Reed vibration in lingual organ pipes without the resonators

Vibrations of plucked and blown reeds of lingual organ pipes without the resonators have been investigated. Three rather surprising phenomena are observed: the frequency of the reed plucked by hand is shifted upwards for large-amplitude plucking, the blown frequency is significantly higher than the plucked one, and peaks halfway between the harmonics of the fundamental frequency appear in the spectrum of the reed velocity. The dependence of the plucked frequency on the length of the reed reveals that the vibrating length at small vibrations is 3 mm shorter than the apparent free length. The frequency shift for large-amplitude plucking is explained by the periodic change of the vibrating length during the oscillation. Reed vibrations of the blown pipe can be described by a physical model based on the assumption of air flow between the reed and the shallot. Aerodynamic effects may generate and sustain the oscillation of the reed without acoustic feedback. The appearance of subharmonics is explained by taking into account the periodic modulation of the stress in the reed material by the sound field. Therefore, a parametric instability appears in the differential equation of vibration, leading to the appearance of subharmonics.