Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
That is, "high" pitch means very rapid oscillation, and "low" pitch corresponds to slower oscillation. Despite that, the idiom relating vertical height to sound pitch is shared by most languages. [9] At least in English, it is just one of many deep conceptual metaphors that involve up/down.
It is the property of sound that most determines pitch. [1] The generally accepted standard hearing range for humans is 20 to 20,000 Hz. [2] [3] [4] In air at atmospheric pressure, these represent sound waves with wavelengths of 17 metres (56 ft) to 1.7 centimetres (0.67 in).
Scales are typically listed from low to high pitch. Most scales are octave-repeating, meaning their pattern of notes is the same in every octave (the Bohlen–Pierce scale is one exception). An octave-repeating scale can be represented as a circular arrangement of pitch classes, ordered by increasing (or decreasing) pitch class.
The upper pitch range of the human voice is, on average, about half as high in males as in females. [3] Even after controlling for body height and volume, the male voice remains lower. Charles Darwin suggested that the human voice evolved through intersexual sexual selection, [4] via female mate choices.
A scale of vowels is an arrangement of vowels in order of perceived "pitch". A scale used for poetry in American English lists the vowels by the frequency of the second formant (the higher of the two overtones that define a vowel sound). Starting with the highest,
Very high pitch is for strong emotion or emphasis. [21] Pitch can indicate attitude: for example, Great uttered in isolation can indicate weak emotion (with pitch starting medium and dropping to low), enthusiasm (with pitch starting very high and ending low), or sarcasm (with pitch starting and remaining low).
A register is the range within pitch space of some music or often musical speech. It may describe a given pitch or pitch class (or set of them), [1] a human voice or musical instrument (or group of them), or both, as in a melody or part. It is also often related to timbre and musical form. In musical compositions, it may be fixed or "frozen".
The high tone is level, without contour; the falling tone is a contour from high pitch to low; the rising tone a contour from mid pitch to high, and, when spoken in isolation, the low tone takes on a dipping contour, mid to low and then to high pitch.