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Cryogenics and Brass instruments (NY Times Nov 3, 1999)

This article appeared in today's New York Times and may be of interest to the list.

John F.



By TERRY H. SCHWADRON


It was a chance meeting. Dr. Joseph Markoff, a Philadelphia ophthalmologist and a
classically trained trumpet player, was entertaining at a family party when one of the
guests made a startling proposition: would Dr. Markoff consider having his trumpet frozen?

"I thought he was some kind of nut," Dr. Markoff said.

"I could not imagine what he was talking about."

But the guest, Steven Wasser, a flute manufacturer, was perfectly serious. As president of
Powell Flutes, in Maynard, Mass., he had been experimenting with deep-freezing techniques,
and had become convinced that something musically interesting occurred as a result.
Cryogenics had a lot to offer musicians, he said.

Dr. Markoff, who knew of the uses of cryogenics in the operating room, was intrigued. He
agreed to send Wasser an old trumpet.

It was not a valued instrument, said Dr. Markoff, who described it as "best suited for a
lamp." But when he played it after it had been frozen, Dr. Markoff found the instrument
had become "one of the freest-blowing" and most superbly focused trumpets he had ever
owned.

Wasser said he had experienced such success with the freezing process that he now
regularly included that step in the flute-manufacturing process. "I don't publicize
cryogenics because I can't prove it scientifically," he said.

"But almost everyone who has tried a blind test picks the treated instrument."

Deep-freezing musical instruments may sound extreme, but it is just one example of how
brass and woodwind makers are wrestling with deciding just how much to allow technology to
remake their craft.

For hundreds of years, brass-instrument makers have tinkered with their processes and
hoarded their secret tricks like alchemists of old, all with the hope of making it easier
to amplify the sound made by a vibrating column of air. It is a business in which science
traditionally has run a distant second to the art of tailoring the instrument to the
musician. The musician is invited to visit the factory and all but create the instrument
in hope of supplying a perfect combination of acoustics and alloys to satisfy the human,
if not the scientific, ear.

As the technological revolution expands into music, however, instrument makers find
themselves split over whether to welcome or shun the economic benefits of computerization,
robots and precision tooling. While the new technologies can make manufacturing cheaper,
instrument manufacturers resist a one-size-fits-all approach. They talk about another
goal: the creation of instruments individually suited to the musicians who play them.

"In the end, every instrument is different," said Richard K. Breske, vice president of
United Musical Instruments of Elkhart, Ind., one of the largest musical instrument
manufacturers. "We stretch metal and pound it, heat it, cool it. We give people
interchangeable parts to make the sound brighter or darker, more or less resistant and
then make lots of small changes to fit the sound our musicians want," he said.

So United, which makes instruments under brand names like Conn and Benge, as well as
Yamaha Musical Products, the Edwards Instrument Company, the Getzen Company and the Selmer
Company, makers of Bach instruments, all now sell brass instruments with multiple bells,
lead pipes and other parts that vary in size or thickness or alloy. The variety is all
meant to help musicians who are trained to hear such differences more easily make the
sounds they prefer.

A yellow bell on a trombone, for example, is generally about 70 percent copper and 30
percent zinc; a noticeably more red bell is about 90 percent copper, 10 percent zinc. Jazz
musicians generally seek the yellow bell for its "brighter" tones, while redder bells seem
more preferred among symphony musicians, who seek "darker" coloration in sound. The
difference is in the timbre of the sound rather than in loudness or range. Attentive
concertgoers might see musicians changing instruments for different pieces.

The basic processes of producing a horn have remained unchanged for decades, even
centuries. Brass alloys are stretched, cut, hammered, spun. The metal is shaped against
hard surfaces, brazed, soldered and buffed. Some companies are using computer-guided
production and robots for hammering, but the basic idea is age-old.

But somehow, some instrument makers believe, these manufacturing techniques seem to be
causing problems.

"All that soldering, bending, banging causes actual stress in the metal itself," said
Andrew Naumann, director of development for trumpets at Edwards. Naumann, who himself
builds models of historical trumpets, explained that stretching and soldering "can make an
instrument blow 'tight' rather than freely. It is that free sound that most professionals
want."

Enter cryogenics.

Stretching metal into the contortions that make up the average trumpet or tuba may upset
the alloy's molecular structure. What was a discernible arrangement of molecules becomes
less orderly, and stressed. Heat may make metal more malleable, but it may also spread the
molecules. Supercooling treatments appear to return the molecules to a more orderly
arrangement, relieving stress in the metal.

Or so goes the theory.

Almost all the scientific work on supercooling metal has involved ferrous metals, steel
mostly. Brass has received little attention, relatively speaking. In fact, a dozen or more
companies around the country offer to deep-freeze a variety of steel products, including
razor blades, golf clubs and drill bits. They display performance charts assuring greater
longevity and hardness in metal after cryogenic treatment.

So why not musical instruments? Those who have tried the deep-freeze say there is a
difference in ease of playing and in the range of "color" in the tone.

Wayne Tanabe, owner of the Brass Bow music repair shop in Arlington Heights, Ill., has a
cryogenics tank big enough to hold a tuba.

For about $200, Tanabe cleans an instrument with ultrasound, then he wraps it, and, over
35 to 50 hours, he gradually lowers its temperature to about 325 degrees below zero
Fahrenheit, well above absolute zero (459 degrees below zero Fahrenheit).

As Tanabe explains it, the extreme cold can accelerate what seems to happen to brass
instruments as they age. Sound quality improves, he said, because resonance is clearer. He
believes that his is a once-in-a-lifetime treatment, and that the effects last
indefinitely.

Tanabe offers testimonials from musicians, including several from the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra. But his advertising is by word of mouth. "Otherwise, people think you're
talking about voodoo," he said.

Because there has been little scientific research on the effect of extreme cold on musical
instruments, several of the larger manufacturers have decided not to pursue such
techniques. "We've heard about it, but we cannot show that it works," said Breske of
United Musical Instruments. Fred Powell, who directs brass instrument development for
United, said that the techniques might relieve structural stress, but that there was no
evidence that the metal changed.

Even some specialized brass instrument manufacturers are skeptical. David G. Monette of
Portland, Ore., has built the unusual, recognizable trumpets that Wynton Marsalis uses. At
seven pounds, his trumpets, which include a built-in mouthpiece and a rare inner and outer
bell, can weigh up to three times as much as more popular trumpets. "Brass is brass,"
Monette said. "It is what you do with it that matters."

Cryogenics, he said, "is the poor man's answer to problems in resonance," the problems of
creating a pleasing tone.

Monette believes in the theories about stress, but says he has a secret proprietary
manufacturing process that is a better antidote. He was part of a study performed by the
Materials Research Society with Sandia National Laboratories that probed resonance both in
his trumpets and in a golf club he produced. The study suggested that the patterns of
resonance were similar. "Resonance is the name of the game," Monette said. "It is what we
all are after." .

By contrast, Powell Flutes, which uses precious metals, not brass, has been swayed, even
if Wasser cannot prove his belief. Wasser, the company's president, has sought scientific
verification for introducing cryogenics to his manufacturing process for several years,
ever since he learned that supercooling had helped strengthen fasteners used on the space
shuttle.

At least one expert rejects Wasser's theory. Dr. Harry C. Gatos, a retired professor of
materials science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a flute player,
insisted that several diagnostic tests he and a team had run could turn up no measurable
differences in silver, gold or platinum used in the instruments that had been supercooled.
Furthermore, he said, if there had been any change, it would probably wear off. "Theory
tells us that nothing should happen under cooling, and we saw no evidence of it," he said.
"But people swear they feel a difference."

Dr. Markoff, the ophthalmologist, has been spreading the word about cryogenics among 20
musicians in the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he is a substitute player. As a result,
about 45 instruments have been frozen, and while results were not uniform, many musicians
described the sound as "richer" and "more focused" and the instruments as having "easier
response."

Scientifically, Dr. Markoff said, "I believe that cryogenics stabilizes the brass and
reduces extraneous vibrations and harmonics. It dampens whatever interferes with resonance
and eliminates obstacles between the musician's lips and air column and the instrument.
But the bottom line is that it makes me sound better."


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