Pitch |

Sound pitch is one of the main the qualities of music. sound. The concept of V. z. associated with the transfer of spatial representations to music. V. h. constitutes a form of human perception of the vibration frequency of a sounding body and is directly dependent on it – the higher the frequency, the higher the sound, and vice versa. V.’s perception h. depends on physiological features of the organ of hearing. For a clear perception of pitch, the sound must have a harmonic spectrum or a spectrum close to it (overtones must be located along the so-called natural scale) and a minimum of noise overtones; in the absence of harmony (in the sounds of a xylophone, bells, etc.) or with a noise spectrum (drums, tam-tam, etc.) V. z. becomes less clear or not perceived at all. The sound should be long enough – in the middle register, for example, not shorter than 0,015 seconds. On V.’s perception h. the loudness of the sound, the presence or absence of vibrato, the attack of the sound (a form of dynamic changes in the beginning of the sound), and other factors also affect. In the music Psychologists note two aspects of sound-altitude perception: interval, associated with the ratio of frequencies of sounds, and timbre, characterized by a sensation of a change in the color of sound – enlightenment when increasing and darkening when decreasing. The interval component is perceived in the range from 16 Hz (C2) to 4000-4500 Hz (approximately c5 – d5), the timbre component – from 16 Hz to 18-000 Hz. Beyond the lower limit is the region of infrasounds, where the human ear does not perceive oscillatory movements as sound at all. The sensitivity of hearing to small changes in V. z., characterized by the threshold for distinguishing V. z., is highest in the range of small – 19rd octave; in the extreme registers, the pitch sensitivity decreases. According to the peculiarities of perception of V. h. There are several types of pitch hearing (see. Musical hearing): absolute (including tonal), relative, or interval, and intonation. As studies have shown owls. music acoustics N. A. Garbuzov, pitch hearing has a zone nature (see Zone).

In the music V.’s practice h. it is indicated by musical, alphabetic and numerical signs (see the Musical Alphabet), in acoustics it is measured in hertz (the number of vibrations per second); as the smallest unit of measure V. z. a cent (hundredth of a tempered semitone) is used.

References: Garbuzov HA, Zonal nature of acoustic hearing, M.-L., 1948; Musical acoustics, Uch. allowance under ed. N. A. Garbuzova, M., 1954. See also lit. at st. Acoustics are musical.

E. V. Nazaikinsky