Pitch (music)

“ A person with an untrained ear can appreciate music comparatively little, even though he is well educated in the theory of music. Absolute pitch is the ability to recognize and intonate any tone indicated. Very few persons possess naturally absolute pitch, but it may be acquired by a systematic study of ear training. Relative pitch is the ability to recognize a tone by comparison with a known tone. Advancement in relative pitch eventually leads to the attainment of absolute pitch. ”

“ Various standards of pitch have existed at different times in the last two centuries, and even now there is no absolute uniformity although conditions are much better than they were even twenty-five years ago. ”

“ Pitch has reference to the degree of elevation or depression in what is called in music the scale. It may be used specifically, in reference to single tones or syllables (either as to their opening, or as to their whole utterance) , or generally, as descriptive of the prevailing tone or note which the voice assumes in reading a sentence or passage.
Force has reference to the power or intensity with which the sounds of the voice are uttered. When force is used in the utterance of single syllables, in whole or in part, it is spoken of as Stress.
Time is rate of utterance. ”

“ As rhythm is the heart pulsation of music, [69] it naturally took hold of the first singers of in any measure formulated melody, leading to swaying of the body, clapping of the hands, stamping of the feet, and quickly suggested the employment of other resonant means for marking its progress. Our drums were at first only hollow pieces of wood, our cymbals, triangle, and gong may have had double duties,—musical and culinary,—and our harp and piano were anticipated by single strings stretched to yield a sonorous tone regardless of pitch. ”

“ This progress has gone on until the present time, when two particulars of our music are exactly recorded—the pitch and the rhythm. The exact relation of every tone to the key note is ascertainable from our musical notation, and the precise degree of rhythmic importance appertaining to each tone according to its place in measure and in the larger rhythms. ”

“ The great regret of my life is that my own sense of pitch is not absolute. It is very nearly but not quite perfect, despite my extremely delicate ear for close intervals. Yet this young woman, who to my own knowledge has not sung a note for several days, and who can not conceivably have heard any Occidental music whatever, breaks into song, and casually and unconsciously employs the correct pitch to the twentieth part of a tone.
My first thought was that it might be an accident. So I waited, tuning-fork in hand. ”

“ The pitch of a sound depends wholly upon the number of vibrations per second that produce it; and if one of two sounds consists of twice as many vibrations per second as the other one, they differ in pitch by the interval called in music an octave, this latter term merely signifying the number of intervals into which the larger interval [65] is divided for the ordinary musical scale. The difference between a high and a low sound is simply in the number of vibrations of the air reaching the ear in a given time. ”

“ From father to son, from teacher to scholar the tradition of pitch was carried on. The string affected by heat and moisture and by the strain when twanged, never remains accurately to pitch. Although pipes and strings have run a parallel course, we do not find that the lyre players actually cared to refer to pipes as guiding them in setting the pitch. Yet it was the custom, so Plutarch tells us, for reciters and orators to have a pitch pipe sounded by an attendant to keep their voices to a prescribed pitch, and he mentions an ivory pipe being used for the practice. ”

“ No doubt there are at the extreme ends of the gamut notes which we cannot detect without some difficulty, but between them the differences of pitch are recognised by everyone as plain facts, which have little or nothing to do with the agreeableness of the tone. ”

“ As an instance we may quote the “Faust” overture of Wagner, in which the pitch is used emotionally as well as descriptively. If the meaning I have found in this phrase seems to you far-fetched, we have but to give a higher pitch to the motive to render the idea absolutely impossible.
The suggestion offered by movement is very obvious, for music admittedly may be stately, deliberate, hasty, or furious, it may march or dance, it may be grave or flippant. ”

“ Performance scores show that these natural singers defy scales, but produce beautiful effects through their free and soaring pitch inflection. Stringed instruments have been hampered by accompaniment and by tradition and theory. We can anticipate significant developments outside of our diatonic scale which has come to be a sort of strait-jacket, at least theoretically. It has been shown, for example, that a quarter-tone instrument is not of much use unless music is written not only for these intervals but 68in modes, themes, and atmosphere adapted to such purpose. ”

“ Thus when we speak of one sound being 'higher in pitch' than another, we mean that the vibrations producing the former are more rapid than those producing the latter, so giving what is recognised as a higher sound. The general nature of this relation may be studied in works on acoustics; it is sufficient here to state that, as a matter of practice, when the exact pitch of any musical sound has to be defined, this is most properly done by stating its vibration-number.
Standard of Pitch. ”

“ Hence, a musical tone is a note, which may be prolonged at will without varying in pitch, either up or down. A speaking tone, on the contrary, is produced by vibrations which are not isochronous; it is not a note, properly so called, and can not be prolonged, without varying in pitch. Musical tones are discrete,—the voice passes from pitch to pitch through the intervals silently. In speaking, every tone, however short the time taken in uttering it, passes from one pitch to some other through [xv] an interval concretely, that is, with continuous vocality ”

“ In primitive states of music rhythmic sounds were heard, defined by the pulses but with little or no change of pitch, and sounds varying in pitch without regularity of impulse. A high degree of intellectuality was reached before our modern scales were evolved from long-continued attempts at making well-balanced successions of sounds. As musical art advanced rhythm and melodic expression became united. ”

“ Holding it in one hand, and striking the open end smartly with the palm the other, sufficient vibration will be excited the contained air to produce a distinct musical note, often lasting a second or more, long enough for its pitch to be heard and determined. ”

“ The child does not think of the artistic forms as does the musician; but like the canary which, even if grown in isolation in a soundproof cage, in due time produces his natural tours in repertoire, the child instinctively comes out in melody, dynamic modulation, and rhythm. But all these are modified by the environment.
Music and speech. Speech has the same media as music; namely, pitch, loudness, time, and timbre which result in such musical forms as tonal and dynamic inflection, rhythm, articulation, and vowel quality. ”

“ The general effect of such comparatively simple tones is very smooth but somewhat dull, and they seem to be deeper in pitch than they really are. Flutes and wide-stopped organ pipes have few effective partials, and are much inferior in musical effect to open organ pipes and to the piano. The tones of the voice, violin, and horn, are more complex still, and are characterised by fuller and richer qualities. When the partials above the 7th are strong they beat with each other, and the quality becomes harsh and rough as in reed instruments. ”

“ Equal Temperament.—An early difficulty in the case of keyed instruments was the matter of tuning, caused by the fact that it was found scientifically impossible to tune all the intervals of the scale at the same time to the true pitch; that is, the pitch demanded by the natural overtones of the fundamental note of the scale. ”

“ The chromatic scale utilizes all the tones of a key within the octave.
4. Natural: Not a suitable compound to use in naming pitches. Pitch names are either simple: B, or compound: B sharp, B double-sharp, B flat or B double-flat, and there is no pitch named "B natural." Example: Pitch B, not "B natural."
Note:—L.R.L. thinks that B natural should be the name when the notation suggests it.
5. Step, Half-step: Terms of interval measurement. Avoid tone, semi-tone or half-tone. Major second and minor second are interval names. Example: How large are the following intervals? ”

“ There is in souls a sympathy with sounds;
And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased
With melting airs, or martial, brisk, or grave:
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.
How soft the music of those village bells,
Falling at intervals upon the ear
In cadence sweet, now dying all away,
Now pealing loud again, and louder still,
Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on! ”

“ I am well aware that a few musicians have this gift of absolute pitch, and perhaps a greater number still, from long practice with one fixed sound—like the singing master with his C tuning fork—are able to guess the pitch of that one sound with moderate success, but for a musician to have the pitch of all the range of sounds so thoroughly established, as to feel a sense of disappointment if an isolated note was sounded either slightly above, or below concert pitch, is almost an impossibility, if such an one does exist he must be considered an exception to the above. ”

“ Not only is it more rhythmical, but it is more musical; that is to say, though the pitch is not deliberately regulated, as in song, there is a tendency to a level monotonous intonation, and changes of pitch, when they occur, are more conscious and more noticeable. ”

“ It is the concept of pitch which forms the vocal instrument, gives it the exact amount of tension necessary to vibrate at the rate of the pitch desired, but the action is automatic, not the result of direct effort. ”

“ He discovered first, that a musical sound is very rarely a simple tone, but is made up of several tones, sometimes as many as ten or fifteen, having different degrees of intensity and pitch. The lowest sound, which is also the strongest, is called the fundamental; and it is this tone we mean when we speak of the pitch of a sound, as the pitch of middle C upon a piano, or the pitch of the A string on a violin. ”

“ But, more than this, she continued her transposing until she had completed the round of all the twelve keys without a mistake—a rare and creditable performance, deserving the emulation of all young ladies and gentlemen engaged in the study of musical development and the cultivation of pianoforte technic.
Another case is that of a young lady pupil not remarkably musical, but who has an ear for positive pitch. By this is meant that she could immediately name the pitch of any tone on hearing it sung or played. All competent musicians possess the power of relative pitch. ”

“ It consists of the repetition of a vowel sound—generally i (=ee) or e (=a, as in fate) , or a rapid interchange of these two. To the ear of the author the pitch varies through an interval somewhat less than a half-step. Exactly what is the interval he can not say. The musicians to whom appeal for aid in determining this point has been made have either dismissed it for the most part as a matter of little or no consequence or have claimed the seeming variation in pitch was due simply to a changeful stress of voice or of accent. ”

“ Pitch is the key of the voice. A change of pitch is a leap from one key to another during silence. Inflection, as we have seen, is a gradual change in the key while the voice is speaking. The pitch or key depends upon the muscular tension of the vocal chords, which act like the strings of a musical instrument: the greater the tension, the higher the key. Muscular tension implies nervous tension and this is dependent upon the mental state. If the mind is calm, the nervous and muscular tension is normal, and the speaker uses the key habitual to him in his ordinary speech. ”

“ A question is uttered with rising inflection, that is, with a higher pitch at the end. Declarative sentences usually have a falling inflection just before the final period, that is, a lower pitch. Exclamations often have a circumflex inflection, as "Really!" spoken in a sarcastic tone; that is, the pitch rises and falls.
Experimental attempts to indicate variations of pitch by our common musical notation are given by Verrier. A single example will suffice here. [18]
Perhaps the most important aspect of pitch from the point of view of rhythm is its actual influence upon accent. ”

“ In the same manner, there are minute differences in the structure of the vocal tract of different people; and it is especially the structural differences between the resonant cavities of individual singers that determine differences of timbre or quality. It is easy to distinguish between tones even of the same pitch that come from a harp, a violin, a trumpet, a flute or from the human voice. ”

“ In running an inflection from low to high, the tone may be allowed, especially in the earlier practice, to thin out at the top. And always when the pitch is high the tone should be smaller, as it is on a musical instrument, though it should have a consistent depth and dignity from its proper degree of connection with the chest. This consistent character in the upper voice is attained by giving the tone a bit of pomp or nobleness of quality. In taking a low pitch there is, among novices, always a tendency to bear down on the tone in order to gain strength or to give weight to utterance. ”