WEBVTT - Composure and Elation 0:00:15.316 --> 0:00:25.516 Pushkin. Soon after I got home from Toyota City, I 0:00:25.556 --> 0:00:28.396 went to a dinner party at my brother's house in Canada. 0:00:29.196 --> 0:00:33.076 My brother and his friends are all seriously musical. There 0:00:33.076 --> 0:00:35.956 were three people there who had studied music theory in college. 0:00:36.636 --> 0:00:41.436 Three accomplished pianists, a violinist. I think almost everyone except 0:00:41.556 --> 0:00:44.676 me sings in a choir. At one point they started 0:00:44.676 --> 0:00:48.116 talking about a woman named Shirley, a music scholar who had, 0:00:48.356 --> 0:00:52.036 among other things, perfect pitch. Shirley used to have an 0:00:52.036 --> 0:00:55.836 old manual transmission car, and as she shifted up, she 0:00:55.876 --> 0:00:58.836 would call out the notes her car's engine was playing. 0:00:59.196 --> 0:01:00.516 If I was in a car with her, I could 0:01:00.556 --> 0:01:02.676 be like your cards, a scholaring what intervals this, and 0:01:02.716 --> 0:01:05.556 she could be like E flat B flat D flat. 0:01:05.676 --> 0:01:10.596 She could call her Yes, that's Annalie, the most serious 0:01:10.636 --> 0:01:13.636 of the serious music people at the table. She used 0:01:13.676 --> 0:01:16.516 to be a student of Shirley's. For the next ten minutes, 0:01:16.716 --> 0:01:20.276 all people did was swap Shirley stories. She's a bit 0:01:20.316 --> 0:01:24.116 of a legend. And then I chimed in. Since we 0:01:24.116 --> 0:01:27.876 were talking about the music that engines make, I began 0:01:27.916 --> 0:01:30.556 talking about what I had learned in Japan, about how 0:01:30.636 --> 0:01:34.556 Lexus fine tuned the engine sound of its cars, and 0:01:34.636 --> 0:01:37.996 as I was talking, I looked over it Annally and 0:01:38.156 --> 0:01:41.556 understand that Annalie is not a car person. She drives 0:01:41.556 --> 0:01:44.716 an ancient Honda Civic that looks like it survived at Tornado. 0:01:45.156 --> 0:01:47.476 I would venture to say she's never thought a moment 0:01:47.476 --> 0:01:50.796 about cars in her life, except to ask what does 0:01:50.836 --> 0:01:54.356 that warning light mean? And yet even as I was 0:01:54.436 --> 0:01:57.116 going on and on and on as I like to 0:01:57.156 --> 0:02:00.756 do about the nuances and particulars of the sound of 0:02:00.796 --> 0:02:04.876 the LC, I noticed, to my surprise that Annalie's face 0:02:05.036 --> 0:02:10.196 was like, oh my, that is genius. So I thought 0:02:10.276 --> 0:02:13.956 it would make sense with this episode to explain why 0:02:14.076 --> 0:02:17.556 a serious music person who's never thought a moment about 0:02:17.596 --> 0:02:20.956 cars in her life would hear about the engine note 0:02:21.276 --> 0:02:25.796 of the Lexus Elsie and go, oh my, that is genius. 0:02:26.756 --> 0:02:31.036 We're going to talk about Annalie and Shirley and this 0:02:39.996 --> 0:02:43.716 from Pushkin Industries and Lexus. This is go and see 0:02:44.236 --> 0:02:49.196 our podcasts about the fantastically neurotic world of Lexus. I'm 0:02:49.276 --> 0:03:02.156 Malcolm Glabbo. The last episode was about the building blocks 0:03:02.156 --> 0:03:06.196 of a great sounding engine. Naturally Aspirated cross Plain V 0:03:06.396 --> 0:03:11.516 eight all in surround sound. In this episode, I want 0:03:11.516 --> 0:03:14.876 to widen things out. So you've got the building blocks 0:03:14.876 --> 0:03:18.196 of a great engine sound. You've got your world class orchestra, 0:03:19.116 --> 0:03:26.276 the Toyota City Philharmonic. What song do you want to play? 0:03:31.756 --> 0:03:35.076 After dinner, I got Annalie to give me a little tutorial. 0:03:35.996 --> 0:03:38.436 I gave her a handout I'd been given from the 0:03:38.476 --> 0:03:42.396 sound experts at Lexis, which was in technical speak that 0:03:42.476 --> 0:03:45.796 I only vaguely understood, because, as I've explained, I'm a 0:03:45.836 --> 0:03:49.396 car person, not a music person. And the first thing 0:03:49.436 --> 0:03:53.636 she noticed was a sentence in the section entitled sound factor. 0:03:54.276 --> 0:04:00.196 Under the category formats, the LC produces at least two 0:04:00.276 --> 0:04:04.436 of the three senses, including composure, solidness, and elation at 0:04:04.476 --> 0:04:08.956 resonant frequencies, with four hundred herts producing a sense of 0:04:09.116 --> 0:04:13.476 composure and eight hundred hurts producing a sense of elation. 0:04:14.476 --> 0:04:18.716 What does that mean? What is a resonant frequency? Anily 0:04:18.876 --> 0:04:21.476 started talking about the game you can play with half 0:04:21.516 --> 0:04:24.636 empty wineglasses. A wine glass is a good way to 0:04:24.676 --> 0:04:26.876 model it because you're hearing one out and then we 0:04:26.956 --> 0:04:29.316 hear a range other of others kind of coming up 0:04:29.356 --> 0:04:32.276 to do it. Let's see you can get to work. Yeah, 0:04:32.716 --> 0:04:38.236 I'm sure you try this as a kid. You wet 0:04:38.276 --> 0:04:40.756 your finger and run it around the rim of the glass. 0:04:41.076 --> 0:04:45.196 At first, nothing happens. Then when the vibrations caused by 0:04:45.236 --> 0:04:48.876 your finger hit just the right level, the glass begins 0:04:48.916 --> 0:04:59.156 to sing with this full pulsating note. That's the sound 0:04:59.196 --> 0:05:03.396 of you reaching the wine glasses resonant frequency, the point 0:05:03.476 --> 0:05:07.716 at which it vibrates most freely. You can make music 0:05:07.996 --> 0:05:11.396 from resonant frequency. That's what singing bowls are. You have 0:05:11.476 --> 0:05:15.236 big glass bowls of various sizes, and the musician strikes 0:05:15.316 --> 0:05:18.436 them softly with a candle to get them vibrating at 0:05:18.436 --> 0:05:23.556 their resonant frequency. Anily found a demonstration on YouTube and 0:05:23.676 --> 0:05:26.716 played it for me. So he has a bawl that's 0:05:26.756 --> 0:05:28.996 the size of like a cooking bawl. Yep, and it's 0:05:29.036 --> 0:05:32.756 made out of crystal. This one is. And here is 0:05:32.796 --> 0:05:35.316 a stick. Yeah, And he's just as we were doing 0:05:35.316 --> 0:05:37.636 with the wine glasses. What he's doing is he's tracing 0:05:37.676 --> 0:05:40.916 a stick around the lip of the ball. Yeah. And 0:05:41.316 --> 0:05:43.916 the does he created in the beginning, what does he does? 0:05:43.916 --> 0:05:45.636 He create a single note in the beginning and then 0:05:45.956 --> 0:05:47.836 span So the way of the bullets that I've him 0:05:47.876 --> 0:05:49.796 in similar to a wine glass. Depending on how full 0:05:49.796 --> 0:05:52.236 the wine glasses will create a different pitch. Same thing 0:05:52.276 --> 0:05:53.916 with how the ball is structure. Any think how the 0:05:53.956 --> 0:05:55.716 ball is built. So he said at the beginning of 0:05:55.796 --> 0:05:58.156 sons in G flat major, so there's nothing he can 0:05:58.196 --> 0:06:00.316 do to change what he works. It begins in G 0:06:00.436 --> 0:06:02.996 flat mane and then so let's let's go back to 0:06:02.996 --> 0:06:06.116 the beginning. Just played that moment again. Does I start playing? 0:06:06.156 --> 0:06:16.916 Then c I was doing a second bowl, So he 0:06:17.396 --> 0:06:20.236 the bowl has a particular note. The first one was 0:06:20.276 --> 0:06:24.116 what G flat? So he plays it and then as 0:06:24.196 --> 0:06:28.436 it as the sound resonates within the bowl, which you 0:06:28.516 --> 0:06:33.676 get is a range of G flats above it up. Now, 0:06:33.716 --> 0:06:37.276 contrast that resonance to the sound produced by an instrument 0:06:37.356 --> 0:06:40.516 like an oboe. The walls of an oboe are rigid. 0:06:40.756 --> 0:06:44.716 They don't vibrate nearly as much. When you stop playing 0:06:44.716 --> 0:06:51.116 a note on the oboe, the sound stops. Now why 0:06:51.116 --> 0:06:53.876 does this matter, Well, remember back to that line from 0:06:53.876 --> 0:06:57.476 the Lexus Sound Manual. They wanted to create feelings of 0:06:57.556 --> 0:07:01.956 composure and elation. That oboe does not produce feelings of 0:07:02.076 --> 0:07:07.876 composure and elation. Figure Oh, yeah, it's so narrow. You 0:07:07.876 --> 0:07:11.956 don't hear any other sounds, no shimmer, no resonance. If 0:07:11.996 --> 0:07:18.076 your car made that noise, that's yeah, exactly. When I 0:07:18.116 --> 0:07:21.316 was in Japan, I found out that Lexus spent five 0:07:21.436 --> 0:07:25.396 years of experimentation and iteration on the acoustics of the 0:07:25.396 --> 0:07:28.676 Elsie's engine. They played with the length and thickness of 0:07:28.716 --> 0:07:32.476 intake hoses, with exhaust pipes, with the calibration of the 0:07:32.556 --> 0:07:36.196 sound regulator, and on and on and on to hit 0:07:36.436 --> 0:07:41.076 particular frequencies. The idea is to tune the car with 0:07:41.116 --> 0:07:44.756 four hundred hurts producing a sense of composure, and eight 0:07:44.836 --> 0:07:50.956 hundred hurts producing a sense of elation. Four hundred hurts composure, 0:07:57.156 --> 0:08:05.756 eight hundred hurts elation, and now the whole thing together. 0:08:12.476 --> 0:08:18.116 Oh my, that is so genius. But once you get 0:08:18.116 --> 0:08:21.916 the right frequencies, you're still not done. The Lexus briefing 0:08:21.996 --> 0:08:25.796 document had another line that confused me. It was under 0:08:25.836 --> 0:08:32.956 the heading spectral harmony realizes perfect sound intervals eight degrees 0:08:32.956 --> 0:08:36.316 in five degrees with three or more orders of vibration. 0:08:37.676 --> 0:08:41.796 I asked Annalie once again to explain, so basically, in music, 0:08:41.996 --> 0:08:44.036 I'm at a piano right now, We've got eight notes 0:08:44.036 --> 0:08:45.916 in what we call a scale on the piano, We've 0:08:45.916 --> 0:08:48.036 got eight different white notes, and these are kind of 0:08:48.036 --> 0:08:51.316 the foundations of piano music or any music in general, 0:08:51.316 --> 0:08:54.676 these eight different notes. And so the distance between two 0:08:54.756 --> 0:08:57.116 notes is what we call an interval. So I'm at 0:08:57.156 --> 0:09:00.196 a piano, so this is where I'm starting. This is 0:09:00.236 --> 0:09:04.676 one note away, that's interval of a second. Three notes away, 0:09:04.676 --> 0:09:17.556 it's an interval a third, five, six, seven, eight. So 0:09:17.596 --> 0:09:20.076 those are our kind of basic different intervals. So what 0:09:20.116 --> 0:09:23.036 we refer to when we say perfect intervals, we're referring 0:09:23.076 --> 0:09:27.076 to afferent fifth and an eighth. So in that line 0:09:27.116 --> 0:09:32.156 from Lexus realizes perfect sound intervals eight degrees and five degrees, 0:09:32.636 --> 0:09:35.436 that's what they're talking about. And so the reason that 0:09:35.436 --> 0:09:38.956 those those are considered perfect intervals is because when we 0:09:39.036 --> 0:09:41.596 have two notes that've got different frequencies, and it actually 0:09:41.596 --> 0:09:44.196 has to do with the frequencies between the two pitches 0:09:44.676 --> 0:09:46.556 being and what the ratio is. And so when you've 0:09:46.596 --> 0:09:50.476 got perfect intervals, the ratio is really small, and they 0:09:50.516 --> 0:09:53.476 sound just more pleasing, more pure, what we say is 0:09:53.516 --> 0:09:58.236 more consonant. And so these fifth and that's this eighth, 0:09:58.316 --> 0:10:02.236 those are pure sounds. So I have an example of 0:10:02.356 --> 0:10:05.356 these this fifth and this eight, these perfect intervals, which 0:10:05.396 --> 0:10:08.556 I think are are very well known, and it's from 0:10:08.556 --> 0:10:11.876 the two THO one, a Space Odyssey theme. Yeah, so 0:10:11.956 --> 0:10:13.836 this is this is what it is. I'll play it 0:10:13.876 --> 0:10:16.636 for you. So we start with one note and then 0:10:16.636 --> 0:10:19.356 we're going to build an eight, a perfect octave on top. 0:10:19.436 --> 0:10:20.796 Then we're going to add a fifth, and then we're 0:10:20.836 --> 0:10:25.756 going to add another octave. So here we go. So 0:10:25.796 --> 0:10:30.716 this is our base note. Hm, that's an octave above. Ye, 0:10:31.876 --> 0:10:40.756 that's another fifth above. That's another octave above, and that's 0:10:40.836 --> 0:10:43.836 nothing too, a perfect yeah. Yeah, yeah, So that's a 0:10:44.276 --> 0:10:47.636 that's an example of a of a progression using perfect 0:10:47.716 --> 0:10:52.876 intervals exactly. And it's there's something incredibly stirring about perfect 0:10:52.956 --> 0:10:57.636 intervals are familiar, powerful, iconic. I mean, it's fascinating when 0:10:57.676 --> 0:11:01.356 you watch when you sports are an super interesting example 0:11:01.396 --> 0:11:04.276 of that. Um so like taking up to the ball game, 0:11:04.516 --> 0:11:08.916 take may out that take may is an octave, that's 0:11:08.916 --> 0:11:10.996 the perfect eight, and so people will sing that and 0:11:10.996 --> 0:11:13.316 they don't know anything about music, don't want anything about intervals, 0:11:13.316 --> 0:11:15.556 but that that's just like natural for them. They'll be 0:11:15.596 --> 0:11:18.636 able to wait and then what's the take me, what's 0:11:18.676 --> 0:11:23.396 the third note? That's a major sixth? Yeah, which is 0:11:23.436 --> 0:11:25.636 not a which is not you break the perfect You 0:11:25.676 --> 0:11:27.716 begin with the perfect interval, and then you break it 0:11:27.756 --> 0:11:29.916 come out of it, yeah yeah, which gives the song 0:11:30.036 --> 0:11:32.836 poslutely makes it interest right right, yeah right, I'd be boring. 0:11:32.836 --> 0:11:34.796 And all the music we listened to sam with like space. 0:11:37.316 --> 0:11:41.156 But at the heart of that, that iconic beginning is 0:11:41.196 --> 0:11:44.476 they are referencing this perfect interval. Yeah, same, the somewhere 0:11:44.476 --> 0:11:48.276 over a rainbow some what that's an octave and then 0:11:48.276 --> 0:11:50.676 it goes out for rainbow we go, we get out 0:11:50.716 --> 0:11:53.356 of it. But that that perfect octave is the base 0:11:53.436 --> 0:11:56.316 of lots of our music. But not all intervals are perfect. 0:11:57.076 --> 0:11:59.836 If you don't sweat the details, you can have a 0:11:59.836 --> 0:12:02.396 lousy interval. I want you to give me an example 0:12:02.436 --> 0:12:05.156 of something that doesn't work, like using the same the 0:12:05.316 --> 0:12:10.596 same uh space Odyssey do and you do something with 0:12:10.756 --> 0:12:25.276 simple space his work. Now I think you see the 0:12:25.276 --> 0:12:28.116 point of all of this. The sound of an engine 0:12:28.156 --> 0:12:32.596 under acceleration is an interval. Now does anyone care what 0:12:32.636 --> 0:12:35.756 their food processor sounds like when it speeds up from 0:12:35.796 --> 0:12:44.196 low to medium to high no, a food processor is 0:12:44.236 --> 0:12:47.436 an appliance, but to the car nuts at Lexus, a 0:12:47.516 --> 0:12:55.076 car is not an appliance. It's a living, breathing piece 0:12:55.076 --> 0:12:58.756 of mechanical art that exists to bring pleasure to the driver. 0:12:59.556 --> 0:13:02.316 You start with what the driver wants, and you work 0:13:02.356 --> 0:13:05.676 backwards and what does the driver want in his or 0:13:05.756 --> 0:13:10.196 her heart? From that glorious naturally aspirate cross plane V 0:13:10.356 --> 0:13:26.796 eight a perfect acceleration interval composure relation. That's why Annalie's 0:13:26.796 --> 0:13:29.876 face said that is so genius. When I brought up 0:13:29.916 --> 0:13:34.036 the sound of the LC at the dinner party, realizes 0:13:34.116 --> 0:13:38.316 perfect sound intervals eight degrees in five degrees with three 0:13:38.476 --> 0:13:54.556 or more orders of vibration Musica Universe salis, It's totally pleasurable. 0:13:54.756 --> 0:13:56.876 I can only imagine how satisfying it would be to 0:13:56.876 --> 0:13:59.116 be in a car that as it as it runs 0:13:59.196 --> 0:14:01.436 up and gets fat, you know faster, is making these 0:14:01.476 --> 0:14:05.556 perfectly pleasing intervals that everyone wants to listen to. It's amazing. 0:14:06.836 --> 0:14:10.916 It's totally wild. I mean, so many people wanted aware 0:14:10.916 --> 0:14:12.756 of it. But like I was mentioned in this piano teacher, 0:14:12.796 --> 0:14:15.676 I had that you know as a cars as her 0:14:15.716 --> 0:14:18.116 cars were being actually aware of what the intervals are like. 0:14:18.556 --> 0:14:20.756 Ninety nine point nine percent of the population doesn't care 0:14:20.756 --> 0:14:25.236 about For people who notice, it's fantastic all out the wait, 0:14:25.236 --> 0:14:28.676 what's the name of your teacher? Shirley? Surely so, Alexis says, 0:14:28.716 --> 0:14:38.116 please Shirley, she will love us. Lexus needs to get Shirley. Shirley, 0:14:38.236 --> 0:14:48.076 wherever you are, you need to get yourself, Alexis. Go 0:14:48.236 --> 0:14:51.836 and See is produced by Jacob Smith with Emily Rosteck 0:14:51.996 --> 0:14:56.916 and Carl Migliari, edited by Julia Barton. Evan Viola composed 0:14:56.956 --> 0:15:00.476 our theme music and mixed and mastered our episodes. Special 0:15:00.516 --> 0:15:03.916 thanks to Jacob Weisberg, Head of Fame, Paul Williamson, the 0:15:04.036 --> 0:15:08.636 Mark Levinson engineers, and all the Lexus executives, engineers and 0:15:08.676 --> 0:15:13.476 designer who participated in our recordings. Go and See is 0:15:13.476 --> 0:15:18.196 a production of Lexus and Pushkin Industries. I'm Malcolm Webb.