Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 11th November 2011, 02:59 AM

I'm going to make a comment here that is not directly pertinent to gongs, nor indeed to percussion instruments in general, but to my mind, it is relevant to the the tonal qualities of various metals used in musical instruments.

I've played flute for about 40 years. I can't say I'm much of an artist:- I'm not, and the flutes I have range from terracotta and bambu to a good C flute with a solid silver head joint. Amongst flautists there has been ongoing discussion for as long as I can remember about the relative tonal qualities of the various metals used for flutes. I won't go into these arguments, it could fill this website, but the crux of the matter is this:- James Galway, is recognised as a very good flautist, and he has gone on record as saying that he cannot tell the difference by listening to a CD of his performance which flute he is playing:- gold, silver, silver plate, tin. Other elite flautists can produce the tone of a gold flute from a silver flute by using embouchure variations. It is generally agreed that the important factors are craftsmanship in the making of the flute, and skill in its playing.

Maybe one of the reasons why a silver flute sounds better in the hands of a hack than a factory produced plated flute is because greater care has been taken in its production.

Maybe the reason why brass gongs sound tinny is because greater care is taken in production of bronze gongs.

Maybe extreme care is taken in production of a gong that contains gold, and maybe only very good artists get to play those gongs containing gold, thus they always sound superior.

11th November 2011, 02:59 AM	#27
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,706	I'm going to make a comment here that is not directly pertinent to gongs, nor indeed to percussion instruments in general, but to my mind, it is relevant to the the tonal qualities of various metals used in musical instruments. I've played flute for about 40 years. I can't say I'm much of an artist:- I'm not, and the flutes I have range from terracotta and bambu to a good C flute with a solid silver head joint. Amongst flautists there has been ongoing discussion for as long as I can remember about the relative tonal qualities of the various metals used for flutes. I won't go into these arguments, it could fill this website, but the crux of the matter is this:- James Galway, is recognised as a very good flautist, and he has gone on record as saying that he cannot tell the difference by listening to a CD of his performance which flute he is playing:- gold, silver, silver plate, tin. Other elite flautists can produce the tone of a gold flute from a silver flute by using embouchure variations. It is generally agreed that the important factors are craftsmanship in the making of the flute, and skill in its playing. Maybe one of the reasons why a silver flute sounds better in the hands of a hack than a factory produced plated flute is because greater care has been taken in its production. Maybe the reason why brass gongs sound tinny is because greater care is taken in production of bronze gongs. Maybe extreme care is taken in production of a gong that contains gold, and maybe only very good artists get to play those gongs containing gold, thus they always sound superior.