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Introduction to Acoustics

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542 Part E Music, Speech, Electroacoustics<br />

Part E 15.1<br />

Octave 1 2 3 4 5 6 7<br />

A0 C1 A1 C2 A2 C3 A3 C4 DEFGA4B<br />

C5 A5 C6 A6 C7 A7 C8<br />

27.5 55 110 220 440 880 1760 3520<br />

33 66 132 264 528 1056 2112 4224<br />

Contra<br />

Bass<br />

Harp<br />

Guitar<br />

Cello<br />

Bass clarinet<br />

Bassoon<br />

Viola<br />

Cor-anglais<br />

B-flat clarinet<br />

Violin<br />

Cornet<br />

Trumpet<br />

Bass trumpet<br />

Trombone<br />

Bass trombone<br />

Flute<br />

Oboe<br />

Middle C Concert A<br />

Piccolo<br />

Fig. 15.4 Notation used for notes of the musical scale and the playing range of classical western musical instruments.<br />

Subdivisions for stringed instruments represent the tuning of the open strings<br />

a pure sinusoidal wave, can often be an octave below or<br />

above the repetition frequency. The subjective pitch, as<br />

its name implies, can differ from person <strong>to</strong> person and<br />

within the musical context of the note being played.<br />

Musical Intervals and Tuning<br />

In western music the octave interval is divided in<strong>to</strong><br />

six <strong>to</strong>nes (a whole-<strong>to</strong>ne scale) and 12 semi<strong>to</strong>nes (the<br />

chromatic scale). Today, an equal temperament, logarithmic<br />

scale is used <strong>to</strong> tune a piano, with a fractional<br />

increase in frequency of 2 1/12 = 1.059 (≈ 6%) between<br />

any two notes a semi<strong>to</strong>ne apart. The fractional<br />

increase between the frequencies of a given musical interval<br />

(a given number of semi<strong>to</strong>nes) is then always<br />

the same, whatever the starting note. Twelve successive<br />

semi<strong>to</strong>nes played in sequence therefore raises the frequency<br />

by an octave [(2 1/12 ) 12 = 2]. Any music played<br />

on the piano keyboard can therefore be transposed<br />

up or down by a given number of semi<strong>to</strong>nes, changing<br />

the pitch but leaving the relationship between the<br />

musical intervals unchanged. Such a scale was advocated<br />

as early as 1581, in a treatise by the lutenist<br />

Vincenzo Galileo (the father of Galileo Galilei). Although<br />

it is sometimes claimed that Bach exploited<br />

such a tuning in his 48 Preludes and Fugues, which<br />

uses all possible major and minor keys of the dia<strong>to</strong>nic<br />

scale, his<strong>to</strong>rical research now suggests that Bach used<br />

a form of mean-<strong>to</strong>ne tuning, which preserved some of<br />

the characteristic qualities of music written in particular<br />

keys [15.1].

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