Tone |

German Ton – sound, from the Greek. tonos, lit. – tension, tension

One of the main concepts widely used in music theory.

1) In music. acoustics – part of the sound spectrum, formed by periodic. oscillating movements: partial T., aliquot T., overtone (there is a term “undertone”), pure, or sinusoidal, T.; during the interaction of sounds, combinational T., T. coincidences arise. It differs from the sound of the musical, consisting of the main. tones and overtones, and from noise – a sound with an indistinctly pronounced pitch, to-ry is caused by non-periodic. oscillating movements. T. has a pitch, volume, and timbre that depends on the register (low T. are dull, matte; high ones are bright, shiny) and loudness (at very high volume, the tone of T. changes, because due to distortions in the form of oscillatory movements during passing them through the external analyzer of the organ of hearing, the so-called subjective overtones arise). T. can be created by an audio frequency generator; such T. are widely used in electromusic. instruments for sound synthesis.

2) Interval, a measure of pitch ratios: in pure tuning – a large whole T. with a frequency ratio of 9/8, equal to 204 cents, and a small whole T. with a frequency ratio of 10/9, equal to 182 cents; in an evenly tempered scale – 1/6 octave, whole T., equal to 200 cents; in the diatonic gamma – along with a semitone, the ratio between adjacent steps (derived terms – tritone, third tone, quarter tone, whole-tone scale, tone-semitone scale, twelve-tone music, etc.).

3) The same as musical sound as a functional element of muses. systems: degree of the scale, mode, scale (basic tone – tonic; dominant, subdominant, introductory, median tone); the sound of a chord (basic, third, fifth, etc.), non-chord sounds (detention, auxiliary, passing T.); element of the melody (initial, final, culminating, etc. T.). Derived terms – tonality, polytonality, tonicity, etc. T. – an outdated name for tonality.

4) In the so-called. church modes (see Medieval modes) mode designation (for example, I tone, III tone, VIII tone).

5) Meistersingers have a melody-model for singing in decomp. texts (for example, the melody of G. Sachs “Silver Tone”).

6) Subjective integrated expression of the general impression of the sound: shade, character of the sound; the same as the pitch intonation, the quality of the voice, the instrument, the sound performed (pure, true, false, expressive, full, sluggish T., etc.).

References: Yavorsky B. L., The structure of musical speech, parts 1-3, M., 1908; Asafiev B.V., Guide to concerts, vol. 1, P., 1919, M., 1978; Tyulin Yu. N., The doctrine of harmony, vol. 1 – The main problems of harmony, (M.-L.), 1937, corrected. and add., M., 1966; Teplov B. M., Psychology of musical abilities, M.-L., 1947; Musical acoustics (general editor N. A. Garbuzov), M., 1954; Sposobin I. V., Elementary theory of music, M., 1964; Volodin AA, Electronic musical instruments, M., 1970; Nazaikinsky E. V., On the psychology of musical perception, M., 1972; Helmholtz H., Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen…, Braunschweig, 1863, Hildesheim, 1968 Riemann H., Katechismus der Akustik, Lpz., 1875, 1891 (Russian translation – Riemann G., Acoustics from the point of view of musical science, M., 1921); Kurth E., Grundlagen des linearen Kontrapunkts…, Bern, 1898, 1917

Yu. N. Rags