Instruments with lower partials up to the sixth sound rich yet sweet
Evidence
- Musical tones, which are accompanied by a moderately loud series of the lower partial tones up to about the sixth partial, are more harmonious and musical. Compared with simple tones, they are rich and splendid, while they are at the same time perfectly sweet and soft if the higher upper partials are absent. To these belong the musical tones produced by the pianoforte, open organ pipes, the softer piano tones of the human voice and the French horn. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1494
Related
- Tones with lower partials up to the sixth sound rich yet sweet (similarity 0.89)
- Distinct high partials make tones sound cutting or rough and powerful (similarity 0.86)
- Musical instruments are engineered to suppress higher partials to avoid dissonance (similarity 0.83)
- Pure tones sound soft and pleasant but lack power (similarity 0.83)
- Pure tones alone cannot sustain musical interest (similarity 0.83)
- Harder blowing grows higher harmonics and brightens or rasps wind-instrument tone. (similarity 0.82)
- Harmonic content alone produces recognizable, describable timbre qualities (similarity 0.80)
- Instrument tuning relies on high harmonics because pitch changes there are easier to hear (similarity 0.80)
- Harmonics are integer-related partials while partials need not be harmonic (similarity 0.80)
- Musical instrument range stays below the auditory pitch-perception ceiling (similarity 0.79)
- Roughness between note partials determines perceived musical dissonance (similarity 0.79)
- Real strings’ slightly mistuned partials are a loved feature, not a flaw. (similarity 0.79)
- Harmonic amplitudes shape timbre and loudness but not pitch. (similarity 0.79)
- Timbre reduces to a weighted ratio of fundamental and resolved versus unresolved harmonics (similarity 0.79)
- Adjacent harmonics in the natural series produce progressively smaller musical intervals (similarity 0.79)