ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA Vol. 101 (2015) 224 – 237 DOI 10.3813/AAA.918821 How Does a Flute Player Adapt His Breathing and Playing to Musical Tasks? Camille Vauthrin 1) , Benoît Fabre 1) , Isabelle Cossette 2) 1) Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR 7190, Institut Jean le Rond d’Alembert, 75015, Paris, France. CNRS, UMR 7190, Institut Jean le Rond d’Alembert, 11, rue de Lourmel, 75015 Paris, France. vauthrin@lam.jussieu.fr 2) Schulich School of Music/MPBL/CIRMMT, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada Summary This study was triggered by the flute players’ and teacher’s claim that a high quality of playing cannot be reached without a precise control of the breathing, starting during preparatory phases. Among all the controls developed by the musician, the work focuses on the interactions between respiratory activity and hydrodynamical parameters during flute music performance. In order to study these interactions, the following parameters are measured during the playing of a flautist: muscle activation, chest-wall compartment displacement and volume, blowing pressure in the mouth, lip position, and radiated sound. All these measurements are taken simultaneously, using a combined set-up developed to acquire both respiratory and hydrodynamical data. Three musical excerpts with different complexities (one scale and two pieces of the flute repertory) are analyzed. The results show that in preparation to a long musical phrase, the player takes a deeper and longer inhalation than for a standard phrase and, that he needs to develop a specific control of flow for playing. This control of flow requires the flautist, as opposed to normal breathing conditions at rest, to coordinate the respiratory muscles while expiring. This control, in correlation with the lip geometry, allows the player to produce musical variations such as “dynamics”. Additionally, the respiratory analyses show that the flautist develops three different patterns of chest volume variations, one for each of the three musical tasks. Finally, a simple, qualitative model is presented in order to link respiratory and aerodynamic parameters to muscular activity, mouth pressure and chest volume during flute playing. PACS no. 43.75-z, 43.75.Qr, 43.75.St 1. Introduction Music performance requires that the instrumentalist devel- ops, through long training, an expert control of playing. In order to play the requested pitch, amplitude and timbre as- sociated to musical pieces, the instrumentalist must con- trol his fingers, lips and many respiratory parameters. This aim of this study is to understand how the flautist’s respi- ratory activity and control parameters are linked to achieve musical tasks. Our first goal is to establish an experimen- tal set-up which allows the simultaneous measurements of the hydrodynamical parameters (mouth pressure, motion of the lips, and radiated sound), and the respiratory pa- rameters (chest-wall compartment volume variations and respiratory muscle activations). The hydrodynamical and aeroacoustical analyses give information on how to adjust the control parameters according to the musical tasks per- formed. The analysis of the respiratory parameters allows Received 20 March 2014, accepted 21 January 2015. us to quantify the displacements of the chest-wall compart- ments during inspiration and expiration and to identify the muscular activation associated with the displacements. Si- multaneous measurements of the parameters allow us to understand how they are linked together during musical tasks. Before statistics can be used on the relevant parameters, one must understand how the flautist adapts and coordi- nates his playing technique according to different musical tasks and to the complexity of the score in order to obtain a fine understanding and definition of the parameters. Three musical tasks presenting different complexities in terms of register, dynamic and time duration were observed. The first excerpt is a G Major diatonic scale; the two next ex- cerpts constitute pieces of the flute repertoire: Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Beethoven Leonore Overture n o 3. Each excerpt was performed on an average four times until the quality of musical performance and data acquisition was deemed satisfactory. Therefore, three performances were selected out of twelve measurements. First, you will find below a short synthesis of previous studies on flute respiratory and acoustical control param- 224 © S. Hirzel Verlag · EAA