Must have been about 10 or so years ago Jacob Herringman was nearly
defeated by the combined assault of jackhammers in the street outside
Trinity Chapel (Berkeley, Early Music Festival & Exhibition) and a
screaming infant inside. Enough to deafen an entire family of Kalahari
Bushmen.
On 7/12/2012 1:22 PM, Ron Andrico wrote:
Good question. When I took a university course in acoustics some time
ago, I had the opportunity to delve into the research. Indications
point toward a pretty good probability that people who are not
bombarded by constant background noise, particularly mechanical noise,
have hearing that is more acute. Exposure to constant sounds at an
audible level at any given frequency effectively results in loss of
acuity, and we are constantly bombarded with the sounds of motors,
ventilation fans, coffee grinders, sopranos, traffic, whatever. We can
assume that people in the 15th century who had access to musical
instruments were not likely to have been subjected to the roar of a
grist mill or other loud sounds in the course of daily life. Of course
unusual situations like building activity, warfare, or squeaky cart
wheels may have factored in, as well as hearing loss due to illness.
But based on the typical exposure/hearing loss picture, I'm pretty darn
sure they had better hearing than we do today. Some supporting
evidence:
[1]http://www.scribd.com/doc/85873558/The-Acuity-of-Hearing-in-the-Kala
hari-Bushmen
RA
> Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2012 20:31:28 +0100
> To:praelu...@hotmail.com
> CC:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
> From:mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk
> Subject: [LUTE] Re: brass strings on 15th century lutes
>
> How can you be sure that people in the 15th century had better
hearing than
> we do today.
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