Pitch is one of the three major auditory attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre, and it represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. The auditory system is the Sensory system for the sense of hearing. Sound' is Vibration transmitted through a Solid, Liquid, or Gas; particularly sound means those vibrations composed of Frequencies Loudness is the quality of a Sound that is the primary psychological correlate of physical strength (amplitude In Music, timbre (ˈtæm-bər' like timber, or, from Fr timbre tɛ̃bʁ is the quality of a Musical note or sound that distinguishes different The fundamental tone, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated fo, is the lowest frequency in a harmonic series. While the actual fundamental frequency can be precisely determined through physical measurement, it may differ from the perceived pitch because of overtones, also known as partials, harmonic or otherwise, in the sound. An overtone is a natural resonance or vibration frequency of a system In Acoustics and Telecommunication, the harmonic of a Wave is a component Frequency of the signal that is an Integer The human auditory perception system may also have trouble distinguishing frequency differences between notes under certain circumstances. According to ANSI acoustical terminology, it is the auditory attribute of sound according to which sounds can be ordered on a scale from low to high.

Contents 1 Perception of pitch 2 Standardized pitch (A440) 3 Concert pitch 4 Labeling pitches 5 Scales 6 Other musical meanings of pitch 7 History of pitch standards in Western music 7.1 Pre-19th Century 7.2 Pitch inflation 7.3 19th and 20th century standards 8 Changing the pitch of a vibrating string 8.1 Length 8.2 Tension 8.3 Density 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

Perception of pitch

The note A above middle C played on a piano is perceived to be of the same pitch as a pure tone of 440 Hz. A pure tone is a tone with a sinusoidal waveshape A Sine wave is characterized by its frequency — the number of cycles per second or its Wavelength However, a slight change in frequency need not lead to a perceived change in pitch. The just noticeable difference (the threshold at which a change in pitch is perceived) is about five cents (hundredths of a semitone), or about 0. In Psychophysics, a just noticeable difference, customarily abbreviated with lowercase letters as jnd, is the smallest difference in a specified modality of sensory Sensory threshold is a theoretical concept used in Psychophysics. The cent is a logarithmic unit of measure used for musical intervals. A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest Musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music and it is considered the 3% in frequency, but varies over the range of hearing and is more precise when the two pitches are played simultaneously. Like other human stimuli, the perception of pitch also can be explained by the Weber-Fechner law. The Weber–Fechner law attempts to describe the relationship between the physical magnitudes of stimuli and the perceived intensity of the stimuli

Pitch may depend on the amplitude of the sound, especially at low frequencies. For instance, a low bass note will sound lower in pitch if it is louder. Like other senses, the relative perception of pitch can be fooled, resulting in "audio illusions". An auditory illusion is an Illusion of hearing, the aural equivalent of an optical illusion the listener hears either sounds which are not present in the stimulus There are several of these, such as the tritone paradox, but most notably the Shepard scale, where a continuous or discrete sequence of specially formed tones can be made to sound as if the sequence continues ascending or descending forever. The tritone paradox is an Auditory illusion in which a sequentially played pair of Shepard tones separated by an interval of a Tritone, or A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a Sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by Octaves When played with the base

A special type of pitch often occurs in free nature when the sound of a sound source reaches the ear of an observer directly and also after being reflected against a sound-reflecting surface. This phenomenon is called Repetition Pitch, because the addition of a true repetition of the original sound to itself is the basic prerequisite. A sensation of Pitch (psychophysics often occurs in free nature when the sound of a sound source reaches the ear of an observer directly and also after being reflected against a sound-reflecting

Standardized pitch (A440)

The A above middle C is usually set at 440 Hz (often written as "A = 440 Hz" or sometimes "A440"), although other pitches are also often used, such as 442 Hz. C or Do is the first Note of the fixed-Do Solfege. In Western Music, the expression " Middle C " refers to the note A440 is the 440 Hz tone that serves as the standard for musical pitch. Historically, this A has been tuned to a variety of higher and lower pitches (see "History of pitch standards in Western music").

Concert pitch

Since some instruments in an orchestra use different key signatures (because of transposition), "concert pitch" describes a particular pitch in absolute terms, regardless of notation. In Music transposition refers to the process of moving a collection of notes ( pitches) up or down in pitch by a constant interval.

Labeling pitches

Pitches are often labeled using scientific pitch notation or some combination of a letter and a number representing a fundamental frequency. Scientific pitch notation is one of several methods that name the Notes of the standard Western Chromatic scale by combining a letter-name accidentals The fundamental tone, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated fo, is the lowest frequency in a harmonic series. For example, one might refer to the A above middle C as "A4" or "A440. " However, there are two problems with this practice. First, in standard Western equal-temperament, the notion of pitch is insensitive to spelling: the description "G4 double sharp" refers to the same pitch as "A4. " Second, human pitch perception is logarithmic with respect to fundamental frequency: the perceived distance between the pitches "A220" and "A440" is the same as the perceived distance between the pitches "A440" and "A880. "

To avoid these problems, music theorists sometimes represent pitches using a numerical scale based on the logarithm of fundamental frequency. For example, one can adopt the widely used MIDI standard to map fundamental frequency f to a real number p as follows

This creates a linear pitch space in which octaves have size 12, semitones (the distance between adjacent keys on the piano keyboard) have size 1, and A440 is assigned the number 69. In Music theory, pitch spaces model relationships between pitches Distance in this space corresponds to musical distance as measured in psychological experiments and understood by musicians. The system is flexible enough to include "microtones" not found on standard piano keyboards. For example, the pitch halfway between C (60) and C♯ (61) can be labeled 60. 5.

Scales

The relative pitches of individual notes in a scale may be determined by one of a number of tuning systems. In Music, a scale is a group of musical notes collected in ascending and descending order that provides material for or is used to conveniently represent part or all In Music, there are two common meanings for tuning: Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice In the west, the twelve-note chromatic scale is the most common method of organization, with equal temperament now the most widely used method of tuning that scale. The chromatic scale is a Musical scale with twelve pitches each a Semitone or Half step apart Equal temperament is a Musical temperament, or a system of tuning in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical Frequency ratio. In it, the pitch ratio between any two successive notes of the scale is exactly the twelfth root of two (or about 1. 05946). In well-tempered systems (as used in the time of Johann Sebastian Bach, for example), different methods of musical tuning were used. Well temperament (also circular or circulating temperament is a type of tempered tuning described in twentieth-century Music theory WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section.2 This article is written in British English including maximised use of "-ise" In Music, there are two common meanings for tuning: Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice Almost all of these systems have one interval in common, the octave, where the pitch of one note is double the frequency of another. In Music theory, the term interval describes the relationship between the pitches of two Notes Intervals may be described as vertical In Music, an octave ( is the the use of which is "common in most musical systems For example, if the A above middle C is 440 Hz, the A an octave above that will be 880 Hz (info).

Other musical meanings of pitch

In atonal, twelve tone, or musical set theory a "pitch" is a specific frequency while a pitch class is all the octaves of a frequency. Twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony, especially in British usage twelve-note composition) is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Musical set theory provides concepts for categorizing musical objects and describing their relationships In Music, a pitch class is a set of all pitches that are a whole number of Octaves apart e Pitches are named with integers because of octave and enharmonic equivalency (for example, C♯ and D♭ are the same pitch, while C4 and C5 are functionally the same, one octave apart). The integers (from the Latin integer, literally "untouched" hence "whole" the word entire comes from the same origin but via French

Discrete pitches, rather than continuously variable pitches, are virtually universal, with exceptions including "tumbling strains" (Sachs & Kunst, 1962) and "indeterminate-pitch chants" (Malm, 1967). Shout-and-fall or tumbling strain is a modal frame "very common in Afro-American-derived styles" and are featured in songs such as " Shake Rattle Gliding pitches are used in most cultures, but are related to the discrete pitches they reference or embellish. (Burns, 1999)

History of pitch standards in Western music

Historically, various standards have been used to fix the pitch of notes at certain frequencies^[1]. Various systems of musical tuning have also been used to determine the relative frequency of notes in a scale. In Music, there are two common meanings for tuning: Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice

Pre-19th Century

Until the 19th century there was no concerted effort to standardize musical pitch, and the levels across Europe varied widely. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar Pitches did not just vary from place to place, or over time—pitch levels could vary even within the same city. The pitch used for an English cathedral organ in the 17th century for example, could be as much as five semitones lower than that used for a domestic keyboard instrument in the same city. As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a Musical keyboard.

Even within one church, the pitch used could vary over time because of the way organs were tuned. The organ (from Greek όργανον – organon "organ instrument tool" is a Keyboard instrument of one or more divisions each Generally, the end of an organ pipe would be hammered inwards to a cone, or flared outwards, to raise or lower the pitch. When the pipe ends became frayed by this constant process they were all trimmed down, thus raising the overall pitch of the organ.

Some idea of the variance in pitches can be gained by examining old pitchpipes, organ pipes and other sources. A pitch pipe is a small device used to provide a pitch reference for musicians without Absolute pitch. For example, an English pitchpipe from 1720 plays the A above middle C at 380 Hz (info), while the organs played by Johann Sebastian Bach in Hamburg, Leipzig and Weimar were pitched at A = 480 Hz (info), a difference of around four semitones. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The organ (from Greek όργανον – organon "organ instrument tool" is a Keyboard instrument of one or more divisions each WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section.2 This article is written in British English including maximised use of "-ise" Hamburg (English, German: ˈhambʊɐk local pronunciation Low German / Low Saxon: Hamborg) is the second-largest city in Germany This sort of fix restores section edit linkpoints to where they belong Weimar (ˈvaɪmaʁ is a City in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of Thuringia (Thüringen north of the Thüringer Wald, A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest Musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music and it is considered the In other words, the A produced by the 1720 pitchpipe would have been at the same frequency as the F on one of Bach's organs.

From the early 18th century, pitch could be also controlled with the use of tuning forks (invented in 1711), although again there was variation. A tuning fork is an acoustic Resonator in the form of a two-pronged Fork with the tines formed from a U-shaped bar of elastic For example, a tuning fork associated with Handel, dating from 1740, is pitched at A = 422.5 Hz (info), while a later one from 1780 is pitched at A = 409 Hz (info), almost a semitone lower. Nonetheless, there was a tendency towards the end of the 18th century for the frequency of the A above middle C to be in the range of 400 (info) to 450 Hz (info). The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system

The frequencies quoted here are based on modern measurements and would not have been precisely known to musicians of the day. Although Mersenne had made a rough determination of sound frequencies as early as the 1600s, such measurements did not become scientifically accurate until the 19th century, beginning with the work of German physicist Johann Scheibler in the 1830s. Marin Mersenne, Marin Mersennus or le Père Mersenne ( September 8, 1588 &ndash September 1, 1648) was The unit hertz (Hz), replacing cycles per second (cps), was not introduced until the twentieth century. The hertz (symbol Hz) is a measure of Frequency, informally defined as the number of events occurring per Second.

Pitch inflation

During historical periods when instrumental music rose in prominence (relative to the voice), there was a continuous tendency for pitch levels to rise. This "pitch inflation" seemed largely due to instrumentalists competing with each other, each attempting to produce a brighter, more "brilliant", sound than that of one's rivals. (In string instruments, this is not all acoustic illusion: when tuned up, they actually sound objectively brighter because the higher string tension results in larger amplitudes for the harmonics. ) This tendency was also prevalent with wind instrument manufacturers, who crafted their instruments to generally play at a higher pitch than those made by the same craftsmen years earlier.

It should be noted too that pitch inflation is a problem only where musical compositions are fixed by notation. The combination of numerous wind instruments and notated music has therefore restricted pitch inflation almost entirely to the Western tradition.

On at least two occasions, pitch inflation has become so severe that reform became needed. At the beginning of the 17th century, Michael Praetorius reported in his encyclopedic Syntagma musicum that pitch levels had become so high that singers were experiencing severe throat strain and lutenists and viol players were complaining of snapped strings. Michael Praetorius (probably February 15 1571 &ndash February 15 1621 was a German Composer, organist, and writer about Music. The standard voice ranges he cites show that the pitch level of his time, at least in the part of Germany where he lived, was at least a minor third higher than today's. Solutions to this problem were sporadic and local, but generally involved the establishment of separate standards for voice and organ ("Chorton") and for chamber ensembles ("Kammerton"). Where the two were combined, as for example in a cantata, the singers and instrumentalists might perform from music written in different keys. A cantata (derived from the Italian word 'cantare' meaning 'to sing' is a vocal composition with an instrumental Accompaniment and often This system kept pitch inflation at bay for some two centuries.

The advent of the orchestra as an independent (as opposed to accompanying) ensemble brought pitch inflation to the fore again. An orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string brass woodwind sections and possibly a percussion section as well The rise in pitch at this time can be seen reflected in tuning forks. An 1815 tuning fork from the Dresden opera house gives A = 423.2 Hz (info), while one of eleven years later from the same opera house gives A = 435 Hz (info). At La Scala in Milan, the A above middle C rose as high as 451 Hz (info). The Teatro alla Scala (or La Scala, as it is known in Milan, Italy, is one of the world's most famous Opera houses The theatre was Milan (Milano Milan (listen) is one of the largest cities in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy.

19th and 20th century standards

The most vocal opponents of the upward tendency in pitch were singers, who complained that it was putting a strain on their voices. Largely due to their protests, the French government passed a law on February 16, 1859 which set the A above middle C at 435 Hz. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Events 1249 - Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols Year 1859 ( MDCCCLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common This was the first attempt to standardize pitch on such a scale, and was known as the diapason normal. It became quite a popular pitch standard outside of France as well, and has also been known at various times as French pitch, continental pitch or international pitch (the last of these not to be confused with the 1939 "international standard pitch" described below).

The diapason normal resulted in middle C being tuned at approximately 258.65 Hz (info). C or Do is the first Note of the fixed-Do Solfege. In Western Music, the expression " Middle C " refers to the note An alternative pitch standard known as philosophical or scientific pitch, which fixed middle C at exactly 256 Hz (info) (that is, 2⁸ Hz), and resulted in the A above it being tuned to approximately 430.54 Hz (info), gained some popularity due to its mathematical convenience (the frequencies of all the Cs being a power of two). In Mathematics, a power of two is any of the Integer powers of the number two; in other words two multiplied by itself a certain This never received the same official recognition as A = 435 Hz, however, and was not as widely used.

British attempts at standardisation in the 19th century gave rise to the so-called old philharmonic pitch standard of about A = 452 Hz (different sources quote slightly different values), replaced in 1896 by the considerably "deflated" new philharmonic pitch at A = 439 Hz. The high pitch was maintained by Sir Michael Costa for the Crystal Palace Handel Festivals, causing the withdrawal of the principal tenor Sims Reeves in 1877,^[2] though at singers' insistence the Birmingham Festival pitch was lowered (and the organ retuned) at that time. Michael Costa may refer to Michael Costa (politician, Australian politician Michael Costa (conductor, Italian-born conductor and composer The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and Glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the John Sims Reeves (21 October 1821 – 25 October 1900 usually called simply Sims Reeves, was the foremost English Operatic, Oratorio and ballad Birmingham ( ˈbɜːmɪŋəm Ber -ming-um At the Queen's Hall in London, the establishment of the diapason normal for the Promenade Concerts in 1895 (and retuning of the organ to A = 439 at 15 °C (59 °F), to be in tune with A = 435. Queen's Hall was a classical music Concert hall in Central London, England, opened in 1893 and was beloved by Londoners until its The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily Orchestral The Celsius Temperature scale was previously known as the centigrade scale. Fahrenheit is a temperature scale named after Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736 a German Physicist who proposed it in 1724 5 in a heated hall) caused the Royal Philharmonic Society and others (including the Bach Choir, and the Felix Mottl and Artur Nikisch concerts) to adopt the continental pitch thereafter. The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society formed in 1813 WikipediaWikiProject Classical music#Biographical_infoboxes --> Felix Josef von Mottl ( 24 August 1856 &ndash WikipediaWikiProject Classical music#Biographical_infoboxes --> Arthur Nikisch (Hungarian Nikisch Artúr) ( 12 October ^[3]

In 1939, an international conference recommended that the A above middle C be tuned to 440 Hz, now known as concert pitch. This standard was taken up by the International Organization for Standardization in 1955 (and was reaffirmed by them in 1975) as ISO 16. The difference between this and the diapason normal is due to confusion over which temperature the French standard should be measured at. The initial standard was A = 439 Hz (info), but this was superseded by A = 440 Hz after complaints that 439 Hz was difficult to reproduce in a laboratory owing to 439 being a prime number. In Mathematics, a prime number (or a prime) is a Natural number which has exactly two distinct natural number Divisors 1 ^[4]

Despite such confusion, A = 440 Hz is arguably the most common tuning used around the world. Many, though certainly not all, prominent orchestras in the United States and United Kingdom adhere to this standard as concert pitch. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located In other countries, however, higher pitches have become the norm: A = 442 Hz is common in certain continental European and American orchestras (the Boston symphony being the best-known example), while A = 445 Hz is heard in Germany, Austria, and China. Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the Continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based at Symphony Hall in Boston Massachusetts, USA Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National

In practice, as orchestras still tune to a note given out by the oboe, rather than to an electronic tuning device (which would be more reliable), and as the oboist may not have used such a device to tune in the first place, there is still some variance in the exact pitch used. "Hautbois" redirects here for the strawberry variety see Hautbois strawberry. Solo instruments such as the piano (which an orchestra may tune to if they are playing together) are also not universally tuned to A = 440 Hz. Overall, it is thought that the general trend since the middle of the 20th century has been for standard pitch to rise, though it has been rising far more slowly than it has in the past. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on

Many modern ensembles which specialize in the performance of Baroque music have agreed on a standard of A = 415 Hz, an even-tempered semitone lower (rounded to the nearest integer Hz) than A = 440 Hz. Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750. (An exact even-tempered semitone lower than A=440 would be 440/2^1/12=415. 3047 Hz. ) At least in principle, this allows for playing along with modern fixed-pitch instruments if their parts are transposed down a semitone. It is, however, common performance practice, especially in the German Baroque idiom, to tune certain works to Chorton, approximately a semitone higher than A-440 (460-470 Hz) (e. g. , Pre-Leipzig period cantatas of Bach). ^[5]

Changing the pitch of a vibrating string

There are three ways to change the pitch of a vibrating string. A Vibration in a string is a Wave. Usually a vibrating string produces a Sound whose Frequency in most cases is constant String instruments are tuned by varying the strings' tension because adjusting length or mass per unit length is impractical. A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a Musical instrument that produces Sound by means of Vibrating strings In the Hornbostel-Sachs

Length

Pitch can be adjusted by varying the length of the string. Length is the long Dimension of any object The length of a thing is the distance between its ends its linear extent as measured from end to end A longer string will result in a lower pitch, while a shorter string will result in a higher pitch. The frequency is inversely proportional to the length:

A string twice as long will produce a tone of half the frequency (one octave lower).

Tension

Pitch can be adjusted by varying the tension of the string. In Physics String Tension is the magnitude of the pulling force exerted by a string cable chain or similar object on another object A string with less tension (looser) will result in a lower pitch, while a string with greater tension (tighter) will result in a higher pitch. The frequency is proportional to the square root of the tension:

Density

The pitch of a string can also be varied by changing the density of the string. The density of a material is defined as its Mass per unit Volume: \rho = \frac{m}{V} Different materials usually have different The frequency is inversely proportional to the square root of the density:

A string that is more dense will produce a lower pitch.

See also

• Pitch accent
• Pitch space
• Pitchpipe
• Pitch shifter
• Scientific pitch notation
• Pitch detection algorithm
• Auto-Tune
• Piano key frequencies
• Musical tuning
• Equal temperament
• Eight foot pitch
• Frequency
• Fundamental frequency
• Timbre
• Loudness

References

1. ^ Pitch, temperament and timbre. Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a Syllable In Music theory, pitch spaces model relationships between pitches A pitch pipe is a small device used to provide a pitch reference for musicians without Absolute pitch. A pitch shifter is an audio processor that changes the pitch of an audio signal Scientific pitch notation is one of several methods that name the Notes of the standard Western Chromatic scale by combining a letter-name accidentals A pitch detection algorithm (PDA is an Algorithm designed to estimate the pitch or Fundamental frequency of a Quasiperiodic or virtually Auto-Tune is a proprietary Audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies which uses a Phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental This is a virtual piano with 88 keys tuned to A440, showing the frequencies in cycles per second ( Hz) of each note (ie note frequencies of each note found on a standard In Music, there are two common meanings for tuning: Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice Equal temperament is a Musical temperament, or a system of tuning in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical Frequency ratio. Eight-foot pitch is a term common to the organ and the Harpsichord. Frequency is a measure of the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit Time. The fundamental tone, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated fo, is the lowest frequency in a harmonic series. In Music, timbre (ˈtæm-bər' like timber, or, from Fr timbre tɛ̃bʁ is the quality of a Musical note or sound that distinguishes different Loudness is the quality of a Sound that is the primary psychological correlate of physical strength (amplitude Dolmetsch Online.
2. ^ J. Sims Reeves, The Life of Sims Reeves, written by himself (Simpkin Marshall, London 1888), 242-252.
3. ^ H. J. Wood, My Life of Music (Gollancz, London 1938) Chapters XIV and XV.
4. ^ Lynn Cavanagh. A brief history of the establishment of international standard pitch a=440 hertz (PDF).
5. ^ Oxford Composer Companion JS Bach, page 369-372. Oxford University Press, 1999

External links

• 12 Tone Equal Temperament Frequency Table Maker

---

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic