***
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THIS NOTION IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT IN MUSICAL ACOUSTICS.
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This is an
ongoing document; further entries will be added as they come to my attention. If
you know of a source that defines the word "timbre" (or discusses the
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GREG
SANDELL , PhD.- THE AUTHOR OF THIS COMPILATION
acoustics, zainea liviu , greece , diffusors , theory , articles , acoustical studies , sound insulation , acoustical materials
Definitions
Helmholtz { 1877)
"When we hear notes of the same force and same pitch sounded successively on a piano-forte, a violin, clarinet, oboe, or trumpet, or by the human voice, the character of the musical tone of each of these instruments, notwithstanding the identify of force and pitch, is so different that by means of it we recognise with the greatest of ease which of these instruments was used." (p. 19)
"...the amplitude of the vibration
determines the force or loudness, and the period of vibration the pitch. Quality
of tone can therefore depend upon neither of these. The only possible hypothesis,
therefore; is that the quality of tone should depend upon the manner in which
the motion is performed within the period of each single vibration." (p.
19)
"...to what extent can the differences of
musical quality be reduced to the combination of different partial tones with
different intensities in different musical tones?" (p. 65) "There has
been a general inclination to credit quality with all possible peculiarities of
musical tones that were not evidently due to force and pitch. This was correct
to the extent that quality of tone was merely a negative conception: But very
slight consideration will suffice to show that many of these peculiarities of
musical tones depend upon the way in which they begin and end: . . . differences
in the quality of tone of struck strings...partly depends on the rapidity with
which the tone dies away." (p: 66) "When we speak in what follows of musical
quality of tone, we shall disregard these peculiarities of beginning and
ending, and confine our attention to the peculiarities of the musical tone which
continues uniformly. But even when a musical tone continues with uniform or
variable intensity, it is mixed up, in the general methods of excitement; with
certain noises, which express greater or less irregularities in the motion of
the air." (p. 67) "Such accompanying noises and little inequalities in
the motion of the air, furnish much that is characteristic in the tones of
musical instruments... Notwithstanding the absence of these noises, it is
generally possible to discriminate the-different musical instruments; although
it must be acknowledged that under such circumstances the tone of a French horn
may be occasionally mistaken for that of the singing voice; or a violoncello may
be confused with an harmonium: . . . In the present chapter we shall at first
disregard all irregular portions of the motion of the air; and the mode in which
sounds commence or terminate, directing our attention solely to the musical part
of the tone, properly so called, which corresponds to a uniformly sustained and
regularly period motion of the air..." (p: 68)
"...differences
in musical quality of tone depend solely on the presence and strength of partial
tomes; and in -no respect on the differences in phase under which these partial
tones enter into composition. It must be here observed that we are speaking only of musical quality as
previously defined." (p: 127)
Fletcher
(1934)
Textbooks customarily believe that loudness,
pitch and timbre correlate directly with sound intensity, fundamental frequency
and overtone structure... "but these experiments show that a simple
one-to-one relationship does not exist." (p. 59)
One might define timbre as
"that characteristic of sensation which enables the listeners to recognize
the kind of musical instrument producing the tone, that is, whether it is a
cornet, a flute or a violin." (p. 67)
"...changes in loudness
or pitch; without in any way changing the overtone structures, will also produce
changes in timbre." (p. 68)
"...timbre depends
principally upon the overtone structure; but large changes in the intensity and
the frequency also produce changes in the timbre." (p. 68)
Seashore
(1938)
"Tone quality has two fundamental aspects, namely, (1) timbre; which is the simultaneous presence or fusion of
the fundamental and its overtones at a given moment, and (2) sonance, the
successive presence or fusion of changing timbre; pitch, and intensity in a tone
as a whole. The first may be called simultaneous fusion; the second; successive:
Each of these may be reduced to the constituent factors which are recordable and
measurable and, from the physical point of view, represent the structure of the
tone." (p: 95)
"In general, we may say that, aside from accessory noises and
inharmonic elements, the timbre of atone depends upon (1) the number of harmonic partials present, (2) the relative
location or locations of these partials in the range from the lowest to- the
highest, and (3) the relative strength or dominance of each partial." (pp.
96-97)
". . . we obtain a definition of
timbre as follows: Timbre is that characteristic of
a tone which depends uopn its harmonic structure as modified by absolute
pitch and total intensity. . . .we must also take phase relations into account.
Physically the timbre of the tone is a cross section of the tone quality for the
moment represented by the duration of one vibration in the sound." (p. 97)
Definition of sonance: he first observes that
when viewing a movie of any moving object; although we are being presented a
series of discrete snapshots of the object appearing stationary, our experience
is of actual motion of the object, because the successive snapshots fuse. "The
same principle of fusion appears in hearing. In tonal hearing, successive waves
come so fast that they cannot be heard as individual waves; that is, we cannot
separate the timbre or the pitch or the intensity in one wave from that in the
next wave by hearing. The result is that they fuse and for a given period of
time, the mean period of clear perception, we hear a resultant pitch; intensity;
or timbre which tends to be an average for what is represented in the series of
waves that can be grasped in one -moment of perception: The timbre of atone
corresponds to the single instantaneous picture; sonance correponds to the
picture progression." (pp.103-104) .
Wood (19??)
"Musical
'Quality'.--If a note of a
given pitch is played successively on two different musical instruments, and
played with exactly the same loudness, we can distinguish between the two sounds
and refer each to its appropriate instrument: The basis of this judgment is the
'quality' of the sound. The piano, the violin, the voice, the flute &c.,
each has its own characteristic 'quality'. The German word for it is 'klangfarbe;
the French word (frequently borrowed in English) is 'timbre'. But quality not
only enables us to distinguish between two notes produced on different kinds of
instruments, it also enables us to distinguish between two notes produced on two
different instruments of the same kind. What distinguishes the voice of one
singer from that of another and is characteristic of an individual voice is its
quality." (p. 61)
Licklider
(1951)
"The timbre of a complex sound has usually
been defined as the subjective quality that depends upon the complexity or
overtone structure of the physical sound. We have seen; however, that both the loudness and the pitch of a
complex tone are influenced to some extent by its overtone structure. We must,
therefore, not fall back upon the indefined notion that timbre has to do with
the distribution or pattern of pitch and loudness in the total sensation Until
careful scientific work has been done on the subject, it cam hardly be possible
to say more about timbre than that it is a 'multidimensional' dimension." (p.
1019)
Ellis
(1954)
Alexander Ellis, translator of Helmholtz's On
the Sensations of Tone; struggled with the decision of translating
Helmholtz's word Klangfarbe: "I can find no valid reason for supplanting the
time-honoured expression quality of tone. Prof.
Tyndall quotes Dr. Young to the effect that 'this quality of sound is sometimes called its register, colour, or timbre:' Register
has a distinct meaning in vocal music which must not be disturbed. Timbre,
properly a kettledrum, then a helmet, then the coat of arms surmounted with
a helment; then the official stamp bearing that coat of arms (now used in France
for a postage label), and then the mark which declared a thing to be what it
pretends to be, Brun's 'Guinea's stamp', is a foreign word, often odiously
mispronounced; and not worth preserving. Colour I have never met with as applied to music, except at most as
a passing metaphorical expression: But the difference of tones in quality
is familiar to our language." (p. 24, footnote)
ANSI (1960)
" 12.9 Timbre. Timbre is that attribute of
auditory sensation in terms of which a listener can judge that two sounds
similarly presented and having the same loudness and pitch are dissimilar.
NOTE:
Timbre depends primarily upon the spectrum of the stimulus, but it also depends
upon the waveform, the sound pressure, the frequency location of the spectrum,
and the temporal characteristics of the stimulus." (ANSI 1960, p: 45; also
in ANSI, 1973)
Levarie and
Levy (1968)
"When a violin and oboe; of instance, play
the same pitch with the loudness, we can yet distinguish the two tones by their
timbre. This property is often ailed the 'tone quality' or the'tone color.' ~e
advocate ignoring these names, because they tend to create confusion. Tone 'quality'
is too general, for logically pitch and loudness are also qualities. Tone 'color'
is an optical term which is out of place in acoustics." (p: 63)
"...the indirect bearing of loudness on
timbre. For as the loudness of atone increases, overtones are aroused that may
have been negligable before; and as it wanes; some overtones are dampened and
lost before others. The result is a change of timbre concomitant with a change
in loudness." (pp: 63-64)
"The point need not be belabored that the
smallest change in any agent participating in the creation of a tone...evokes a
change in the actually sounding overtone series and hence a corresponding
modification of the total timbre. . . . Any change of pressure or position
necessairly brings about a fresh overtone constellation; and if a new pitch or a
new degree of loudness is the primary purpose of such a change, timbre can
justifiably be thought of as an attribute that perpetually characterizes the
other properties of a tone. The singer Luisa Tetrazzini claimed that every pitch
has its appropriate 'natural' timbre, and many wind players would agree:" (p:
13?)
.Schouten
(1968)
"When describing a sound as it presents
itself to us in auditory perception we are able to characterize it by various
perceptual attributes. It may sound
loud or weak, high or low, long or short. These attributes: loudness, pitch and
duration are the easiest to ascertain in the overall impression of any sound.
For all other qualities we have scarcely more at our disposal thin the one and
all embracing term: timbre: A very vague way of brining all other unresolved
attributes under one general heading. This is an extremely disappointing state
of affairs. The tone of the violin, for instance; may sound [xerox copy
disfigures one or two words here] and long. But these easily perceptible
attributes are the very ones which are the least if invariant with respect to
the particular sound of a violin. The vague heading "timbre", though,
is precisely the one which covers those invariant acoustic properties which make
us recognize the violin." (p. 35)
"In most textbooks timbre is defined as
the overtone structure or the envelope of the spectrum of the physical sound.
This definition is hopelessly insufficient, as I hope to prove by demonstrating
that timbre can be expressed in terms of at least five major parameters . . .
" (p. 38)
The five parameters are "l. The range
between tonal and noiselike character, 2: The spectral envelope, 3. The time
envelope in terms of rise, duration and decay, 4. The change both of spectral
envelope (formant glide) or fundamental frequency microintonation), 5. The
prefix, an onset of a sound quite dissimilar to the ensuing lasting vibration."
(p. 42)
Risset and
Mathews (1969)
They cite the generally
accepted definition of timbre as "the attribute that enables the listener
to identify the instrument producing the tone." (p. 23)
Plomp
(1970)
He refines the ASA definition to "that
attribute of sensation in terms of which a listener can judge that two steady
complex tones having the same loudness, pitch and duration are dissimilar."
(p. 398)
Schouten's comments after Plomp: "We can
play a violin at different loudnesses, different durations and different pitches,
but it is always a violin: We say, well; that is its timbre. But this includes
many aspects..." (p. 411) He lists harmonic sounds, noiselike sounds,
contributions of the time envelope, the way the onset differs from the rest of
the tone, ete. Plomp agrees that we need more carefully defined words, and using
timbre to count for all of this is problematic.
Erickson
{1975)
"Clearly timbre is a
multidimensional stimulus: it cannot be correlated with any single physical
dimension." (p. 4)
"TIMBRE OR TONE COLOR? The word or phrase
we use as a handy reference is much less important than the idea to which it
refers. I generally use the term "timbre" but often use "tone
color" in the same sense. Neither term is very satisfactory, nor is "tone
quality" much of an improvement." (pp. 6-7)
"Objections may be raise that musical
timbre should be equated with the quality of the speaking voice rather than with
the individual speech sounds; that it is the 'clarinet quality' rather than the
individual sounds which is significant, and that the overall 'clarinet quality'
corresponds to the quality of a speaker's voice. I do not mean to exclude this
aspect of timbre: But overall 'clarinet quality' can be shown to have no clear-cut
one-to-one relationship to the acoustical signal either! We can no more
synthesize a clarinet from a single description of the signal than we can
synthesize all the ah sounds we use in speech from a single acoustical recipe.
Analysis of the gamut of clarinet tones might lead one the say that it is three
instruments, rather than one!"
(p. 3)
In the section called "Timbre as Carrier":
"The chief function of timbre in most Western concert music of the past has
been that of carrier of melodic functions. The differences of timbre at
different pitches and in different registers of instruments . . . have been
treated as nuances." (p. 12) The contrast is the use of timbre as objects,
where these differences are highlighted as much as possible (esp. by using
disjunct melodic lines that prevent the listener from hearing timbre regularity).
Grey {1975)
"Timbre may refer to the features of tone
which serve to identify that a musical sound originates from some particular
instrument or family of instruments, for example, that it is an oboe, or perhaps
some sort of double-reed instrument; or maybe just some woodwind instrument."
{p. 1)
Hajda,
Kendall and Carterette (1997)
"Based on research findings and [previous]
definitions... it is clear that timbre has two principle constituents: (1) It 'conveys
the identity of the instrument that produced it' (Butler, 1992, p. 238); and (2)
It is representable by a palette or family of palettes {see Martens, 1985) in
which tones from different sources can be related along perceptual dimensions.
The first constituent is nominal or categorical in nature: the clarinet has a
characteristic to its sound, regardless of the pitch, loudness, etc. The second
constituent is a hybrid of categorical and ordinal organisation [sic]: the
clarinet is not nasal and is therefore differentiated from the oboe, which is
nasal. On the other hand, the clarinet has attributes which make it unique:"
(p: 302)
Roederer
(1975)
"Timbre perception is, however, just a
first stage of the operation of tone source recognition---in music, the
identification of the instrument. From this point of view, tone quality
perception is the mechanism by means of which information is extracted from the
auditory signal in such a way as to make it suitable for: (1) storage in the
memory with an adequate label of identification, and (2) comparison with
previously stored and identified information. The first operation-involves
learning or conditioning. A child who learns to recognize a given musical
instrument is presented repeatedly with a melody played on that instrument and told: 'This is a clarinet.' Ibis brain extracts suitable
information from the succession of auditory stimuli, labels this information
with the qualification 'clarinet' and stores it in the memory. The second
operation represents the conditioned response to a learned pattern: When the child hears a clarinet play after the learning
experience, his brain compares the information extracted from the incoming
signal (i. e. the timbre) with stored cues, and, if a successful- match is found;
conveys the response: 'a clarinet.' On the other hand; if we listen to anew'
sound, e.g., a series of tones concocted with an
electronic synthesizer, our information-extracting system will feed the cures
into the matching mechanism, which will then try desperately to compare the
input with previously stored information: If this matching process is
unsuccessful; a new storage 'file' will eventually be opened up for this new,
now identified, sound quality. If the process is only partly successful; we
react with such judgments as 'almost like a clainet' or'like a barking trombone."'
(pp. 138-139)
Plomp
(1976)
"... harmonics manifest themselves in -the
specific quality or timbre of the
complex tone. . . . Timbre is multidimensional. ...we do not have a
unidimensional scale for comparing the timbres of various sounds. The singular
character of timbre become particularly apparent in the dictionary definition of
timbre as 'the characteristic quality of sound that distinguishes one voice or
musical instrument from another or one vowel sound from another' (Webster). In
this broad sense, timbre depends upon several parameters of the sound including
the spectral envelope and its change in time, periodic fluctuations of the amplitude or the fundamental
frequency, and whether the sound is a tone or noise" (p. 85)
Since we are dealing here exclusively with
steady-state periodic sounds, timbre, too, will be considered in its most narrow
sense as 'that attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which a listener can
judge that two steady-state complex tones having the same loudness and pitch;
are dissimilar'." (pp. 85-86)
"The broad definition of the dictionary
and the restricted one just given have one common characteristic: both are
virtually negative descriptions. They
stat that timbre is neighter loudness nor pitch but say no more than that. This
definitional vagueness is related to the multidimensionality of the attribute:
The tone of a trumpet, containing many strong harmonics, sounds much brighter
than a simple tone, but a bright-dull scale does not suffice for describing the diversity of auditory sensations of
various complex tones. As early as 1890, Stumpf listed no less than 20 relevant
semantic scales as wide-narrow, smooth-rough; round-sharp, etc:, concluding that
this wealth of adjectives is comparable only with those used by wine merchants
for extolling their products." (p. 86)
"...the ear is not as 'phase deaf as had
been suggested by earlier investigators." (p: &8) "...we may
conclude that the effect on timbre of varying the phase spectrum of a complex
tone is small compared with the effect of varying the amplitude spectrum."
(p. 91)
"...reverberation has...a substantial
blurring effect on...timbres... Similarly, it can be shown that the spectral
differences between the same vowel sounds produced by different speakers are not
much larger than the differences introduced by reverberation." (p. 101)
"...what is the effect
on timbre if we vary the fundamental frequency, fb, of the stimulus? . . . [it]
will depend upon whether timbre is
determined by the spectral envelope relative
to fb or by the absolute frequency
position of the spectral envelope
"clearly...timbre is determined by the
absolute frequency position of the spectral envelope rather than by the position
of the spectral envelope relative to the fundamental: . . . [Bismarck] found
that sharpness as the major attribute of timbre is primarily related to the
position of the loudness centre on an absolute frequency scale rather than to a
particular shape of the spectral envelope. . . . The dependence of timbre upon
frequency would imply that simple tones [sine waves] are also characterized by a
specific timbre, to be distinguished from their pitch: Low frequency tones do
indeed sound dull and high-frequency tones sharp... The observation that simple
tones have some resemblance; depending upon their frequency, with particular
vowles also supports this view. Subjects appear to be able to label simple tones
rather well in terms of vowels... This resemblance is related to the frequency
of the most characteristic formant or combination of formants." (p. 110)
o "The conclusion that sounds- with
different pitch sound most similar if their spectral envelops correspond does
not imply that no perceptual differences remain apart from pitch: The same vowel
pronounced by a male and a female speaker will sounds quite different. . . . ...the
spacing of the harmonics, determined by the fundamental
Pratt and
Dock (1976)
"Timbre-is that
attribute of auditory sensation wherby a listener can judge that two sounds are
dissimilar using any criteria other than pitch, loudness or duration."
Rasch and
Plomp (1982)
"Timbre is, after pitch and loudness, the
third attribute of the subjective experience of musical tones. Subjectively,
timbre is often coded as the function of the sound source or of the meaning of
the sound: We talk about the timbre of certain musical instruments, of vowels,
and of sounds that signify certain events in our environment (apparatus, sounds
from nature; footsteps, the slapping of a door; etc.)." (p: 12)
"In a restricted sense timbre may be
considered the subjective counterpart of the spectral composition of tones.
Especially important is the relative
amplitude of the harmonics. . . . Recent research has shown that temporal
characteristics of the tones may have a profound influence on timbre as well,
which has led to a broadening of the concept of timbre... Both onset effects (rise
time, presence of noise or inharmonic partials during onset, unequal rise of
partials, characteristic shape of rise curve, etc.) and steady state effects (vibrato,
amplitude modulation, gradual swelling, pitch instability; etc:) are important
factors in the recognition and, therefore, in the timbre of tones." (pp.
13-14)
"Sounds cannot be -ordered
on a single scale with respect to timbre. Timbre is a multidimensional
attribute of the perception of sounds." (p. 14)
Slawson
(1985)
He chooses to dispense with
the word timbre altogether; since the classical definition is inadequate, yet
widely accepted (p. 19)
A theory of sound color should be able "to
specify how to preserve color under changes in the loudness or the duration of a
sound. We would like to know how to change pitch without changing sound color:
Moreover; if sound color itself is a complex phenomenon made up a several
different aspects or dimensions, we must show how one aspect of color can be
held invariant as other aspects are varies." (p. 17)
"There is no agreement, however, about
what constitutes an element of sound color. Is sound color to be associated with
a specific musical instrument, say, a particular Stradavarius violin? . . . Or
should the sound of all instruments of the same type be
"Timbre (or tone color) . . . refers to
the differences of sound quality among various musical instruments, as well as
among the various syllables of speech (hah
vs. goo, for example). Sound vary
in timbre along several dimensions; just as the syllables pah, poh, tah and toh differ
on at least two dimensions. . . . timbre distinctions for speech sounds are
fundamentally the same as those required for musical sounds:" (p: 5)
"Timbre has always been the miscellaneous
category for describing the psychological attributes of sound; gathering into
one bundle whatever was left over alter pitch loudness, and duration had been
accounted for. Unlike the psychophysical relationships involved in the latter
categories, which are relatively straightforward, the relationship underlying
timbre are complex and multidimensional . . . The psychological attributes
lusterd under the heading timbre fall
along more than one psychological dimension; that is, sounds do not simply direr
in how much timbre they have. And there are several physical dimensions whose
variation causes changes in timbre that interact with each other in complex ways."
(p. 63)
Houtsma
(1989)
Interpretation of the ANSI (1960) definition:
"According to this definition, timbre is the subjective correlate of all
those sound properties that do not directly influence pitch or loudness. These
properties include the sound's spectral power distribution; its temporal
envelope . . . rate and depth of amplitude or frequency modulation, and the
dregree of inharmonicity of its partials. The timbre of a sound therefore
depends on many physical variables." (p. 157)
Krumhansl
(1989)
Problems in the definition of timbre:
. 1. "the complexity of acoustic measurements" (p. 43) which
usually consists of "taking the form of spectral energy distributions and
amplitude envelopes. These descriptions, however, are so complex that it is
difficult to isolate characteristics that distinguish between timbres." (p.
44)
. 2. "the assumed independence of timbre from other dimensions of
musical sound" (p. 43) "Can we really assume the differences in
spectral energy distributions are completely uncoupled from pitch perception
mechanisms in hearing?" (p. 44)
. 3: "generalizing the notion of
timbre beyond the set of traditional orchestral instruments"
Different levels of timbral description:
. 1. "the expressive variations available to performing musicians"
(45)
. 2. "commonalities shared by all
oboe tones, all bowed violin tones, all timpani tones, and so on" (45)
. 3. Broader family t3istinctions or method-of-production distinctions:
"percussive instruments, whose behavior is
determined completely at the instant when they are set into motion; and
instruments; such as blown and bowed instruments, whose behavior is controlled
continuously." (45)
Alternative set of distinctions for describing sound (viz: Schaeffer;
McAdams):
. 1. "varying degrees of temporal extent or musical complexity. . . .
single, discrete sound events that are heard as being produced by a single
source:" (45) . 2. "emergent
properties, such as texture, density, streams, and musical gestures." (45)
. 3. "larger-scale musical forms
or organizations that grow out of the sound material." (45)
Bregman
(1990)
On the ASA definition: "This is, of course; no definition at all.
For example; it implies
He points out that part of the problem may stem
from-the fact that pitch and loudness are controlled in musical instruments in
straightforward, consistent ways, but timbre is not. The methods of varying
timbre ''vary from instrument to instrument: . . . When we do find a
characteristic of sound that can be obtained on different instruments, such as
vibrato, the characteristic tends to be given a label and no longer falls into
the nameless wastebasket of 'timbre'." (p. 93)
His requirements for a vocabulary for timbre
include having labels for salient dimensions that should (1) "act in
psychologically simple ways" and should "have straightforward physical
definitions." (pp. 93-94) However; he also says: "Until such time as
the dimensions of timbre are clarified perhaps it is better to drop the term
timbre" (p. 94)
Rossing
(1990)
His table 5.1, "Dependence of subjective
qualities of sound on physical parameters" lists timbre as being weakly
dependent on pressure and duration, moderately dependent on frequency and
envelope, and strongly dependent on spectrum: (p: 80)
Comment on the ANSI (1960) definition: "This
definition suggests that judgment of timbre must take place under conditions of
equal loudness and pitch (and probably equal duration as well)." (p. 125)
"Timbre or tone quality depends on the
frequency of atone, its time envelope, its duration,
and the sound level at which it is heard. Under most conditions, the
timbre of a
complex sound is insensitive to the phase of its components:" (p: 137) .
Cho, Hall and Pastore (1993 )
"Normalization is a type of perceptual
constancy that can be loosely defined as the process by which the perceptual
system adjusts for differences between sources in order to preserve an intended
perceptual message." (p. 3) "Timbre is the subjective attribute of
source (instrument) that is based on invariant properties that uniquely
characterize the tones produced by the source: Unfortunately, the pursuit of an
adequate definition of timbre is both related to and dependent upon establishing
which characteristics (or combination of characteristics) are important for
perceptually determining an instrument's distinctive sound quality." (pp.
6-7)
Handel
(1995)
"We will use the term timbre to refer to
the perceptual qualities of objects and events; that is, 'what it sounds like.'
Traditionally, timbre has been thought of as related to one acoustically
measurable property such as that each note of xn instrument or each spoken sound
of one voice would be characterized by a single value of that property. . . .
due to the interactive nature of sound production, there are many stable and
time varying acoustical properties. It is unlikely that any one property or
combination of properties uniquely determines timbre. The sense of timbre comes
from the emergent, interactive properties of the vibration pattern. . . . One
possibility is that timbre is perceived in terms of the actions required to
generate the event. . . . The perception of the production invariances would
allow us to hear the same object in spite of large changes in the acoustical signal: Another possibility is that timbre is perceived simply in
terms of the acoustic properties and that the connection between the acoustic
properties and the object is learned by experience. In this view, the acoustic
properties are used to figure out what event was most likely to have produced
that sound." (p. 426)
Definitions
of the word "Timbre"
References
. American National Standards Institute (H960). USA Standard Acoustical Terminology (Including Mechanical Shock and Vibration) Sl.1-1960 (R1976). New York: American National Standards Institute.
. American National Standards Institute
(1973). Psychoacoustic terminology S3:20. New
York: American National Standards Institute.
. ANSI { 1960). See American National Standards Institute (1960). .
ANSI (1973). See American National Standards Institute (1973). . Bregman; A.
(1990). Auditory Scene Analysis. M:H.T. Press:
• Cho, J.L., Hall, M.D. and Pastore,
R.E. (1993). Normalization of musical instrument timbre. Unpublished manuscript.
. Rowling; V~. and Harwood; D: (1986). Music
Cognition: New York: Academic Press. .
Ellis, A. (1954). Translator's note. In Helmholtz (1877).
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