| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Timbral Trivia October 1999 |
| |
| Accordion
Accordions and harmonicas have free reeds. When blown by an air stream these reeds vibrate without having a pipe. In an accordion this is produced by pleated bellows. In a mouth organ it is produced by ... Acousmatic A sound which no longer has any association with its source. Air guitar Air guitars have been tried by everybody and rely solely on the imagination. They radiate a brilliant though silent sound and enable the performer play any song they wish. Arco Musical direction for String players - Stop your plucking! Use your bow! |
|
| D
| Damper
In a Piano it prevents the strings from vibrating when a note is no longer pressed down. Dampers are also used on drums. Didgeridoo Read about it, listen to it, see a picture of one, learn how to spell it. Where? Drums The only drums that can be tuned to actual pitches are kettle drums or timpani. They look like big cauldrons and there are usually two or three in an orchestra. They can sound like thunder. Drum kit A Hi-hat is a pair of cymbals on a stand. A pedal is used to close them with a short clash. The upper cymbal can be made ring by striking it with a stick. A Crash cymbal is suspended from an adjustable stand. It gives a resounding crash when struck with a stick. It's free to swing and vibrate and is used for dramatic effect. A Ride cymbal is often played with a stick in a 'ride' rhythm. A Snare drum has a set of tight wires stretched across its base, out of view. Striking the drum causes these wires to vibrate against the lower skin and this adds a sharp crack to the sound of the drum. The Bass drum lies on its side and is played with a pedal connected to a felt-covered beater. It gives a short deep thud. Two Toms (or tom-toms) are mounted on the Bass drum. They give high-pitched, mellow notes. They each have a single head, which may be damped. The Floor Tom is a large tom-tom which gives a deep resonant note. It is played by mallets or the palms of the hands. Drummers mainly use sticks, brushes or mallets to play the drums and cymbals. Brushes give the quietest sound. |
| E
| Ear
The human ear can hear sounds ranging from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Scientists are still not sure how the ear is able to distinguish between different timbres. Electroacoustic Electroacoustic describes music in which the use of an electronic component is vital to the piece. Click here for more information and some soundbytes. Envelope How a sound varies in time from initial attack to release. The flute has a longer attack than any other orchestral instrument - the notes start with high frequency resonances caused by the start of blowing. Euphonium Smaller than a tuba. The adjective 'euphonious' means mellow or tuneful or pleasant or harmonious or sweet. Use this word and see people's reactions. |
| F
| Fender
Leo Fender built the first solid-body electric guitar in 1944. This is the semi-acoustic Thinline Telecaster (1973). Favoured by Air guitarists everywhere. Flute The harmonic content in flute notes varies greatly with dynamics - very soft notes sound like pure sine tones while very loud notes contain numerous strong overtones. Frequency The number of vibrations per second, expressed in Hertz, which is not just a car-rental company. The more repetitions per second, the higher the pitch. |
|
| G
| Gong
Unlike a bell which produces the greatest vibrations when struck around the rim, the gong is suspended from its rim and struck at its centre. The sound then vibrates from the centre to the outer edges resulting in an ominous booming sound - strangely enough, often inviting you in for dinner. Guitar In many musical instruments, the driving system imposes its vibrations on another system which radiates the sound. This is why you get very little sound from an electric guitar - unless it's connected to an amplifier - in comparison to the sound from an acoustic guitar. The sound you hear from an electric guitar is NOT coming directly from the string. The string is causing the air in the body of the guitar to vibrate and an acoustic guitar is designed to radiate this sound whereas the body of an electric guitar isn't. The electric guitar relies on electrical amplifiers. |
|
| H
| Hammond
organ An additive synthesis instrument based on electromechanical tone-wheels. Different mixtures of the various harmonics can be adjusted by pulling 'drawbars' above the musical keys. Harmonics The other frequencies that are set off, in varying degrees of intensity, when a note is sounded. They are whole-number multiples of the 'main note'. The strength of individual harmonics determine the timbre of a sound. | |
| I
| Instrument
ranges The timbre of an instrument changes as it moves through its different registers. Click on this stave to see and hear a few common ones. The highest woodwind notes are produced by the piccolo. The deepest notes come from the tuba, double bass, double bassoon. Piano has the widest range of all. Intervals Musical distance between notes eg third, octave. Mention the tritone if you want to impress. It is the interval of an augmented 4th eg C-F#. Try it out. |
| J
| Jazz
The double bass is plucked rather than bowed in jazz. The cymbals are often tickled by brushes. Traditional jazz bands include a trumpet and a trombone. The brilliant tone of these brass instruments is due to the narrow metal tube, cylindrical bore and a wide flared bell. Jazz trumpet players use the extremes of register and timbre more than orchestral trumpet players. The 'instrument' you hear at the start of this extract is the human voice - ever heard of 'scat'? Jokes Couldn't resist. If you play the Viola don't go there. Go straight to K |
| K
| k
= 1 Kilobyte = 1000 bytes =
8ooo bits... Shows how big a file is. Audio files are very big. If you tried to download one minute of music at CD quality on a really fast modem, it could take an hour. No joking. That's why mp3s are used. They reduce the amount of data - the stuff your ear cannot actually pick up - enabling a faster travelling rate. Keyboard Spinet, Virginal, Harpsichord, Clavichord, Pianoforte, Organ, Harmonium, Synthesizer... all have keyboards but sound different due to how they are made - their inner workings are not the same. Ask yourself if the string is being struck by a hammer or plucked by a plectrum. Are there strings at all? What about pipes? Air columns? Electrics? Are there dynamics? There are just too many questions... so move on quietly to... |
| N
| Noise
Annoying if you have a headache but great if you want to use subtractive synthesis to come up with new sounds. Many percussion instruments produce sounds that have no definite pitch or note. Some musicians have to bang, shake or scrape their instrument and not just because they are angry. No bass The concertina is a free reed instrument used in traditional Irish music. It has a hexagonal shape and sounds a bit like an accordion but it has no bass. Both hands share the melody. Notes The difference between a musical note and any other sound is that musical notes occur at specific frequencies. Here are note and frequency ranges for four acoustic instruments: Grand piano = A1 - C8 which means 14Hz - 4186Hz; Cello = C2 - G4 which means 65Hz - 392Hz; Trumpet = E2 - Bb4 which means 82Hz - 466Hz; Flute = C4 - C7 which means 261Hz - 2093Hz. |
| P
| Piston
Combinations of three piston valves are used to create sounds on the trumpet and a player's lips can add a further twelve. Each valve diverts air into a side-section of tubing. This lengthens the column of vibrating air in the instrument and lowers the note. Plectrum Used not only by guitar players but also in the older keyboard instruments mentioned above. It gives the sound a fragile, plinky timbre. |
| Q
| Quartet
A string quartet consists of 2 violins (playing different parts) a viola and a cello. Listen to this extract to hear two members plucking and two bowing, sounding like a bigger group. A group of string instruments produces sounds of a different quality than each individual solo instrument due to the slightly differing tunings and starting times. These add an overall richness to the timbre. Quality This is another word for the timbre of an instrument. Also 'colour' and 'tone'. |
| R
| Resonance
The resonant frequencies of air columns depend upon the speed of sound in air as well as the length and geometry of the air column. Stringed instruments have sound boxes that increase the sound of each vibrating string by resonance. The sound box resonates to a wide range of notes, amplifying them all equally. Listen to this cello piece. Don't confuse resonance with... Reverberation Reverberation and echo are the effects caused when sound bounces off walls, floors , ceilings, chairs, people... The difference is the time between reflections. With an interval of greater than one tenth of a second the reflections become distinct as separate repeats. This is an echo. With a shorter repeat, the repeats become indistinct and a kind of 'hollow' sound is produced. This is reverberation. Try it in Cool Edit Pro on any of the wav files. |
|
| S
| Sax
Created in 1846 by a Belgian, Adolphe Sax. A saxophone combines a clarinet mouthpiece with oboe keywork, a conical brass tube and a slightly flared bell. The wide conical bore of the tube gives the sax a big sound. Steady-state The portion of an instrumental tone without the attack. Not as useful for the identification of the instrument as the attack portion where the frequency-mixture is changing within milliseconds. You need steady nerves and hands to play a .... |
| T
| Theremin
This is a space-controlled instrument invented by a Russian, Leon Theremin around 1920. The player determines the pitch and loudness by moving both hands in the space around the instrument, without ever touching it - the pitch and loudness respond to every movement of the performer's body, so it is expressive and very difficult to play. It is an electronic instrument with two antennae and has the sound of an emotional violinist or of a singer who has a very powerful hum. Check out the story of Leon Theremin. High drama. Typewriter Musique Concrète takes real world sounds and modifies them electronically. The end result often seems to have no relationship with the originally recorded material. Below you will hear a tiny extract of a piece by Roger Doyle where a typewriter is used to accompany unaltered uilleann pipes. |
| X
| Xenakis
(pronounce the X like a Z) A French composer of electroacoustic music. In this extract, there are glissandos on strings, polyphonic brass, percussion as well as a Japanese lute. These sounds have been converted electronically. The piece was first performed through 800 speakers. Space is important in this music. Do you feel that he's 'transcended pain' here? That was his intention. Notice how the overall tonal quality no longer resembles a conventional 'classical' sound. It is scratchy, in extreme registers... What else? Xylophone Its 'notes' or bars are made from wood. It is played with mallets. A xylophone sounds like rattly bones whereas a glockenspiel sounds quite bell-like and tinkly. |
|
| Y
| Yamaha
The Japanese company that patented FM - John Chowning's method of synthesisng sounds. I975 and 1983 are the two big years in the history of FM. Yo-Yo Ma One of the top cellists in the world. A great name to mention if you want to show off. People will think you've made it up. You haven't. |
| Z
| Zero
pressure The node in a standing wave has the least amount of movement and the antinode has the most movement. One of the points of zero displacement in this closed pipe is on the right side, at the closed end of the pipe. There are two others - can you spot them? There are three antinodes here too. This may stop moving for a while after you've played music. ZZZZzz ...Zee end... Well done for getting this far. Truth. Did you skip much? | |