Pitch maps to repetition frequency but is not a simple physical property.

Evidence

Pitch is defined by the American National Standards Institute as ‘that auditory attribute of sound according to which sounds can be ordered on a scale from low to high’ (ANSI-S1.1, 2013). Pitch is perceived from many types of sounds, such as sinusoids, vocals, instrument sounds, and noisy sounds (Fastl and Zwicker, 2007; Hartmann, 1996). However, the definition is problematic in the sense that not all sounds have clear pitch, and some of them have more than one pitch. However, in the context of the basic properties of hearing, it is meaningful to restrict the discussion to relatively simple sounds producing a single, more or less salient pitch. The nearest counterpart of pitch in the physical world is the frequency of repetition of a signal portion, even though pitch depends on some other parameters as well. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1075

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: ANSI’s formal definition of pitch as an auditory attribute ordered low-to-high, plus the caveat that pitch is perceptual, not purely physical.

Related

• Pitch is not uniquely tied to a single physical frequency (similarity 0.94)
• Pitch is the perceptual property ordering sounds from low to high (similarity 0.90)
• Pitch is formally defined as where sounds fall on a musical scale (similarity 0.89)
• Sound can be captured as permanent physical markings that encode its pitch (similarity 0.87)
• Not all sounds have a pitch even though all have frequency content (similarity 0.86)
• Pitch as a sensory dimension has both height and perceptual strength, which vary independently. (similarity 0.86)
• Perceived pitch is set primarily by fundamental frequency. (similarity 0.85)
• Pitch strength is a distinct perceptual dimension absent from loudness (similarity 0.85)
• Pitch measurement inherently requires subjective listener judgments (similarity 0.85)
• Pitch depends only on spectrum and periodicity, not volume or direction. (similarity 0.84)
• Pitch is a human synthesis keyed to autocorrelation, not pure physics (similarity 0.84)
• Clear musical pitch arises from regularly repeating acoustic waveforms (similarity 0.84)
• Repetition pitch equals the reciprocal of the echo delay time (similarity 0.84)
• Pitch strength varies independently of perceived pitch height (similarity 0.84)
• The fundamental frequency of a pitched sound is measurable from its waveform period (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Pitch can be coded by neuron firing rate matching the repetition frequency #exemplifies (0.95) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4491
• Pitch is perceptual while frequency is acoustic, and not all sounds have pitch #expands (0.90) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1168
• Listeners reconstruct a perceived pitch that is not physically present #corroborates (0.85) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1698
• Pitch, though subjective, is measurable in Hz by matching against a sine wave #qualifies (0.80) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 833
• Pitch perception involves both spectral and temporal representations of sound #complicates (0.80) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 69