Don,
I had the pleasure of hearing a similar demonstration of resultant tones with
Manny at the 2004 ITG Conference in Denver.
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Manny and Mike played several excepts (both on new Prana instruments) to demonstrate the concepts of section intonation and blending. Experiencing these qualities from top-flight players with vibrant ringing sounds on fantastic equipment from the front of the bell (only two rows back) was awe inspiring. They played a section from the 2nd movement of Beethoven Symphony No. 5 and the opening Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition.
The resultants that were ringing in the room were so powerful that they were literally pushing on everyone’s ears. From the back of the room Dave said, “Manny, I see a lot of people pulling on their ears. Could you give us a quick description of what were are all experiencing?” With time running out (we were down to the last 2-3 minutes, Manny quickly said that when two different pitches are played at the same time, the difference between the frequencies of the two notes generates a much lower “resultant tone”. For example, if two notes are played, one with a frequency of 100 and the other with a frequency of 50, the resultant is 50. Or another example with 100 and 75 would generate a resultant tone with a frequency of 25. He then asked Mike to play a C, and he would play an E to demonstrate. Mike played a low C instead of a third space C, so Manny opted to just play the 1st line E. Dave said, “Play that up an octave and we’ll be able to hear it 10 times better”. Sure enough, the pedal C resultant was pushing on our ears again!
For the end of the class we were all treated to the Final Hymn from Stravinsky’s Firebird (both the slow and fast themes). Again, the resultants were buzzing very loud on every note. Truly amazing! This class was a true highlight of the conference for me. I had a chance to introduce myself to Manny afterwards, he literally was standing right in front of me and I just reached out my hand to say hello. What a neat person!
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You wrote this in the other post on this topic in the General Trumpet Discussion section:
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...actually rattled the banks of lights when the trumpet sounds began to make the framework of the lights vibrate with the POWA' OF THE RESULTANT TONES!!! I saw more than just a few folks duck for cover...when the clips started to fall to the floor.
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I can totally see this happening. I don’t think that most players understand just how powerful this concept is. If they did, more people would cultivate this quality in their sounds.