wind instruments. The suppression or expansion of the upper tones in the natural series make an oboe sound differently than a clarinet (and don't pick on me for the double reed versus the single, I don't have time to detail the differences). There are similar effects in the horns/trumpets in the shaping of the vibrating tunnel.
Back to the unstopped and stopped strings. The harp and the rest of its family want consitant strings, as a part of the vibrating string will change the natural overtone series if it is denser. Assume the string is plucked near the middle (as it usually is). The primary node will be the tuned pitch as it is an average, but the secondary nodes will set a different, and perhaps conflicting, series. But with stopped strings the effect is greater. The location of the "thick point" changes at its location in the effective vibrating length (and even may be taken out of play if it is between the fret and the nut). This can change not only the overtone series but also the pitch relationships. The lute string, or any other stopped string, has the characteristics of only that segment between the stop and the bridge. So if the full string has been tuned to a pitch based on the average density (as it will be if tuned open) then there will be a variance when it is stopped high, if it is inconsistant. On the harp this may effect tone and the harmonic relations between strings, but on the lute it may affect pitch. And for the non harpists, the overtones are important to us, there a number of strings and some vibrate sympathetically whether you want it or not. And as a player of the double strung the effect is magnified. But I believe Leonard is correct in his implication, there is less need for uniformity in strings on an unstopped instrument. Best, Jon (PS, when no one could make a consistant string did music stop?) > Leonard Williams wrote: > > "...Since the harp strings are not stopped (except on rare occasions), would > the string need to be perfectly true? ..." > > I haven't given the matter any rigorous thought, but I've assumed any string > would have to be fairly uniform throughout its vibrating length to produce a > good tone. Otherwise, the subdivisions of the string length which produce > any particular harmonic might be out of tune with each other. > > David Cameron To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
