Timbre,sound quality, tonal colour
The perception of tonal quality, or timbre of piano sound is a central focus of this research.The sonic elements that determine tone have been identified as partial tones in the previous pages. J. Meyer has deduced generally that a brighter tone will consist of prominent upper partials, and a darker tone will consist of less upper partials. A description of sound quality is also influenced by the subjective contexts and experiences of the describer. This research uses a comparison of two piano sounds to ‘control’ the boundaries of tonal description, for example, one piano sound could be described as sounding ‘brighter’ in tone than the other. In chapter five the discussion about the tonal characteristics of these two instruments is opened up to the perceptions of over 300 audience members.
I define timbre as a temporal collective sensation of sound that is formed by specific combinations of frequency, loudness and harmonic content.
Our ear has the inbuilt capacity to decipher the details of super positions of simple tones that combine to produce the complex tone.The basilar membrane in the human ear has a designated “resonance region” for each pure tone of a given frequency. 183
Since a complex tone vibration is entirely equivalent to the summation of pure tones of harmonically related frequencies, then, depending on which overtones are present, more than one part of the basilar membrane will respond at the same time. The cochlea therefore performs a kind of harmonic analysis…. The message it sends to the brain consists of a number of electrical signals along different fibres of the auditory nerve, one for each overtone. 184
The following definitions of the timbre, were influential in the tonal evaluations I have made in this research:
Sound “quality” or “timbre” describes those characteristics of sound which allow the ear to distinguish sounds which have the same pitch and loudness. Timbre is mainly determined by the harmonic content of a sound and the dynamic characteristics of the sound such as vibrato and the attack-decay envelope of the sound.185
The relative proportion with which each overtone intervenes in the resulting vibration determines to a great extent the particular character, quality or timbre of the generated tone.186
Timbre depends strongly on envelope: on how the sound varies over time. 187
The temporal envelope of an instrumental sound, including attack, decay and modulation of the steady-state portion [sustain], influences the perceived timbre to such an extent that changes on any of them can make the sound of an instrument unrecognizable.188
183 3Roederer,31.
184 4Johnston, Measured Tones,244.
185 Rod Nave,“Timbre,”Hyper Physics, 2012. Georgia State University (HyperPhysics ©C.R. Nave, 2012) http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hph.html(accessed April, 2013).
186 4Roederer, 118.
187 2Joe Wolfe, “Timbre and envelope,” (accessed October 2015).
188 Berger,K.W.“Some factors in the recognition of timbre.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,36.(1964):1888- 1891. Source: A.J.M Houstma,“Pitch and Timbre: Definition, meaning and use.”Journal of New Nusic Research 26:2 (1997):108.
