Brass instruments differ sharply in how many harmonics their tones carry

Evidence

Pure tones appear relatively rarely in nature. Only some bird songs and the sounds produced by a flute can be considered to be pure tones. Most of the instrumental sounds in music are composed of a fundamental tone and many harmonics. The difference in timbre produced by different musical instruments depends on the frequency spectra of their harmonics. Whereas a flute produces primarily one single component, the fundamental, a trumpet produces many harmonic partials and therefore elicits a much broader masking effect than a flute. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 449 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A wind instrument’s playability depends on how many of its harmonics align with resonances.; Of four brass instruments, only the trumpet shows prominent high harmonics; Brass instrument design transforms odd-only pipe modes into a near-complete harmonic series — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1250 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Instrument timbre differences stem from harmonic spectra that shape masking breadth #expands (0.78) — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 449
• The number of harmonics audible halves with each octave rise in pitch #qualifies (0.75)
• Higher pitched notes spread harmonics so wide that formant peaks vanish #expands (0.72)