Influence of the musician’s position on the radiation impedance for transverse and notch flutes
Résumé
To play a transverse or notch flute, musicians place their mouth near an open end of the instrument where a sharp edge or labium is the target of the air-jet blown by the musicians. The jet/labium interaction is responsible for generating sound. Musicians can control the geometry of the air-jet during their performance. They can, for example, decrease the distance from their lips to the labium when increasing the pitch. The presence of the musician and the variation of his position while playing modifies the boundary conditions at the opening which, in turn, impacts the passive resonances of the instrument/player system. Flute manufacture adapted empirically to take into account this effect but, until now, it was never systematically quantified. The main goal of this study is to quantify and model the influence of the musician’s presence and his movements as a modification on the radiation impedance of the instrument. Finite element simulations and experimental setups are implemented and described in order to fit experimental models. Such models are useful as a complement to physical models of flutes as well as to understand the choices made in flute manufacture.