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In atonal, twelve tone, or musical set theory, a "pitch" is a specific frequency while a pitch class is all the octaves of a frequency. In many analytic discussions of atonal and post-tonal music, pitches are named with integers because of octave and enharmonic equivalency (for example, in a serial system, C ♯ and D ♭ are considered the ...
Traditionally in Western music, a musical tone is a steady periodic sound. A musical tone is characterized by its duration , pitch , intensity (or loudness ), and timbre (or quality). [ 1 ] The notes used in music can be more complex than musical tones, as they may include aperiodic aspects, such as attack transients , vibrato , and envelope ...
Logarithmic plot of frequency in hertz versus pitch of a chromatic scale starting on middle C. Each subsequent note has a pitch equal to the frequency of the prior note's pitch multiplied by 12 √ 2. The base-2 logarithm of the above frequency–pitch relation conveniently results in a linear relationship with or :
For example, a 1740 tuning fork associated with Handel is pitched at A = 422.5 Hz, ⓘ while a specimen from 1780 is pitched at A = 409 Hz, ⓘ about a quarter-tone lower. [4] A tuning fork that belonged to Ludwig van Beethoven around 1800, now in the British Library , is pitched at A = 455.4 Hz ⓘ , well over a half-tone higher.
A jump from the lowest semitone to the highest semitone in one octave doubles the frequency (for example, the fifth A is 440 Hz and the sixth A is 880 Hz). The frequency of a pitch is derived by multiplying (ascending) or dividing (descending) the frequency of the previous pitch by the twelfth root of two (approximately 1.059463).
Comparison between tunings: Pythagorean, equal-tempered, quarter-comma meantone, and others.For each, the common origin is arbitrarily chosen as C. The degrees are arranged in the order or the cycle of fifths; as in each of these tunings except just intonation all fifths are of the same size, the tunings appear as straight lines, the slope indicating the relative tempering with respect to ...
The disadvantage of the scale-based system is that it assigns an infinite number of different names to chords that sound identical. For example, in twelve-tone equal-temperament the C major triad is notated {0, 4, 7}. In twenty-four-tone equal-temperament, this same triad is labeled {0, 8, 14}.
For example, a just perfect fifth (for example C to G) is 3:2 (Play ⓘ), 1.5, and may be approximated by an equal tempered perfect fifth (Play ⓘ) which is 2 7/12 (about 1.498). If the A above middle C is 440 Hz , the perfect fifth above it would be E , at (440*1.5=) 660 Hz, while the equal tempered E5 is 659.255 Hz.