Scholes held that overtones alone condition timbre

Evidence

The definition given by Scholes (1970) encompasses some timbral descriptors: “Timbre means tone quality—coarse or smooth, ringing or more subtly penetrating, ‘scarlet’ like that of a trumpet, ‘rich brown’ like that of a cello, or ‘silver’ like that of the flute. These color analogies come naturally to every mind… . The one and only factor in sound production which conditions timbre is the presence or absence, or relative strength or weakness, of overtones.” (In Chapter 3, Table 3.1 gives the relationship between overtones and harmonics.) While his color analogies might not come naturally to every mind, Scholes’s later comments about the acoustic nature of sounds which have different timbres are a useful contribution to the acoustic discussion of the timbre of musical sounds. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1426

Categorization

• DEFINE: Offers a second, color-analogy definition of timbre and the early (and later questioned) claim that overtones alone determine it.
• XREF: Connects to French Symbolist ‘correspondences’ — senses bleeding into each other (scarlet trumpet, silver flute) resonate with the reader’s listening-and-silence project.