Timbre (pronounced like: Tamber) pure tones are very rare a single note on a musical instrument is a superposition (i.e. several things one on top of the other) of many related frequencies called harmonics Pronounciation of “timbre”

Timbre the characteristic of a particular set of harmonics is called timbre –e.g. the set of harmonics generated when a particular key is pressed on a piano timbre is why we can tell the difference between the same notes played on difference instruments

Timbre Although any musical “note” is a superposition of harmonics, you still hear it as a single pitch (you hear its tone height) The pitch that you hear is (usually) the fundamental frequency (except in the artificial case of the “missing fundamental”)

Musical Intervals in music, notes are played together or in quick succession pairs of notes share a relationship called an interval

Musical Intervals Within each pair, the higher pitch (f2) is some multiple of the lower pitch (f1): –e.g. 200 hz and 400 hz -- f2 is two times f1

Musical Intervals f 1 = 400 f 2 = 800 – (f 2 = 2 x f 1 )…octave f 1 = 400 f 2 = 600 –(f 2 = 3/2 x f 1 )…perfect 5th f 1 = 500 f 2 = 800 –(f 2 = 8/5 x f 1 )…minor 6th f 1 = 400 f 2 = 550 –(f 2 = 11/8 x f 1 ) octave perfect 5th minor 6th not quite a perfect fourth?!

Consonance and Dissonance Consonance is the degree to which two tones played together sound “good” Dissonance is the opposite

Consonance and Disonance Consonance seems to decrease with increasing complexity of the ratio of the tones

Music is combinations of intervals played in series (with some rhythm) Combination of three different intervals is a chord (major or minor) Additional intervals modify the sound of the chord majorminor 3 notes/3 intervals 4 notes/6 intervals (dominant 7) 4 notes/6 intervals (major 7)

Auditory Scene Analysis Sounds don’t happen in isolation, they happen in streams of changing frequencies How does the system group related auditory events into streams and keep different streams separate?

Auditory Scene Analysis Solving this problem is called Auditory Scene Analysis One important principle is proximity –in pitch, time, or spatial location

Auditory Scene Analysis Effect of timing proximity: SlowFast

Auditory Scene Analysis Effect of timing proximity: Pitch Do you hear this? Pitch Or this? SlowFast

Auditory Scene Analysis Effect of pitch proximity: closefar

Auditory Scene Analysis Effect of pitch proximity: Pitch Do you hear this? Pitch Or this? closefar

Auditory Scene Analysis Effect of proximity: –auditory system groups together events that happen close together in time and frequency