Timbre |

French timbre, english timbre, German Klangfarbe

Sound coloring; one of the signs of a musical sound (along with pitch, loudness and duration), by which sounds of the same height and loudness are distinguished, but performed on different instruments, in different voices or on the same instrument, but in different ways, strokes. The timbre is determined by the material from which the sound source is made – the vibrator of a musical instrument, and its shape (strings, rods, records, etc.), as well as the resonator (piano decks, violins, trumpet bells, etc.); the timbre is influenced by the acoustics of the room – the frequency characteristics of absorbing, reflecting surfaces, reverberation, etc. T. is characterized by the number of overtones in the composition of the sound, their ratio in height, volume, noise overtones, the initial moment of sound occurrence – attack (sharp, smooth, soft), formants – areas of enhanced partial tones in the sound spectrum, vibrato, and other factors. T. also depends on the total volume of the sound, on the register – high or low, on the beats between sounds. The listener characterizes T. Ch. arr. with the help of associative representations – compares this sound quality with its visual, tactile, gustatory, etc. impressions of decomp. objects, phenomena and their correlations (sounds are bright, brilliant, dull, dull, warm, cold, deep, full, sharp, soft, saturated, juicy, metallic, glassy, ​​etc.); auditory definitions (voiced, deaf) are used less frequently. T. greatly affects the pitch intonation. sound definition (low register sounds with a small number of overtones in relation to pitch often appear vague), the ability of sound to spread in a room (the influence of formants), the intelligibility of vowels and consonants in vocal performance.

Evidence-based typology T. mus. the sounds haven’t worked out yet. It has been established that timbre hearing has a zone nature, i.e., with the perception of sounds by the same typical tone, for example. The tone of the violin corresponds to a whole group of sounds that differ slightly in composition (see Zone). T. is an important means of music. expressiveness. With the help of T., one or another component of the muses can be distinguished. of the whole – a melody, bass, chord, to give this component a characteristic, a special functional meaning as a whole, to separate phrases or parts from each other – to strengthen or weaken contrasts, to emphasize similarities or differences in the process of development of a product; composers use combinations of tone (timbre harmony), shifts, movement, and development of tone (timbre dramaturgy). The search for new tones and their combinations (in the orchestra, orchestra) continues, electric musical instruments are being created, as well as sound synthesizers that make it possible to obtain new tones. Sonoristics has become a special direction in the use of tones.

The phenomenon of the natural scale as one of the physico-acoustic. foundations T. had a strong influence on the development of harmony as a means of music. expressiveness; in turn, in the 20th century. there is a noticeable tendency by means of harmony to enhance the timbre side of the sound (various parallelisms, for example, major triads, layers of texture, clusters, modeling the sound of bells, etc.). The theory of music in order to explain a number of features of the organization of muses. language has repeatedly turned to T. With T. in one way or another, the search for muses is connected. tunings (Pythagoras, D. Tsarlino, A. Werkmeister and others), explanations of the modal-harmonic and modal-functional systems of music (J. F. Rameau, X. Riemann, F. Gevart, G. L. Catoire, P. Hindemith and others .researchers).

References: Garbuzov HA, Natural overtones and their harmonic meaning, in: Collection of works of the commission on musical acoustics. Proceedings of the HYMN, vol. 1, Moscow, 1925; his own, Zone nature of timbre hearing, M., 1956; Teplov B. M., Psychology of musical abilities, M.-L., 1947, in his book: Problems of individual differences. (Selected works), M., 1961; Musical acoustics, gen. ed. Edited by N. A. Garbuzova. Moscow, 1954. Agarkov O. M., Vibrato as a means of musical expression in playing the violin, M., 1956; Nazaikinsky E., Pars Yu., Perception of musical timbres and the meaning of individual harmonics of sound, in the book: Application of acoustic research methods in musicology, M., 1964; Pargs Yu., Vibrato and pitch perception, in the book: Application of acoustic research methods in musicology, M., 1964; Sherman N. S., Formation of a uniform temperament system, M., 1964; Mazel L. A., Zuckerman V. A., Analysis of musical works, (part 1), Elements of music and methods for analyzing small forms, M, 1967, Volodin A., The role of the harmonic spectrum in the perception of pitch and timbre of sound, in book .: Musical art and science, issue 1, M., 1970; Rudakov E., On the registers of the singing voice and transitions to covered sounds, ibid.; Nazaikinsky E. V., On the psychology of musical perception, M., 1972, Helmholtz H., Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen, Braunschweig, 1863, Hildesheim, 1968 (Russian translation – Helmholtz G., The doctrine of auditory sensations as a physiological basis for the theory of music, St. Petersburg, 1875).

Yu. N. Rags