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> We are so familiar with our usual collection of instrumental timbres ... we have assumed that this galaxy is the whole universe. Some references you may enjo

> We are so familiar with our usual collection of instrumental timbres ... we have assumed that this galaxy is the whole universe. Some references you may enjoy: * Music: a Mathematical Offering, Dave Benson. Explains the mathematical theory of how to compute the timbre of an instrument given its shape. Also how the timbre of the instruments determines harmony. * Tuning, timbre, spectrum, scale, William Sethares. A deep exploration of the relationship between timbre and harmony. It starts by exhibiting a (synthetic) instrument whose octaves are dissonant, and the music that you can do with it. Then it doubles down on this idea to obtain a lot of fun. * The Topos of Music, Guerino Mazzola. Really hardcore mathematical music theory, too scary for simple people like me. EDIT: regarding telescopes for seeing timbre... have you ever seen an spectrogram? You can install a spectrogram app in your phone and see the spectra of sounds around you. There's a lot of things! My favorite is opening a rusty old door.

8bitsrule 6y ago
It's an old, old classic but physicist Hermann von Helmholtz 1851 book (trans. to English 1875) On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music is 'a foundational work on acoustics and the perception of sound' full of basics. E.g. he used physical resonators to do spectral analysis of musical tones. Many physics details hard to find elsewhere. Copies are hard to find, but today it's a download away.[0] [0] https://archive.org/details/onsensationsofto00helmrich https://archive.org/details/onsensationsofto00helmrich Sethares sounds familiar. A key modern classic is 1985 Charles Dodge, Thomas A. Jerse: "Computer Music : synthesis, composition, and performance". A pricey book new (worth it!) it digs into everything from the basics to the advanced. You will not exhaust it! Surprised but, for a limited set of users, this puppy can be accessed online. See the link for the list of topics. [1] [1] https://archive.org/details/computermusicsyn0000dodg https://archive.org/details/computermusicsyn0000dodg An alternative to the computer is to take a little recorder with a good mike out into the wild and record, the rocks, the insects, the trees, the plants.... and water, the greatest improviser!

8bitsrule 6y ago

It's an old, old classic but physicist Hermann von Helmholtz 1851 book (trans. to English 1875) On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music is 'a foundational work on acoustics and the perception of sound' full of basics. E.g. he used physical resonators to do spectral analysis of musical tones. Many physics details hard to find elsewhere. Copies are hard to find, but today it's a download away.[0] [0] https://archive.org/details/onsensationsofto00helmrich https://archive.org/details/onsensationsofto00helmrich Sethares sounds familiar. A key modern classic is 1985 Charles Dodge, Thomas A. Jerse: "Computer Music : synthesis, composition, and performance". A pricey book new (worth it!) it digs into everything from the basics to the advanced. You will not exhaust it! Surprised but, for a limited set of users, this puppy can be accessed online. See the link for the list of topics. [1] [1] https://archive.org/details/computermusicsyn0000dodg https://archive.org/details/computermusicsyn0000dodg An alternative to the computer is to take a little recorder with a good mike out into the wild and record, the rocks, the insects, the trees, the plants.... and water, the greatest improviser!