Intonation

“ Sustained tones are preferable as an accompaniment, because the singer himself can immediately hear the beats between the instrument and his voice, when he alters the pitch slightly.... When we require a delicate use of the muscles of any part of the human body, as, in this case, of the larynx, there must be some sure means of ascertaining whether success has been attained. Now the presence or absence of beats gives such a means of detecting success or failure when a voice is accompanied by sustained chords in just intonation. ”

“ For a single sound to become a musical sound, that is to say, a tone corresponding to one of the intonations of the musical scale, it is necessary that the impulse and, consequently, the undulations of the air should be exactly similar in duration and intensity, and that they should return after equal intervals of time. ”

“ It has impressed me with the thought that all our senses are like the strings of some great [Pg 68] harp, each one having a certain tension; so that any sound produced through an emotion would find response in that chord which is in unison with it. Indeed, I have thought that our emotions and sensations may be like the diatonic scale in music, and that the organs through which they act may respond in tones and semitones, and that each multiple of any fundamental tone will affect the chord in unison with it, like the strings upon a musical instrument. ”

“ The operation of mere sound, disconnected with the ideas which are often conveyed by it, is a subject of curious speculation. Sounds differ from each other in quality, pitch, force, and in length. The difference in tone may be illustrated by the sounds of a clarionet compared with the sound of a bell or of the human voice. Every instrument and every human voice has each a peculiar tone by which it is distinguished from all others. The difference in pitch is shown by sounding a low and a high note in succession on an instrument. ”

“ Yet, by breaking into the vowel-tone with certain expressive noises called consonants, we can give the vowel-tone such a turn as to make its motion a copy of a motion of sensation, which, reaching the mysterious mechanism of an ear, will be changed back into a sensation.
It seems strange that words should be nothing but music broken up by different expressive noises, but we all know how differently we are affected by different noises. And in music it is recognized that different keys produce different effects; certain keys better than others, exciting certain emotions. ”

“ By various contrivances we can compel the vibrations of the air to declare themselves; we know the length and frequency of sonorous waves, and we have also obtained great mastery over the various methods by which the air is thrown into vibration. We know the phenomena and laws of vibrating rods, of organ-pipes, strings, membranes, plates, and bells. We can abolish one sound by another. We know the physical meaning of music and noise, of harmony and discord. In short, as regards sound we have a very clear notion of the external physical processes which correspond to our sensations. ”

“ Thus, although vocal tone originates within the larynx, it sets the resonance-cavities into sympathetic vibration, and these produce the harmonics that give the fundamental tone its timbre; the resonance-cavities being to the vocal cords or lips what the body or resonance-box of the violin and the sounding-board of the pianoforte are to their strings, the tube of a cornet or horn to the lips, the body of the clarinet to its reed—the resonating factor which determines the overtones and through these the timbre. ”

“ Simple sounds are the anodes, the beginnings of sounds. There is no life in them, no rhythm, no melody, no light, no grace, no beauty. These are imparted to them by the fusion of the cathode element of vocal sounds with this, the anode; the spiritual with the material. The anode is formed first. It is the passive element, the female, the patient, the waiting, which must have been before the male, the impatient, the aggressive. ”

“ Since all sound is caused by vibration, acoustics may be defined as the science which treats of the phenomena of sound-producing vibration.
2. All sound (as stated above) is produced by vibration of some sort: strike a tuning-fork against the top of a table and see the vibrations which cause the tone, or, if the fork is a small one and the vibrations cannot be seen, hold it against the edge of a sheet of paper and hear the blows it strikes; or, watch one of the lowest strings of the piano after striking the key a sharp blow ”

“ It is also through the vibrations conveyed by the air to the little membrane called the drum of the ear that the sensations of sound are received, and of the nature of these vibrations a few words must be said presently. In considering the different qualities of sound, we have so far confined ourselves to sustained musical notes, as, for instance, the vowel sounds in singing. This has been done to show the relations of rapidity of vibration to pitch and for simplicity of illustration of the superposition of vibrations, etc. ”

“ In the human voice, the musical effect of the vibrating chords is increased by the cavity of the mouth, which acts as a resonator or sounding-box, and which also, by its shape at any moment, modifies the musical ‘quality’ or ‘timbre’ of the sound produced. ”

“ The author, preparing the way with a chapter on elementary acoustics, states the phenomena of overtones, and then shows their action in determining the tone-character or timbre of the various musical instruments. These overtones also constitute the natural basis for the scales, for melody, tonality, and harmony—in so far as these have a natural basis. For æsthetical influences, local, individual, and transitory, have played the largest part in giving to music its present form. ”

“ That the Tone of a Violin is to be brought out, by laying on like a Blacksmith. Before we can convince such of our Readers as have no Knowledge in that Part of Pneumatics which is called Harmonics, of this Mistake, it will be necessary just to give a short Account of the Cause of Sound in stringed Instruments.
In the first Place, all Sound proceeds from Undulations in the Air, which is an elastic Fluid; and with regard to these Undulations, is much of the same Nature as Water, which is another Fluid, but differs from Air in many Respects. ”

“ We have thus proved, in a simple way, that a musical tone is produced by rapid, regular vibration, as shown by the marking—the air-waves, set up by the vibration, seeming to blend in the ear in a manner similar to that in which the vibrations of the string blend to the eye, which makes the tone seem continuous. ”

“ But the percussion produced in us when we, by the utterance of a voice, cause a disengagement of certain particles, constitutes a current resembling a light whisper, and prepares an acoustic feeling for us. ”

“ Now that we have made ourselves acquainted with overtones and beats, we may proceed to the answer of our main question, Why do certain relations of pitch produce pleasant sounds, consonances, others unpleasant sounds, dissonances? It will be readily seen that all the unpleasant effects of simultaneous sound-combinations are the result of beats produced by those combinations. Beats are the only sin, the sole evil of music. Consonance is the coalescence of sounds without appreciable beats. ”

“ In this experiment we notice that tones are high or low, according to the number of their vibrations—the higher the tone the greater the number of its vibrations per second. Again, we observe that we can make the same tone loud or soft, without making it higher or lower. We notice that loudness is obtained by striking with greater force, making the string or fork swing farther from side to side, but still swing the same number of times in a second. ”

“ The vibrations known as the ether or sound can produce every emotion we are capable of displaying. We in turn control these same vibrations and produce music. Ruskin says, “All one’s life is music if one touches the note rightly and in tune.” “Light, heat, force, motion, sound, sight, taste, color, thought, emotion all these are but different rates of vibration.” ”

“ Yet the accepted theories of resonance in its relation to the voice are directly based on a set of empirical observations made by the old masters. The facts which they noted are now a matter of common knowledge. In singing low notes a sensation of trembling or vibration is felt in the upper chest; high notes are accompanied by a similar sensation in the head. How these sensations of vibration came to be made the basis of the theories of vocal resonance, and of registers as well, is an interesting bit of vocal history. ”

“ Within a certain restricted length of air-waves lies all of the pleasurable sensation which we call musical tone. But as we rise in the scale the tone begins to become uncertain, until the highest note of the instrument is again indefinite noise. ”

“ It can only do so by different fibres responding to the constituent vibrations of the sound—one for the fundamental tone being stronger, and giving the sensation of a particular pitch to the sound, and the others, corresponding to the upper partial tones, being weaker, and causing undefined sensations, which are so blended together in consciousness as to terminate in a complex sensation of a tone of a certain quality or timbre. ”

“ I seemed to hear depths and heights of sound beyond the scale which human ears can receive, keen, far-up octaves, like vividly twinkling starlight of music, and mighty slow vibrations of gigantic strings going down into grand thunders of depths, octaves below anything otherwise appreciable as musical notes. ”

“ The tuning fork is musical. Here we have rapid, regular motion; vibrations follow each other at perfectly definite intervals, and the air disturbance produced by one vibration is exactly like the disturbance produced by a later vibration. The sound waves which reach the ear are regular in time and kind and strength, and we call the sensation music.
To produce noise a body must vibrate in such a way as to give short, quick shocks to the air; to produce music a body [279] must not only impart short, quick shocks to the air, but must impart these shocks with unerring regularity and strength. ”

“ If you take up a violin and sound the F one octave above the treble staff, there are produced, in the course of a single second, several thousand psychical states which together make up the sensation of pitch, fifty-five times as many psychical states which together make up the sensation of tone quality, and an immense number of other psychical states which together make up the sensation of intensity. ”

“ If a series of impulses of equal force be communicated to it at equal intervals of time, at first in slow succession, and by degrees more and more rapidly, we hear at first a rattling noise, then a low murmur, and then a hum, which by degrees acquires the character of a musical note, rising higher and higher in acuteness, till its pitch becomes too high for the ear to follow. ”

“ In the inner chamber of the ear physical movements are in some wholly inscrutable manner translated into sensations of sound, and the confused aggregation of waves and ripples in the air, beating against the tympanic membrane there, takes effect in producing impulses which travel up the auditory nerve and expend their energy finally in the creation of sensations of melody and tune, which arouse emotions, revive memories, and stir sometimes the deepest feelings of our minds. ”

“ Concerning symphony, he shows how sounds harmonize. A quick sound is acute, a slow is grave. Therefore acute sounds move the senses the quicker; and these dying and grave sounds supervening, what arises from the contemperation of one with the other causes pleasure to the ear, which we call harmony. And by what has been said, it may easily be understood that air is the instrument of these things. For sound is the stroke upon the sense of the hearer, caused by the air; and the air strikes as it is struck by the thing moving,—if violent, acutely,—if languid, softly. ”

“ But the human face and eyes flush at times with a radiance which might well be taken for a direct spiritual emanation entirely independent of ‘brute matter.’ Let us examine this point a little. Musical instruments, and also the human voice, have a peculiarity as regards their sounds which differs from mere pitch. ”

“ Here are some of them.
“Vibration,” he said, elaborating on the outline he had formerly given Peregrine, “is the first law to study. There is no single thing in the universe which does not emit vibrations,—matter, colour, light, and sound. To comprehend the whole riddle of life is but to attune oneself to the reception of these vibrations, and interpret them rightly. Like rushes to like. To make my meaning clearer, sound—the crash of a falling tree for example—emits vibrations to the ether. They travel across it till they reach some instrument attuned to receive them. ”

“ Exercise.—With the syllable pā exemplify the different kinds of waves, with the same variations of radical pitch, interval, and stress, as before.
The elementary sounds of speech are of three natural divisions; the tonics, the subtonics, and the atonics.
The Tonics are the simple vowels and diphthongs. They are of perfect vocality; they admit the concrete rise and fall through all the intervals of pitch; they may be uttered with more abruptness than the other elements; and being capable of indefinite prolongation they can receive the most perfect exemplification of the vanishing movement. ”

“ A simple noise being a sound-wave, has its wave-form or make-mark. The blending of many such would produce a tone in that likeness; hence, a musical note is a blending of like noises, and every noise is really the first wave, the key-note of a musical tone. Take the ringing of a door-bell. Here the ear hears not only a musical tone, a sound-blend, in the ring of the bell, but also the noise of the clapper's clang, clang, clang. The vibrations of the bell throw the air into musical waves, shown in Fig. 5, while a huge clang-wave will sweep
Fig. ”