The John Backus Archive

Publications of John Backus

Patent:

• Reeds for Woodwind Instruments, U.S. Patent No. 3,420,132, issued January 7, 1969.

Book:

• The Acoustical Foundations of Music, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, May 1969.

Papers in Musical Acoustics and Music:

• A standard terminology for musical notes, Bulletin of the National Association of Singing Teachers, 15(2):28-29 (1958).
• Pseudo-science in music, Journal of Music Theory, 4:221-232 (1960).
• Vibrations of the reed and the air column in the clarinet, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 33:800-809 (1961).
• Die Reihe - A scientific evaluation, Perspectives in New Music, 1:160-171 (1962).
• Small vibration theory of the clarinet, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 35:305-313 (1963).
• Acoustical investigations of the clarinet, Sound, 2(3):22-25 (1963).
• Research on the woodwinds - some experimental results, Instrumentalist Magazine, 18(7):40-42 (1964).
• Effect of wall material on the tone quality of woodwind instruments, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 36:1881-1887 (1964).
• Wall vibrations in organ pipes and their effect on the steady state tone quality (with T.C. Hundley), Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 39:936-945 (1966).
• Resonance frequencies of the clarinet, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 43:1272-1281 (1968).
• A plea for conformity, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 44:285 (1968).
• Reply to `Comments on "A plea for conformity"', Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 46:476 (1969).
• Harmonic generation in the trumpet (with T.C. Hundley), Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 49:509-519 (1971).
• Input impedance curves for the reed woodwind instruments, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 56(4):1266-1279 (1974).
• Acoustic impedance of an annular capillary, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 78:1078-1081 (1975).
• Input impedance curves for the brass instruments, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 60:470-480 (1976).
• Erratum: `Small vibration theory of the clarinet' and a discussion of air column parameters, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 61:1381-1383 (1977).
• Multiphonic tones in the woodwind instrument, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 63(2):591-599 (1978).
• The Effect of the Player's Vocal Tract on Woodwind Instrument Tone, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 78(1);17-20 (1985).

Musical Acoustics Abstracts of Presentations Given at Meetings (complete through 1970 only):

• Studies of the vibrations of clarinet reeds, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 32:935 (1960).
• Vibrations of the air column and the reed in the clarinet, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 32:1493 (1960).
• Influence of the reed on the vibration frequency of clarinet tones, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 33:862 (1961).
• Behavior and properties of clarinet reeds, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 33:1652 (1961).
• Variation with loudness of the harmonic structure of clarinet and bassoon tones, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 34:717 (1962).
• Experimental check of theoretical expressions for frequency shift and minimum blowing pressure in the clarinet, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 34:1994 (1962).
• Frequency shift for loud tones of the clarinet, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 35:771 (1963).
• Vibration of the clarinet body and its contribution to clarinet tone, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 35:1901 (1963).
• Effect of wall material on organ pipe tone - An evaluation of some earlier experiments, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 36:1025 (1964).
• Effect of steady air flow on the resonance frequencies and Q's of the clarinet, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 36:2014 (1964).
• Measurement of clarinet resonance frequencies, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 37:1203 (1965).
• Wall vibrations in organ pipes and their effect on tone, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 38:912 (1965).
• Clarinet reed parameters, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 39:1220 (1966).
• Effect of warping of the reed tip on clarinet tone, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 40:1252 (1966).
• Resonances in the bassoon, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 41:1608 (1967).
• Sound production in the woodwind and brass instruments, Preprint No. 568 of an invited paper given at the April 1968 meeting of the Audio Engineering Society.
• Resonances in the brass instruments and the hand-stopping of horns, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 44:367 (1968).
• Trumpet air column overloading, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 47:131 (1970).