Pattern Recognition in Music on the Example of Reconstruction of Chest Organ from Kamień Pomorski

Abstract

The chest organ, which gained popularity at the beginning of the 17th century, is a small pipe organ the size of a large box. Several years ago, while compiling an inventory, a previously unidentified chest organ was discovered at St. John the Baptist’s Co-Cathedral in Kamień Pomorski. Regrettably, the instrument did not possess any of its original pipes. What remained, however, was an image of the front pipes preserved on the chest door. The main issue involved in the reconstruction of a historic instrument is the restoration of its original tuning (temperament). Additionally, it is important to establish the frequency of A4, as this sound serves as a standard pitch reference in instrument tuning. The study presents a new method that aims to address the above-mentioned problems. To this end, techniques to search for the most probable temperament and establish the correct A4 frequency were developed. The solution is based on the modeling of sound generation in flue pipes, as well as statistical analysis to help match a model to the parameters preserved in the chest organ drawing. Additionally, differentalues of the A4 sound values were defined for temperatures ranging from 10 ∘C to 20 ∘C. The tuning system proposed in 1523 by Pietro Aaron proved to be the most probable temperament. In the process of testing the developed flue pipe model, the maximum tuning temperature was established as 15.8 ∘C.

Analytics and Applications of Audio and Image Sensing Techniques

“…P. Wrzeciono in his paper [ 3 ] presents his work on finding the original tuning (temperament) and the reference pitch which allowed the reconstruction of pipes in the chest organ from the 17th century, found in Kamień Pomorski (West Pomerania, Poland). This process had to rely basically on the original picture of organ pipes, found on the instrument’s doors, and historical sources that allowed estimating the temperature in this region in 17th century, as the temperature determines the speed of sound in air and the frequency of the sound wave generated by a pipe.…”