ii) Sound Situation – describing the sound source, place and use of

iii) Sound Impression- the adjective, describing one’s subjectivity, ‘bright’, ‘mellow’ for example.

Subjective dimensions linked to physical dimensions of timbre:

A. Houstma’s study of timbre identification uses a scale of semantic differentials of opposite attributes in order to scale the subjective dimensions. These verbal attributes are linked with associated physical properties of sound.

In music related studies timbre has always been treated as a multidimensional continuum in which any point is potentially meaningful. It has been established by rating and multidimensional scaling techniques that the space can be adequately described in four subjective dimensions, dull to sharp, compact to scattered, colourful to colourless and full to empty, which are linked to physical dimensions such as spectral energy distribution, amount of high frequency energy in attack, amount of synchrony in high harmonic transients. ²⁸⁶

Physical Dimensions of Piano Sound – High Frequency Energy in Attack:

The dimensions and qualities at the beginning of the sound, the attack, is known to be a crucial point of identification of piano tone. ²⁸⁷

The onset of a tone is a most important attribute for timbre and tone identification (Ivenson and Krumhansl,1993) During this transient period, the processing mechanism in our brain seems to be able to lock in certain characteristic features of each instrument’s vibration patterns and to keep track of these features, even if they are garbled and blurred by the signal from the other instrument. ²⁸⁸

Loudness of Attack

We know that increases in loudness, as produced by a faster velocity strike of the key with a shorter contact period on the string produces a brighter tone.

^{286     2} Houstma , 104-115.
^{287     2}Anders Askenfelt & Jansson.E,
^{288     15}Roederer,168-69. source: Paul Iverson,P. and Krumhansl,Carol. (1993) “Isolating the dynamic attributes of musical timbre.” J.Acoust Soc. Am 94, (November, 1993).