Musical Sound and Tone

Musical Sound

Music is one of form of sound. Sound results when a vibrating string, reed or vocal cord set air molecules in motion, the molecules bump or lap one another and each setting the next in motion. The chain reaction continues until it strike the eardrum, where the nervous system picks up the impulses and transmits them to the brain.

Noise is a disagreeable auditory experience but this is a subjective anyway, the physical difference between sound and noise is the sort of waves: sound waves are regular and in a noise the wave is irregular (for instance, most of the percussion instruments produce noises when they are played).

Music is one of the glories of sound.  Any sound becomes music when it is artistically arranged so as to make it pleasant to the listener. Otherwise it becomes a noise. People compose music using sounds of different pitch. When musical sounds are arranged from low pitch to high pitch, they make a scale that can be written down on a staff. Each note on a scale is a sound of a different pitch. Different scales can be made by choosing different notes or by changing the way the pitch increases from one note to the next.

              ALSO READ: The Staff and Grand Staff

Tone

This is the physical property of all musical sounds. It is a sound produced by regular vibration of air. Sound produced by whistling, humming, plucking a tant string or blowing into a brass or reed instrument are tones because the vibration are regular.

A simple tone has only one frequency, although its intensity may vary. A complex tone consists of two or more simple tones, called overtones. The tone of lowest frequency is called the fundamental; the others, overtones. A combination of harmonic tones is pleasant to hear and is therefore called a musical tone. Tone is a concept central to music and it's important to producing variation and quality in music.

Properties of Tone

All musical tones consist of four properties. These are:

i.       Duration

ii.     Pitch,

iii.  Intensity, and

iv.  Timbre

            ALSO READ:  Music Notation Explained 

(a.)           Duration

This is refers to as the length of time a tone is sounded. It is how long or short the sound lasts before it stops sounding. All musical tones are subjected to variability in duration; that is a tone may be sustained for varying length of time. This property of tone becomes one of the basses of rhythm.

(b.)          Pitch

This is the height or depth of a time as related to other tones in the scale. Accurate pitch is determined by the number of vibrations per second produced by a particular sound. The pitch, or high-low aspect, created by each of these vibrating bodies is most directly a product of vibrational frequency. The faster the rate of vibration, the higher the tone.

All other things being equal, a short string produces higher tones than a long one. The same applies to a column of air in wind instruments. This explains why the tones of violin are higher than those of a cello and why the tones of piccolo are higher than those of a flute.

Sound that has a definite pitch is referred to as a musical note. For example when we pluck the string of a guitar, strike the key of a piano or play a flute, a sound is produced that has a definite pitch (a musical note is produced). There are certain sounds or tones that have no definite pitch e.g. the clapping of the hand, the sound of a rattle, of a cymbal and that of a certain drums.

      ALSO READ:  Musical Terms Relating to Forms and Styles

(c.)            Intensity

Intensity is also known as Dynamics. This is refers to loudness, volume of tonal sound, or fullness of tone. The intensity of a sound has nothing to do with its pitch. The intensity of a tone is determined by the amplitude of the vibrations that are produced. A high tone can be either loud or soft, and so can a low tone. Intensity depends upon the strength, or amplitude, of the vibrations producing the sound.

A piano string, for example, vibrates gently if the key is struck softly. The greater the force, the larger the amplitude and the louder the sound it is fundamental to musical rhythm (as accent).

(d.)          Timbre

This (also or tone colour) is the quality of a musical sound or a tone and it allows us to identify or recognize instruments or voices. No two musical instruments have exactly the same timbre. A single tone of the same pitch has a different sound when produced by a violin, trumpet or flute. The violin and flute tones are distinguishable because their articulatory “noises” are quite different and their overtone contents are dissimilar, even when they produce the same pitch.

ALSO READ:  Articulation in Music

The timbres of music enjoy an even less explicit and formalized ranking; other than the vague classifications “shrill,” “mellow,” “full,” and so on, there is no standard taxonomy of tone quality. Musicians for the most part are content to denote a particular timbre by the name of the instrument that produced it. The cello has a darker, richer timbre than that of the violin.

Tone colours differ according to the size and shape of the instrument, quality of materials, and the skill of the performer. Great artistry is required to bring out the true timbre of a fine instrument.