Physics Behind Music An Introduction

The Fourier series is introduced as a very useful way to represent any periodic signal using a sum of sinusoidal (“pure”) signals. A display of the amplitudes of each sinusoid as a function of the frequency of that sinusoid is a spectrum and allows analysis in the frequency domain. Each sinusoidal signal of such a complex signal is referred to as a partial, and all those except for the lowest-frequency term are referred to as overtones. For periodic signals, the frequencies of the sinusoids will be integer multiples of the lowest frequency; that is, they are harmonics. Pitch is a perceived quantity related to frequency, and it may have a complicated relationship to the actual frequencies present in terms of the series. For periodic signals, changes in the relative phase of the partials do not change the perception of sounds that are not too loud.