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Yes, this! Failing to mention timbre in an article on why the same note sounds differently on two instruments is missing the point, metaphorically being so focused on a detailed simulation of treestuff that one fails forestry. (Yeah, OK, that was terribly said, sorry 'bout that.) For timbre, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbre e.g. FFTs, etc., give us visualization tools, but they miss the point. Different materials resonate differently across the auditory spectrum, emphasizing or diminishing various harmonics, resulting in complex sound profiles that make each instrument distinctive. Or, to put it most simply: Different materials react to sound differently, and each instrument's materials and construction are what give it its distinctive timbre. On an unrelated note, Daniel Levitin, former music producer and director of the Grammys, and current neuroscientist at McGill, was once asked what makes each musical era distinctive: timbre was, in his opinion, the single most important factor (source: one of his books, probably still in a moving box in my basement, otherwise I'd look it up). |
That's a fascinating idea; I googled and found what might be the story you're looking for:
[quote]
In the best seller “This is your brain on music” by Daniel Levitin, he talks about John R. Pierce (inventor of the travelling wave vacuum tube and the first telecommunications satellite) who, interested to discover rock music, asked him to summarize the genre in a concise list of six songs. Levitin ended up with a list of songs from Little Richards, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Prince and the Sex Pistols.
Interestingly, while listening, Pierce was not really interested by the songs themselves, their melodies, their harmonic structures or their rhythm characteristics, but he said he found the “timbres” to be remarkable and described them as being new, unfamiliar, and exciting.
Levitin concludes his story by saying: “The way in which instruments were combined to create a unified whole - bass, drums, electric and acoustic guitars, and voice – that was something he (Pierce) had never heard before. Timbre was what defined rock for Pierce. And it was a revelation for both of us.”
Quoted from "An Overview of the Concept of Timbre and its Use in Contemporary Music and Record Production" by Mathieu Bedwani