Sound doctrine

“ The general terms—loudness and quality, embrace all the distinctions heard in a noise, as in the collision of two unelastic sticks. Pitch and duration can scarcely be considered as belonging to common noise. Thus we have— (1) noise whose audible distinctions are comprehended under the general terms loudness and quality; (2) common sound, whose audible distinctions are comprehended under the general terms—loudness, quality, duration, and every varying pitch; (3) musical sound, whose audible distinctions are comprehended under the general terms—loudness, quality, duration, and uniform pitch. ”

“ It is biblically asserted and scientifically demonstrable that space is full of causes of sound. To anyone capable of turning these causes to effects this sound is not dull and monotonous, but richly varied into songful music. Light makes its impression of color by its different number of vibrations. So music sounds its keys. We know the number of vibrations necessary for the note C of the soprano scale, and the number that runs the pitch up to inaudibility. We know the number of vibrations of light necessary to give us a sensation of red or violet. ”

“ The structural basis of Music is vibration. Sound comes to us in the guise of air-waves, which impinge upon the drum of the ear. The nerve-impulse thus aroused is conveyed to the brain, and there translated into sound. Strictly speaking there is thus no sound until the brain translates the message, while if the machinery of the ear be too dull to answer to the vibration the sound simply does not exist for us. ”

“ The laws of harmony, even, are but imperfectly understood, and the most accomplished musicians are mere tyros in the great science of acoustics. There is every reason to believe that there is an intimate but yet undiscovered link between number, light, and sound whose solution will astonish and enlighten the generations that are to succeed our own. ”

“ Musical sound is the name we give to this seemingly simple feeling which is clearly resolvable into simpler feelings. Well-known experiments prove that when equal blows or taps are made one after another at a rate not exceeding some sixteen per second, the effect of each is perceived as a separate noise; but when the rapidity with which the blows follow one another exceeds this, the noises are no longer identified in separate states of consciousness, and there arises in place of them a continuous state of consciousness, called a tone. ”

“ It must be remembered, moreover, that mere loudness of sound does not necessarily imply carrying power of the voice, either when speaking or singing. Carrying power, as we shall see later, depends as much upon the proper use of the resonator as upon the force of expulsion of the air by the bellows. ”

“ Other vocal sounds than sustained vowel notes are found to be due to still more complicated combinations of vibrations of shorter duration, and noises, as distinguished from musical sound, are formed also by the superposition of a greater or less number of systems of vibrations, the rapidities of which are wanting in harmonic relations such as we have pointed out belong to the musical scale. ”

“ The necessity of temperament becomes still more apparent when it is proposed to combine every sound used in music into a connected system, such that each individual sound shall not only form practical intervals with all the other sounds, but also that each sound may be employed as the root of its own major or minor key; and that all the tones necessary to form its scale shall stand in such relation to each other as to satisfy the ear. ”

“ If there is no regular recurrence of waves, it is a noise. The rapidity of these regular beats determines the pitch of tones. That quality or timbre by which one sound is distinguished from another of the same pitch and intensity is due to the different complications of waves in the air; the ability to discriminate the various waves in the vibrating air is, therefore, the condition of our finding music in it; for every wave has its period, and what we call a noise is a complication of notes too complex for our organs or our attention to decipher. ”

“ The sounds from which I have developed such results were neither vowel nor consonant as those sounds are defined, but simply prolonged musical notes. In another chapter will be found some of the experiments which I have performed with the phonograph in the investigation of sounds of various kinds. If I am allowed to think for myself at all, I am not ready to accept as final some of the dogmas on the theory of sound which have long been held and taught, and many of which remain orthodox for no other reason than that no one has denied them. ”

“ Anyone who has noted the contrast between the harsh quality of tone emitted from childish throats when using the chest-voice, and the pure, flute-like sound produced when the head-tones are sung will agree that the last is music and the first noise, or at any rate very noisy, barbaric music. ”

“ Now this caressing intonation, impressed by nature upon the upper notes of all these voices, forms a strange contrast to the direction which all singing-teachers agree in formulating; a direction which consists in augmenting the intensity of the sound in direct ratio to its acuteness. Thus, to them, strange to say, the entire law of vocal shades would consist in augmenting progressively the sound of the ascending phrase or scale, and diminishing in the same proportion for a descending scale. ”

“ Musical sound, or tone, is produced by regular vibrations, and differs from mere noise whose vibrations are irregular and confused. The pitch of a musical tone rises in proportion with the rapidity of the vibrations that produce it. Tones may be perceived by the human ear ranging from about sixteen vibrations in a second to nearly forty thousand, more than eleven octaves. Only about seven octaves are used in music. The science of acoustics is full of interesting facts of this kind, and is of profound value to any one who would gain an insight into the structure of music. ”

“ Other consonants are to be classed with the noises. Like a vowel, and like the timbre of an instrument, a noise is a blend of simple tones; but the fundamental tone in a noise-blend is not so preponderant as to give a clear pitch to the total sound, while the other tones present are often too brief or too unsteady to give a tonal effect. ”

“ This law of sound secures the appropriate resonance for every pitch much more accurately than it could be secured by an effort to develop chest, middle, and head registers through calculating the differences. Again, we need the higher chambers of resonance to reinforce even the low pitch, because every note has its overtones that enrich it, and if these cannot find their proper resonance the tone is impoverished. ”

“ We all know that some sounds are what is termed high and others low, a difference which in scientific language is expressed by saying that sounds have a difference in pitch. We know that the difference between a sound which is pitched high and a sound which is pitched low is simply this—that the pulses or waves, as we may call them for simplicity's sake, which go from the sender-forth of the sound (which may be a cannon, a piano, or anything else) to the receiver, which is generally the human ear, are of different lengths. ”

“ The volume, or loudness, of a sound depends on the size of the vibrations, just as one feels a blow from a large object, other things being equal, more than from a small one. The ear drum-head is in the case of a large sound beaten, as it were, more powerfully. The singers that give us bigness of sound instead of quality belabor our ears, so to speak; they treat us as persons of mean understanding—dull intellects ”

“ For the singing voice it is always best to simplify, hence we divide the consonantal sounds into two general divisions: the aspirates, those which are the result of complete obstruction and explosion, or of partial obstruction only, breath and vowel sound; the sub-vocals, those which are the result of partial obstruction and explosion, or of partial obstruction only, sub-vocal and vowel sound. The sub-vocals, as ending or final consonants, are the most difficult of all to give their proper value and effect. ”

“ No human voice, however, has so great a range of tone; the highest soprano notes of women correspond to [282] but 1000 vibrations a second, and the deepest bass of men falls but to 80 vibrations a second.
While the human voice is limited in its production of sound,—rarely falling below 80 vibrations a second and rarely exceeding 1000 vibrations a second,—the ear is by no means limited to that range in hearing. ”

“ Sound doctrine does not enter into the hard and disobedient heart; but, as if beaten back, enters anew into itself. ”

“ The low tone must have the power of the loud tone, since it is to be equally understood. The acoustic organs should have nothing to do with the transmission of sound. They must be inert so that the tone may be homogeneous. ”

“ To the trained musical individual sounds are heard as different from what a matter-of-fact listener hears. The hearing of pitch, loudness, time, and timbre is not in the ratio of 1:1 with the physical sound, but always runs into artistic analysis and interpretation with artistic license. The musical interval, the dynamic phrasing, the rhythm, and the tone quality are always heard in relation to their artistic setting. ”

“ The creation of a vocal sound is an act of generation. The cathode, after overwhelming the anode, penetrates it and diffuses itself throughout it, and thus forms a union whose result is the production of a vocal sound. ”

“ The quality of a sound is determined by the form of the vibrations. A sound of good quality is to the ear what a beautiful statue or picture is to the eye. As will be explained later, the form or quality depends largely on the shape, etc., of the resonance-chambers above the vocal bands. ”

“ Highest and Deepest Tones—Rapidity of Vibration Determined by the Siren—Determination of the Lengths of Sonorous Waves—Wave-Lengths of the Voice in Man and Woman—Transmission of Musical Sounds through Liquids and Solids
IN OUR last chapter we considered the propagation through air of a sound of momentary duration. We have to-day to consider continuous sounds, and to make ourselves in the first place acquainted with the physical distinction between noise and music. As far as sensation goes, everybody knows the difference between these two things. ”

“ Our churches and theatres are yet much too large, though we do not need pipes or speaking tubes. If we rub our moistened finger along the edge of a drink-big glass, or draw a bow across the strings of a violin, we can in both cases procure sounds which remain undiminished in intensity as long as the operation by which they are excited is continued. If we strike two bells, one of lead, and the other of brass, the sound of the former is feeble and momentary, compared with that of the latter ; so we see, that, though bodies all sound, yet the sounds produced are not all alike. ”

“ While the vocal cords serve the purpose of the reed, the resonator forms the body of the vocal instrument. Every sound passes through it; every vowel and consonant in the production of syllables and words must be formed by it, and the whole character and individual qualities of the speaking as well as the singing voice depend in great part upon the manner in which it is used. ”

“ And thus each letter may be distinguished from every other by hearing.
Thirdly, It is agreeable to all this, that it is difficult at great distances to distinguish the tone of one musical instrument from another, or of any from the tone of a human voice, cæteris paribus; or to distinguish articulate sounds from one another. For at great distances the vibrations of the air are circular to sense, and all the ascents, descents, eruptions and interruptions of sound, which distinguish one compound sound from another, are confounded by numberless reflections from the intermediate bodies. ”

“ As the strength of the tone depends upon the amplitude of the waves of sound, they, in their turn, depend upon the structure of the organ of singing, and of the parts of the mouth serving as a sounding-board or resonant apparatus, but, above all, upon the skilful management of the vibrating air. ”

“ In order to bring the external world to our consciousness, we are provided with various organs of sense; and as the eye is sensible to the light, the ear is sensible to sound, which comes to our consciousness either as noise (Geräusch) or as tone (Klang) . The whistling of the wind, the plashing of water, the rattling of a wagon are noises, but musical instruments give us tones. When, however, many untuned instruments sound together, or when all the keys within an octave are struck on the same time, then it is a noise that we hear. Tones are therefore more simple and regular than noises. ”

“ Before discussing the subject of the voice, we must have some conception of sound in order to understand more fully how the voice is produced and how it is modified by the various parts concerned in the faculty of speech. All sounds are due to the vibration of the surrounding air, which conveys to the ear the vibrations produced by the sound-producing object. Perhaps one of the simplest methods of producing sound is by means of the tuning fork. ”

“ Acoustics, indeed, comprehend nothing Less than the whole theoretical portion of music, as discovered and laid down by Aristoxenus, Pythagoras, Lasus, Euclid, Ptolemy, and others among the great fathers of musical science. We may call acoustics the science which teaches the physical law, and phenomena of sound and hearing. Several important facts concerning sound must have been known at a very early period. ”