Timbre

Timbre, the quality of sound, allowing for differentiation between sounds of the same pitch from individual musical instruments, voices of different people, etc. Timbre is conditioned by the presence of overtones in the composition of sound and is determined by the relative intensity of individual overtones in comparison with the intensity of the fundamental tone, which determines the pitch of the sound. Since overtones are simple sinusoidal oscillations with frequencies that are multiples of the frequency of oscillations of the fundamental tone, the ear, which is capable of perceiving only individual simple sinusoidal oscillations (the Ohm-Helmholtz law), decomposes every sound into its simple components, and thus the perception of timbre reduces to the perception of the fundamental tone and the overtones superimposed upon it. The works of Helmholtz, Lindig, Lazarev, and Hartridge showed that the initial phases with which overtones are superimposed on the fundamental tone do not affect timbre. Sounds devoid of overtones (or with few weak overtones) produce a soft, dull timbre (for example, a tuning fork), sounds with relatively strong lower overtones produce full, resonant timbres, and those provided with strong high overtones (above the 7th) produce sharp, acute timbres. With very intense sounds, even simple sinusoidal ones, subjective overtones may arise, conditioned by the asymmetrical structure of the eardrum, whereby at high intensities subjective changes in timbre may occur.