Software Enables Re-Creation of 'Lost' Instrument 136
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that the Lituus, a 2.4m (8ft) -long trumpet-like instrument, was played in Ancient Rome but fell out of use some 300 years ago. Bach even composed a motet (a choral musical composition) for the Lituus, one of the last pieces of music written for the instrument.. But until now, no one had a clear idea of what this instrument looked or sounded like until researchers at Edinburgh University developed software that enabled them to design the Lituus even though no one alive today has heard, played or even seen a picture of this forgotten instrument." (Continues below.)
The team started with cross-section diagrams of instruments they believed to be similar to the Lituus and the range of notes it played. 'The software used this data to design an elegant, usable instrument with the required acoustic and tonal qualities. The key was to ensure that the design we generated would not only sound right but look right as well,' says Professor Murray Campbell. 'Crucially, the final design produced by the software could have been made by a manufacturer in Bach's time without too much difficulty.' Performed by the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (SCB) the Lituus produced a piercing trumpet-like sound interleaving with the vocals in an experimental performance of Bach's 'O Jesu Christ, meins lebens licht' in Switzerland earlier this year, giving the music a haunting feel that can't be reproduced by modern instruments. The software opens up the possibility that brass instruments could be customized more closely to the needs of individual players in the future — catering more closely to the differing needs of jazz, classical and other players all over the world. 'Sophisticated computer modelling software has a huge role to play in the way we make music in the future.'"
Lost instrument (Score:2, Interesting)
None are left? (Score:2, Interesting)
I would understand that no instrument remains playable after >300 years.
But I'm a bit surprised that there aren't any left at all. 300 years
isn't that long, even on the "human history" scale.
What happened?
Re:re-creation? ITS A GUESS (Score:3, Interesting)
I really don't want to say anything, But I would swear i remember seeing one of those hanging on the wall of my great-uncle's barn 35 or so years ago; the barn is in Extreme Rural Tennessee, so you could imagine my surprise.
I'll see if I can get my mm to investigate.
Re:Reverse PM? (Score:1, Interesting)
Researchers are able to reconstruct an instrument that "no one knew what it looked or sounded like" and you fail to see how it's news?
It's not "just" reverse physical modeling. Most PM is a fairly cut-down simulation (such as waveguides) which are approximations of physical instruments given a set of parameters (length, width, wave source). If you haven't got those parameters, you can't do PM. And the parameters didn't exist.
It's sort of like saying that rockets aren't interesting because they "just" reverse the effect of gravity. And a computer which plays chess "just" needs to calculate the best moves. It's hardly a trivial task, and it is news.
great research (Score:4, Interesting)
And the best thing about it--nobody can prove it wrong.
Re:great research (Score:2, Interesting)
Depends on your taste of music. Bach is something for the mathematicians of the music students. So something that real existing people with a real life enjoy. ^^
We still have them in some parts of Romania (Score:2, Interesting)
We still have these instruments in some parts of Romania, they are called "bucium" or "tulnic" (varies across the regions of the country).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucium [wikipedia.org]
http://i41.tinypic.com/6jgkk8.jpg [tinypic.com]
Ummm yes....... (Score:2, Interesting)
Conjectural instruments like the Lituus aren't really worth the effort.