harmonic series and so forth

Remember the other day when I said I'd explain that thing? Yknow, harmonic series? Yeah, well I'm making good on that deal.

A harmonic series includes the various pitches produced simultaneously by a vibrating body. This physical phenomenon results because the body vibrates in sections as well as in a single unit. a string, for example, vibrates along its entire length as well as in halves, thirds, quarters, and so on.
The pitches produced simultaneously by the vibrating sections are called partials or harmonics. The first partial, often called the fundamental, and the series of partials constitute a musical tone. since the fundamental is the lowest frequency and is also perceived as the loudest, the ear identifies it as the specific pitch of the music tone.
Although the harmonic series theoretically goes to infinity, there are practical limits; the human ear cannot detect frequencies over 20,000 hertz.
the individual partials that make up a musical tone are not distinguished separately but are heard by the human ear a blend that characterizes timbre (remember that word?).

Music is and art of sound and time, and the basic characteristics of musical tone - pitch, duration, intensity, and timbre - are the fundamental elements.


Stay tuned for more on the fundamentals, including notation.