Beyond the Spectrum of Music

Sound color is one of the most elusive parameters inmusic, and consequently, one for which our vocabularyis most limited and least precise. It could bedescribed as the unified sonority of a musicalmoment, and it comprises harmony, timbre, andinstrumentation. This book presents an analytical approach that can beused to facilitate discussion of this musicalparameter on the basis of its concrete sonicattributes as represented in its Fourier spectrum.Using this information, various algorithms make itpossible to derive visual representations of specificsonic elements such as brightness or roughnessdirectly from a digital recording. The resultinggraphs elucidate the development of these elementsthrough large sections of music, while providing aclear and concrete vocabulary to discuss them. Whilethe first two sections of this book serve tointroduce the above mentioned analytical tools, thelast section utilizes them in a comprehensiveanalysis of sound color in the second movement of theAlban Berg Violin Concerto. In this way, this book represents aninterdisciplinary bridge, which can be interestingand useful to scientists, music theorists, andperformers alike.