Thus spoke Zarathoustra +

Robert Scott rscott@wwnet.com
Wed, 15 Oct 1997 19:52:19 -0400


Horace wrote:

>I don't think a case can be made for having no inharmonicity in
>organ pipes - quite the opposite.
[..snip..]
>They are simply massively responsive
>to minute variations in temperature, humidity, draft, dust,
>perhaps, even, lumpy gravy.  Minute variations in voicing can
>be induces simply by the position of the tuner's body relative to a given
>distance from a "tuned" pipe.

  Although organ pipes are very sensitive to minute variations,
that does not mean they have inharmonicity.  In a piano string,
the partials have the freedom to ring at their own independent
pitches because after the initial impulse from the hammer,
they have no connection with each other.  No so with an organ
pipe.  In place of an initial impulse you have a continuing
series of impluses formed by the oscillations at the fundamental frequency.
This forces the harmonics to remain locked to the
fundamental, hence no inharmonicity.

Bob Scott
Ann Arbor, Michigan



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