Many years ago, I had a director of a community band preach this notion of the Sound Pyramid.  The concept from (http://www.theconcertband.com/band-training/balance-a-blend.html):

The Pyramid Approach

A more sophisticated approach to the problem of balance and intonation is identified with the composer Francis McBeth [Effective Performance of Band Music, Southern Music Company, 1972]. It is based on the theory that, at any given dynamic level, the higher pitched instruments should be playing softer than the lower pitched ones. This is consistent with the notion that players should be able to hear the bottom notes of the chord so that they can tune to them.  McBeth illustrates the concept with the use of an isosceles triangle.  Today, however, the idea is more commonly known as the pyramid approach.

Once again the band is divided into groups, this time into four as illustrated in the following diagram.  The width of the triangle is a measure of volume, so that the higher the voice, the softer the sound.

A particular incident during Christmas time sparked a rather interesting incident.

We were playing “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and we came up to a choral part that had pretty much the entire band playing half notes. The director stopped the band. “Remember the sound pyramid” He chastised the band. “Flutes and Trumpets are too loud”  And then he made a triangle with his index fingers and thumbs. I reacted naturally to the musical gangsta symbol the way a vampire reacts to a crucifix.

So my friend and I, the only two 1st trumpets decided we were just going to blow air through the horn and wiggle our fingers – not making any noise.

We played the passage again. The director stopped. “You see how much better sounding that was. Don’t you like the sound you make?”

Jokes about instrument families aside (because they get in the way of a REAL discussion about dynamics and the sad fact is our society slowly allows comedy to become perceived reality), my friend and I were really having enough of this notion of the sound pyramid.

It didn’t make sense – it wasn’t what we heard in the music we listened to (nobody tells Maynard to play softer than the bass). It didn’t even fit the classical.

So my friend Bryan emailed Dr. Francis McBeth personally and explain our situation. Here is his email:

Dear Mr. Wollenberg,

Thank you for your e-mail. It is one of the
most unusual I have ever had and I can certainly
understand your concern.

To get right to the problem, sometimes you lower
in volume the soprano, but then just as often you
pull up the volume in the bass instruments. In a
band with reasonable instrumentation, it is always
balanced at pp, p, and mp. Where the balance gets
messed up is in ff tutti passages, but if the lower
brass are loud enough, I will pull down the trumpets,
but to never less than a forte.

My system is not just my system. It is an acoustical
fact that the higher the tessitura the less volume
is needed to be heard. But you can still get good
balance with the trumpets playing ff if the lower
brass can handle it.

I can certainly see your frustration if the upper
parts are always brought down in volume and the
lower parts are never increased, because a band
cannot play too loud if they don’t lose pitch, tone
quality and balance. I don’t think I ever change
the balance except in ff sections and maybe sometimes
forte sections. I hope this explains it.

I hope I am not late in answering this. I just arrived
home. Good luck to you in the future.

Best wishes,

Francis McBeth

A couple of things to take from this email. First is “reasonable instrumentation”. A band with 15 trumpets and 1 tuba would not be balanced. That’s not to say you need a 1:1 ratio.

The other point is “in ff tutti passages” – that means when low and high voices are playing the same note in different registers. This is actually VERY important – and I see all the time in trumpet sections where a lead is being doubled down an octave. The bottom show always try to play strong to provide support for the upper voice – so the high voice can “get inside” the lower note. But this is a very SPECIFIC type of moment in music- not a general blanket statement.

But as a some-times sound engineer I took this a little further. Unfortunately my acoustic science is not complete so anyone is encouraged to supplement it.

Taking a look at a recording of Kaddish from US Air Force Band of the West under the direction of Francis McBeth himself. Here is an excerpt:

kaddish

Here is a slice of the last chord showing what frequencies are present:

There is a slightly downward slope to the chart – but it’s not as big as what some pyramid practitioners would want you to think (I’ve heard some music educators say the bass should be forte and the sopranos should be piano).

But when you listen to it… the alto voices sound most prominent… this leads me to something that I think is in line with McBeth’s idea:

It’s not that the bass notes need to be perceived louder to be in balance – but that a balanced band will have the bass notes that are louder.

This may sound strange at first. Because our ears perceive higher pitched instruments easier, the bass notes need to be “physically” louder (when judged by a non biased system ie. a recording) in order to sound “in balance” – That’s NOT to say that the bass is perceived louder.

So you’re not suppose to think… the soprano note needs to be softer than the bass… you should think: the soprano needs to be balanced with the bass and when you compare the notes on a frequency chart, you’ll find that they are.

I also think that bass instruments are capable of much more “wattage” for lack of a better word.  A Tuba can put out more sound than a piccolo but a piccolo being in the upper register will be perceived more easily.

And it’s here where my acoustical science really breaks down. Here’s another sample from Jupiter also by US Air Force Band West:

holstjup

Rendered this with far more resolution – this is the ending note from Jupiter. The bass note (around 240hz) actually has less power than the tenor note (around 375hz).

And yes, my analysis doesn’t include the overtones generated by the notes and that might make up for some of the rather “flat” looking frequencies. My knowledge on frequency analysis comes from experimentation only…

Examining these different charts eventually leads me to the final conclusion – there is no one “right” balance in terms of upper and lower voices. A dark piece might feature more bass – a bright piece might feature upper voices more. You can’t just say, “always play softer than the bottom note”

Here’s that Grinch song:
Grinch

There’s no bass whatsoever in that song…

So bottom line – the pyramid approach as it’s being taught as a one size fits all concept of balance is simply ridiculous. It’s a perversion by over-simplification of acoustic principles.

Ultimately, you have to listen and judge what kind of balance you want.

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