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4305 results in General and Classical Physics

Page 189 of 216

  • Preface

  • James Jeans
  • Book:
    Science and Music
    Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009, pp ix-x
    First published in:
    1937

  • Summary

    Much has been added to our scientific knowledge of musical sound, since Helmholtz published his great work Tonempfindungen in 1862. The new knowledge has been often and well described, but mostly by scientists writing for scientists in the technical language of science.

    In the present book I have tried to describe the main outlines of such parts of science, both old and new, as are specially related to the questions and problems of music, assuming no previous knowledge either of science or of mathematics on the part of the reader. My aim has been to convey precise information in a simple non-technical way, and I hope the subject-matter I have selected may interest the amateur, as well as the serious student, of music.

    I need hardly say that I am indebted to many friends and books. A considerable fraction of my book is merely Helmholtz modernised and rewritten in simple language. Another considerable fraction is drawn from the wealth of material provided in the notes added to Helmholtz's book by his English translator, A. J. Ellis. On the less technical side, I have borrowed largely from Dayton C. Miller's book The Science of Musical Sounds (The Macmillan Company, 1934), and am especially indebted to the author for permission to reproduce eleven excellent photographs of sound-curves.

  • Chapter VI - The Concert Room

  • James Jeans
  • Book:
    Science and Music
    Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009, pp 191-216
    First published in:
    1937

  • Summary

    We have now considered the way in which musical sounds are produced by various instruments, and the way in which the quality of those sounds depends on the proportion of the various harmonics of which they are the blend. We have further considered the combining of single sounds into chords, and the choice of a musical scale which shall give as much pleasure as possible—or, perhaps, more accurately, as little pain as possible—to the sensitive ear. But our problem does not end with the production of musical tone; it ends only with the perception of this tone by the brain. After a musical tone has been produced in the orchestra, it has to go through two further stages—transmission from the instrument to the ear-drum of the listener, and transmission from his ear-drum to his brain. We consider these two stages in this and the following chapter.

    The Transmission of Sound-Waves

    Imagine that we are listening to an orchestra out in interstellar space. As we have seen that some material medium is necessary to transmit the sound from the instruments to our ear-drums, let us give free rein to our fancy, and imagine interstellar space filled with ordinary air.

    Sound leaves each instrument in the form of waves which spread in all directions. If there is nothing to absorb their energy, they travel on for ever, but their intensity naturally diminishes as they spread out.

Page 189 of 216