Scan 61
The American history and encyclopedia of music, 1908
6 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1The prime reason of the existence of the various musical instruments is that each has its individual voice, owing to the varying number of accompanying vibrations or partial tones governed by the mechanical construction of the instrument. It has been stated that the timbre of a tone depends upon the shape of the sound waves. The several vibrations cannot exist separately in the atmosphere, but combine into a complex form of wave. Nevertheless, with proper training the ear can distinguish partial vibrations from the fundamental, for it is the duty of the auditory nerves, situated in the membrane which forms the ear drum, to analyze every sound wave that reaches them. The mammoth complex wave that is formed by a chorus and orchestra, combined with the noise of a large audience, must pass through a needle-like entrance to the ear drum, where the nerves analyze it until the voices, the instruments, and the noise are heard separately.
3The number and intensity of partials accompanying a given tone depend upon the elasticity of the sonorous body, upon the manner of causing it to vibrate, and upon the point where the impact is made. The same tone of a string will have a different timbre when the string is struck, plucked, or bowed. Partials that have a tendency to make the tone rich and full, are produced when the string is set in vibration near one of its fixed extremities. Although a general knowledge of acoustics or of this property of strings was not possessed by early piano-makers, yet, unknown to them, for this reason they took great care in determining where the hammer was to strike. All partials that have nodes at or near the point of contact cannot sound. The hammers in pianos generally strike at one-seventh to one-ninth of the length of the string. This excludes all partials that are inharmonious, for some of the partials, if allowed to sound, would detract from the purity of the compound tone.
5The material which causes the string to vibrate also has a great effect upon the quality of the tone. The hammers
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