Timbral listening

Last updated November 09, 2024

Timbral listening is the process of actively listening to the timbral characteristics of sound.

Concept

In timbral listening, "pitch is subordinate to timbre". Instead, the specific quality of a musical tone is determined by considering "the presence, distribution and relative amplitude of overtones."^[1]

When using this listening technique/ method of perception / interpretation there is "a relation between timbre and spectral content which is analogous to that between pitch and frequency in that one is the prevalent cultural construct of the other."^[2]

The most common form of timbral listening is listening to speech. This is demonstrated by listening to, for example, the vowels /a/ and /i/ spoken at the same pitch and intensity. The difference between the two sounds is entirely one of spectrum, or as the term is used in this article, timbre.

Nature

It has been suggested that "timbral listening is an ideal sonic mirror of the natural world".^[3] It is often (but not always) used in association with musics that are based in mimicry of sounds in the natural environment. Valentina Suzukei suggests that 'it was the nomadic way of life and its focus on the timbral qualities of natural sounds that created this kind of musicality'.^[4] This is especially prevalent in Canada where composers such as Hildegard Westerkamp apply the thinking of R. Murray Schafer's World Soundscape Project to their compositions.^[5]

Descriptive language and notation

As timbre has "no domain-specific adjectives" it "must be described in metaphor or by analogy to other senses".^[6] This method also has limitations.^[7]

Examples

Traditional music in Tuva and other Turkic cultures of inner Asia

The composition of timbre-centered music in the nomadic communities of Tuva involves mimicry of sounds heard in the environment. Timbral listening is a fundamental component of listening to, understanding and being able to correctly perform this music using vocal techniques such as throat singing "khoomei" and harmonic producing instruments such as the jaw harp, bzaanchy, shoor, qyl qiyak, qyl-gobyz, ku-rai, and igil.

Barundi whispered Inanga or Inanga Chucotée in Africa

This music employs a fundamental drone and overtone harmonics. It consists of "a whispered text, accompanied by the inanga, a trough zither of eight strings. To listen correctly (using timbral listening), one must consider "the effect of the combined timbres of the noisy whisper and the inanga" as a whole sound.^[8]

Some forms of contemporary electronic music

More recently, computers and synthesizers are being used by contemporary composers to produce timbral-centered music. Contemporary composers state timbral listening as the correct technique to adopt in listening to and analysing their timbre (as opposed to pitch) based compositions. In the context of electronic music, the approach of spectromorphology provides ways to describe the temporally shifting nature of timbre, following an article by Denis Smalley named Spectromorphology explaining sound shapes (1997). 'Pure timbres' are explored using methods such as granular synthesis in works such as Dragon of the Nebula by Mara Helmuth.^[9]

Shakuhachi music in Japan

The music produced by the Shakuhachi end blown flute such as honkyoku, contains timbral variations that are of equal importance to pitch variations. These timbral variations are indicated in Shakuhachi musical notation.^[10]

Application

The technique of timbral listening is used by sound engineers to evaluate timbre difference.^[11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harmonic</span> Wave with frequency an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency

In physics, acoustics, and telecommunications, a harmonic is a sinusoidal wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the fundamental frequency of a periodic signal. The fundamental frequency is also called the 1st harmonic; the other harmonics are known as higher harmonics. As all harmonics are periodic at the fundamental frequency, the sum of harmonics is also periodic at that frequency. The set of harmonics forms a harmonic series.

An overtone is any resonant frequency above the fundamental frequency of a sound. In other words, overtones are all pitches higher than the lowest pitch within an individual sound; the fundamental is the lowest pitch. While the fundamental is usually heard most prominently, overtones are actually present in any pitch except a true sine wave. The relative volume or amplitude of various overtone partials is one of the key identifying features of timbre, or the individual characteristic of a sound.

Overtone singing, also known as overtone chanting, harmonic singing, polyphonic overtone singing, or diphonic singing, is a set of singing techniques in which the vocalist manipulates the resonances of the vocal tract to arouse the perception of additional separate notes beyond the fundamental frequency that is being produced.

A shakuhachi is a Japanese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo. The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the shakuhachi was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the fuke shakuhachi (普化尺八). A bamboo flute known as the kodai shakuhachi or gagaku shakuhachi (雅楽尺八) was derived from the Chinese xiao in the Nara period and died out in the 10th century. After a long blank period, the hitoyogiri shakuhachi (一節切尺八) appeared in the 15th century, and then in the 16th century, the fuke shakuhachi was developed in Japan. The fuke shakuhachi flourished in the 18th century during the Edo period, and eventually the hitoyogiri shakuhachi also died out. The fuke shakuhachi developed in Japan is longer and thicker than the kodai shakuhachi and has one finger hole less. It is longer and thicker than hitoyogiri shakuhachi and is superior in volume, range, scale and tone quality. Today, since the shakuhachi generally refers only to fuke shakuhachi, the theory that the shakuhachi is an instrument unique to Japan is widely accepted.

A register is the range within pitch space of some music or often musical speech. It may describe a given pitch or pitch class, a human voice or musical instrument, or both, as in a melody or part. It is also often related to timbre and musical form. In musical compositions, it may be fixed or "frozen".

A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth was popularized by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ranging from urban design to wildlife ecology to computer science. An important distinction is to separate soundscape from the broader acoustic environment. The acoustic environment is the combination of all the acoustic resources, natural and artificial, within a given area as modified by the environment. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standardized these definitions in 2014.

Tuva is a part of Russia, inhabited by a Turkic people. Tuvans are known abroad for khoomei (xöömej), a kind of overtone singing.

Sainkho Namtchylak is a singer originally from Tuva, an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation just north of Mongolia. She has been resident in Vienna, Austria since 1991. She is known for her Tuvan throat singing (khöömei).

In musical composition, a sound mass or sound collective is the result of compositional techniques, in which, "the importance of individual pitches", is minimized, "in preference for texture, timbre, and dynamics as primary shapers of gesture and impact", obscuring, "the boundary between sound and noise".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spectral music</span> Musical composition practice where decisions are informed by the analysis of sound spectra

Spectral music uses the acoustic properties of sound – or sound spectra – as a basis for composition.

Frank Denyer is a composer. His music uses a combination of conventional instruments and new, unusual, and structurally modified instruments. Partly due to his studies of non-Western music, much of Denyer's music is microtonal.

Throat singing refers to several vocal practices found in different cultures worldwide. These vocal practices are generally associated with a certain type of guttural voice that contrasts with the most common types of voices employed in singing, which are usually represented by chest (modal) and head registers. Throat singing is often described as evoking the sensation of more than one pitch at a time, meaning that the listener perceives two or more distinct musical notes while the singer is producing a single vocalization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuvan throat singing</span> Style of overtone singing

Tuvan-Mongol throat singing, the main technique of which is known as khoomei, is a style of singing practiced by people in Tuva and Mongolia. It is noted for including overtone singing. In 2009, it was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO. The term hömey or kömey means 'throat' and 'larynx' in various Turkic languages.

Valentina Suzukei is one of the leading ethnomusicologists in the Tyva Republic (Tuva), Russia.

Theodore Craig Levin is an American ethnomusicologist. He is a professor of music at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and earned his undergraduate degree at Amherst College and obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University. Levin has focused his research on the people of the Balkans, Siberia, and Central Asia. His recordings from these regions have been released on various labels.

Vocalists are capable of producing a variety of extended technique sounds. These alternative singing techniques have been used extensively in the 20th century, especially in art song and opera. Particularly famous examples of extended vocal technique can be found in the music of Luciano Berio, John Cage, George Crumb, Peter Maxwell Davies, Hans Werner Henze, György Ligeti, Demetrio Stratos, Meredith Monk, Giacinto Scelsi, Arnold Schoenberg, Salvatore Sciarrino, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tim Foust, Avi Kaplan, and Trevor Wishart.

Shamanic music is ritualistic music used in religious and spiritual ceremonies associated with the practice of shamanism. Shamanic music makes use of various means of producing music, with an emphasis on voice and rhythm. It can vary based on cultural, geographic, and religious influences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aldyn-ool Sevek</span> Tuvan throat singer (d. 2011)

Aldyn-ool Takashovich Sevek was a master Tuvan throat singer.

Carole Pegg, sometimes Carolanne Pegg, is a British folksinger and fiddle player, and an anthropologist of music (ethnomusicologist).

References

↑ Süzükei, V., Listening The Tuvan Way in Levin, T., Where Rivers and Mountains Sing, Sound, Music and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond (Bloomington: Indiana University press, 2006) p. 47.
↑ Waters, S., "Timbre Composition: Ideology, Metaphor and Social Process", Contemporary Music Review, 10:2 (1994), p133-134
↑ Levin, T., Where Rivers and Mountains Sing, Sound, Music and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond (Bloomington: Indiana University press, 2006) p58
↑ Süzükei, V., Listening The Tuvan Way in Levin, T., Where Rivers and Mountains Sing, Sound, Music and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond (Bloomington: Indiana University press, 2006) p51.
↑ Landy, L., 'The Something to Hold on to Factor in Timbral Composition', "Contemporary Music Review" 10:2 (1994): 54.
↑ Fales, C., "The Paradox of Timbre", Ethnomusicology, 46:1 (Winter, 2002), 57.
↑ Waters, S., "Timbre Composition: Ideology, Metaphor and Social Process", Contemporary Music Review, 10:2 (1994), p131, 134
↑ Fales, C., "The Paradox of Timbre", Ethnomusicology, 46:1 (Winter, 2002), 56
↑ Helmuth, M., "Timbral Composition and Gesture" Columbia University Music Department, available at "Timbral Composition and Gesture". Archived from the original on 2002-01-21. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
↑ Berger, Donald Paul (Autumn, 1969). "The Shakuhachi and the Kinko Ryu Notation". Asian Music 1 (2): 32–72. Springer. doi : 10.2307/833910.
↑ Quesnel, R., "Timbral Ear Trainer: Adaptive, Interactive Training of Listening Skills for Evaluation of Timbre Differences", paper presented at the 100th Audio Engineering Society Convention, Copenhagen, May 11th–14th, 1996.