Acoustics & Sound For Musicians - Online Book
The Theory Of Sound Which Constitutes The Physical Basis Of The Art Of Music.
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94 THEORY OF QUALITY IV. :7
tone is capable of but two degrees of loudness. Representing one of these by f and the other by p, we |
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mental tone is sounded forte, and the two overtones piano. The different cases which present themselves are the following: |
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rapidly as we take more partial-tones together. Thus a clang of four tones will produce 15 sounds of different quality; one of five tones 31; one of six tones 63, by variations of intensity only. Altogether we could form, with six partial-tones, each susceptible of only two different degrees of intensity, upwards of four hundred clangs of distinct quality, all having the same fundamental tone. The supposition above made utterly understates, however, the possible variety of quality dependent only on changes of relative intensity. A very slight increase or diminution of loudness, on the part of a single constituent tone, is enough to produce a sensible change of quality in the clang. We should be still far below the mark if we allowed each partial-tone four different degrees of intensity, though even this supposition would bring us more than eight thousand separate |
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