Modellvorstellungen über Klangfarbe. Von der »Manichfaltigkeit der Praedicate« zum Timbre Space

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Abstract

What are the timbral characteristics of musical sounds? From the second half of the 19th Century the ideas about musical timbre had been affected by contradictory and platitude statements that have lead the researchers and musicians throughout history to various models and perspectives. However, by definition the influence of pitch and dynamics has largely been ignored within these models. Another fact had further effects on our audio research history: While Helmholtz' »Lehre von den Tonempfindungen« had been translated into English by Alexander J. Ellis, a translation of Stumpf’s standard works »Tonpsychologie« (1883 and 1890) and »Die Sprachlaute« (1826) is still missing, as well as the translation of the publications of other German-speaking successors of Helmholtz and Stumpf (like Köhler, Schumann, Albersheim, Reinecke, Fricke etc.). Consequently, the English research literature, which has been most influential in this field since World War II, is lacking this particular aspect of knowledge of musical timbre. Its salience can be immediately observed by examining an instrument in all its pitch and dynamic levels (instead of only one or a few pitches like in most timbre studies): timbre perception of musical instruments is determined to a certain extent by steady pitch-independent formant areas, whose origin and characteristics at pitch and dynamic changes has generally been resolved today. These timbral effects appear to be in accordance with the principles of the Auditory Scene Analysis as well as with recommendations in the orchestration treatises of the last centuries. Both the English and the German timbre perception paradigms have their own advantages. With the help of the actual sound analysis and re-synthesis software and in combination with the concept of mel-frequency cepstral coefficients methods it should be possible to merge these paradigms into a common timbre perception model.
Original languageGerman
Title of host publicationOrganized Sound. Klang und Wahrnehmung in der Musik des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts
EditorsChristian Utz
Place of PublicationSaarbrücken
PublisherPfau
Pages97
Number of pages112
Volume6
ISBN (Print)978-3-89727-504-1
Publication statusPublished - 2013

Publication series

SeriesMusiktheorien der Gegenwart
VolumeBand 6

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 103002 Acoustics
  • 604024 Musicology

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