Re: origin of 'timbre'

["Richard F. Lyon" <DickLyon@xxxxxxx>]

Title: Re: origin of 'timbre'

Sorry the 5.5-year delay in responding.  I had to wait for Google Book Search...

Here's another point for the "timbre" timeline, perhaps the first in English; note also "volume":

1828

The Elements of Physiology

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and John Elliotson

Edition 4,Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1828

With regard to the sensation of sound, four independent qualities must be distinguished :

1st. The tune, or pitch ; which depends on the frequencies with which the vibrations succeed each other.

2d. The loudness, or intensity; which is determined by the amplitudes of the vibrations.

3d. The volume, or richness; which depends upon the number of co-existing undulations that arrive at the ear.

4th. The timbre: ? For this word, adopted in France to express the specific differences of sound which are not comprehended in any of the preceding definitions, there is no analogous term in our language; nor have we at present the least idea of the true causes of these modifications of sound. In some cases the indefinite _expression_ quality of tone is employed.

When two or more sounds are heard simultaneously, or successively, the mind by a peculiar faculty perceives the relative frequencies and coincidences of the vibrations. Two sounds are regarded, as consonant when the ratio of their vibrations is very simple, and as dissonant when the ratio is more complex. The rules which determine the most agreeable successions and combinations of sounds constitute the science of music.

> Sorry for the delayed answer.
>
> -------------------------------------------
> Timbre definitions (history):
> http://silvertone.princeton.edu/~john/timbretimeline.htm
> Timbre Timeline:
>
> 1752
> One says that the timbre is shrill not merely that the timbre of a
> sound is
> shrill - Dictionairre de Trevoux.
>
> 1758
> Timbre functions to differentiate types of sounds - Diderot and
> D'alambert 
>
> 1778
> Rousseau used descriptive adjectives for different types of timbre
> (shrill,
> soft, dull, bright) - Dictionnaire de Music
>
> 1817
> All sonorous bodies yield simultaneously an infinite number of sounds
> of
> gradually decreasing intensity. The phenomena is similar to that
> which
> obtains for the harmonics of strings; but the law for the series
> of
> harmonics is different for bodies of different forms. May it not be
> this
> difference which produced the particular character of sound called
> timbre,
> which distinguishes each form of body and which causes the sound of
> a
> string.
> - Biot
>
> 1849
> Your voice has another timbre than that hard, deep organ of Miss
> Mann's
> - C. Bronte's Shirley.
>
> 1862
> Klangfarbe depends primarily on sound spectrum. Helmholz also mentions
> the
> beginning and end as well as wind noise and bow noise - Helmholz
>
> 1899
> Clang color, or timbre, refers to the different types of tones
> (clangs) of musical instruments which mainly result from the
> varied
> composition of the sounds or clangs - Rieman in Encyclopaedic
> Dictionary of
> Music
>
> 1913
> Timbre is the quality which differentiates sounds of the same pitch
> and the
> same intensity - Riemann in Dictionnaire de Musique.
>
> 1922
> Quality serves to distinguish between musical sound of the same pitch
> and
> intensity produced on different instruments - Barton
>
> 1929
> Quality, timbre, or tone-color depends on the form of the
> tone-producing
> vibrations. The general motion to and fro is periodic, but the
> details
> within the period are usually highly complex and this complexity
> persists in
> tones of a given character. Differences of quality are due to the
> varying
> unions of partial tones - Pratt
>
>
> 1934
> Timbre is frequently defined as that characteristic of the sensation
> which
> enables the listener to recognize the kind of musical instrument
> producing
> the tone, that is, whether it is a cornet, a flute, or a violin.
> Timbre
> depends principally upon the overtone structure, but large changes in
> the
> intensity and the frequency also produce changes in the timbre -
> Fletcher.
>
> One might use the other two characteristics (pitch and loudness) in
> such a
> definition and say that it is that
> characteristic which enables one to judge
> that two tones are dissimilar while still having the same loudness and
> pitch
> - Fletcher.
>
> 1937
> By timbre is meant the distinguishing or characteristic quality of
> sound. It
> is by their timbre that we recognize an instrument, a voice, or the
> quality
> of an organ stop, regardless of the pitch or intensity of the note
> that is
> sound.
> Timbre depends only on the relative energies of the various harmonics
> and
> not on their phase differences - Sir Jean James.
>
> 1938
> In general we may say that aside from accessory noises and
> inharmonic
> elements, the timbre of a tone depends upon: (i) the number of
> harmonic
> partials present, (ii) the relative location or locations of these
> partials
> in the range from the lowest to the highest, and (iii) the relative
> strength
> or dominance of each partial - Seashore in Psychology of Music
>
> 1942
> The characteristic tone quality of an instrument is due entirely to
> the
> relationship among the fundamental upper partials which relationship
> is
> supposed to remain unchanged no matter what the fundamental is
> -
> Bartholomew's Harmonic Theory.
>
> Tone quality depends largely on the degree of complexity of the
> vibration.
> The quality of even a musical tone must be considered usually as a
> complex
> of both harmonic and inharmonic components - Bartholomew.
>
> The characteristic tone quality of an instrument is due to the
> relative
> strengthening of whatever partial lies within a fixed or relatively
> fixed
> region of the musical scale - Bartholomew's Formant Theory.
>
> 1952
> Timbre may be said to be the characteristic which enables the listener
> to
> recognize the kind of musical instrument which produces the tone.
> There are
> six physical characteristics which determine the quality, namely: (i)
> the
> number of partials, (ii) the distribution of the partials, (iii)
> the
> relative intensity of the partials, (iv) the inharmonic partials, (v)
> the
> fundamental tone, (vi) the total intensity - Olson.
>
> Timbre is that characteristic of a tone which depends upon its
> harmonic
> structure. The timbre of a tone is expressed in the number,
> intensity,
> distribution, and phase relations of its components. Timbre, then, may
> be
> said to be the instantaneous cross section of the tone quality -
> Olson.
>
> 1954
> Timbre, an _expression_ for quality of sound, especially in
> orchestration
> - Groves Dictionary of Music.
>
>
> 1958
> Timbre is defined as a subjective quality of sound which makes that
> sound
> seem pleasant or unpleasant to the ear. Timbre is dependent on
> harmonics
> as well as the nature of the attack and any formants which may be
> present
>
> - Encyclopedia de la musique.
>
> 1960
> Timbre is that attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which a
> listener
> can judge two sounds similarly presented and having the same loudness
> and
> pitch are dissimilar - ASA.
>
> 1964
> Harmonic Structure Theory (classical theory) - the acoustic spectrum
> of a
> tone is the primary determinant of musical quality. The physical
> correlate
> of timbre lies in the cross-sectional analysis of a tone represented
> by the
> momentary duration of one cycle  - Saldanha and Corso.
>
> Formant Theory - the characteristic tone quality of an instrument is
> due to
> the relative strengthening of whatever partial lies within a fixed
> or
> relatively fixed region of the musical scale. In contrast with the
> classical
> theory that is based on a fixed spectrum of a tone, the formant
> theory
> relies upon changes in the spectrum of a tone to produce constancy
> in
> musical quality - Saldanha and Corso.
>
> 1964
> Although spectrum, transient, phenomena, and quasi steady-state
> modulation
> processes may be the most important dimensions, each of these is
> characterized by a great many subparameters, and the definitions based
> upon
> Ohm\u2019s Law are inadequate for any definition of timbre which might
> be of
> musical value  - Tenney.
>
> 1966
> Timbre may be not too much more than one of these leftovers from a
> dead
> musical system - J.K. Randall.
>
> 1967
> I would hope that we could soon find whatever further excuse we still
> need
> to quite talking about mellow timbres and edgy timbres and timbres
> altogether, in favor of contextual musical analysis of developing
> structures
> of vibrato, tremolo, spectral
> transformation, and all these various
> dimensions of sound which need no longer languish as inmates of
> some
> metaphor  - J.K. Randall.
>
> Now vibrato is just one of many potentially structurable aspects
> of
> sound which have been too often written off as ingredients of
> something more
> vague - J.K. Randall.
>
> 1968
> In the broad sense, timbre depends upon several parameters of the
> sound including the spectral envelope and its change in timbre,
> periodic fluctuations of the amplitude, and whether the sound is
> a tone or noise  - Schouten in Aspects of Tone Sensation
>
> The five major acoustic parameters of timbre: (i) the range between
> tonal
> and noiselike character, (ii) the spectral envelope, (iii) the time
> envelope
> in terms of rise, duration, and decay, (iv) the changes in spectral
> envelope
> (formant-glide) and fundamental frequency (microintonation), and (v)
> the
> prefix, the onset of a sound is quite dissimilar to the ensuing
> lasting
> vibration - Schouten.
>
> 1969
> Helmholz showed that timbre depends principally upon the number
> and
> rela-tive intensity of the sounding
> partials of the fundamental
> - Cogan.
>
> 1969
> Quality of tone - the characteristic of a tone that can distinguish it
> from
> others of the same frequency and loudness. The harmonic structure of a
> tone
> is quite inadequate to specify its quality. It was implied in the
> theory of
> quality outlined above that an instrument has a spectrum characterized
> by a
> particular harmonic structure, which would be the same for each note
> of
> the instrument.
>  
> The number and positions of the formants determine the tone quality of
> an
> instrument - Formant Theory
> - Backus.
>
>
> 1970
> The components of the harmonic content of sound which create its
> timbre: (i)
> the harmonic spectrum, (ii) which partials are present or absent,
> (iii)
> their relative intensities, (iv) the pattern which those that are
> present
> form  - Honegger in Dictionnaire de la Musique.
>
>
> 1970
> Timbre is tone quality -- coarse or smooth, ringing or more subtly
> penetrating, scarlet like that of the trumpet, rich brown like that of
> the
> cello, or silver like that of the flute. The one and only factor is
> sound
> production which conditions timbre is the presence or absence, or
> relative
> strength or weakness, of overtone
> - Scholes in the Oxford Companion to Music
>
> 1972
> Acoustical - one tries to associate the variation of timbre to
> physical
> characteristics.
> Psychological - deals with descriptions proceeding from the
> listeners
> experience.
>
> The classical theory of von Helmholz holds that differences in the
> timbreof
> tones depends on the presence and strength of partial tones and
> are
> independent of the differences in phase under which these partial
> tones
> unite.
> The individual character of a certain instrument is its acoustic
> spectrum.
> The purpose is to study the structure of the perception of timbre
> (tone
> colour, musical quality) and try to find physical correlates in the
> acoustic
> spectrum. The most importance correlates to these perceptual factors
> may be
> found in the relative strength of the harmonic partial tones: (i)
> generally
> high level overtone richness, sonority, (ii) successively
> decreasing
> intensity of the upper partials - overtone poorness, dullness, (iii)
> low
> fundamental intensity and an increasing intensity of the first
> overtones
> - Wedin.
>
> 1975
> The amount of work done toward specifying the physical qualities of
> timbre
> unfortunately has been much greater than the work done toward finding
> the
> corresponding psychological attributes.
>
> Factor analysis methods have been used to reveal a cognitive
> classification
> of instrument types into woodwind, brass, and string and a
> classification of
> the sounds of these instruments into groups determined by the
> relative
> amplitudes of a sound\u2019s partials.
>
> More recently, multidimensional scaling techniques have been developed
> by
> means of which judgements of similarity of stimuli can be interpreted
> as
> cognitive distances between these stimuli
> - Miller and Carterette.
>
> 1975
> The timbre or tone quality of a musical instrument has been used to
> denote
> that property which enables a listener to identify the
> instrument
> - Howe.
>
> 1975
> The chief function of timbre in most Western concert music of the past
> has
> been that of carrier of melodic functions. The differences of timbre
> at
> different pitches and in different registers of instruments has been
> treated
> as nuances.
>
> The approach to timbre from acoustic searches for invariants taking
> the view
> that if we are able to recognize and identify a clarinet under
> conditions of
> changing pitch and loudness, in different environments, and with
> different
> players, then, as David Luce says, the implication is that certain
> strong
> regularities in the acoustic waveform of the above instruments must
> exist
> which are invariant with respect to the above variables
> - Erickson.
>
> 1975
> Timbre perception is just a stage of the operation of tone source
> recognition - in music the identification of the instrument
> - Roeder.
>
> 1976
> Timbre is multidimensional. There is not a unidirectional scale
> for
> comparing the timbres of various sounds. The multidimensional nature
> of
> timbre has a
> physical counterpart in the many degrees of freedom of a complex
> tone
> - Plomp.
>
> 1979
> Timbre refers to the color of quality of sounds and is typically
> divorced
> conceptually from pitch and loudness. Perceptual research on timbre
> has
> dem-onstrated that the spectral energy distribution provided the
> acoustical
> determinants of our perception of sound quality - Wessel.
>
> 1980
> A term describing the tonal quality of a sound; a clarinet and an
> oboe
> sounding the same note are said to produce different timbres. It is
> usually
> reserved for descriptions of steady state notes and therefore the
> physical
> quantity with which it is most closely associated in the harmonic
> mixture,
> or the formant, or the spectrum
> - Groves.
>
> 1982
> Timbre is an attribute of the subjective experience of musical
> tones.
> Timbre is coded as the function of the sound source or of the meaning
> of the
> sound. Sounds cannot be ordered on a single scale with respect to
> timbre.
> Timbre is a multidimensional attribute of the perception of sounds
> - Plomp.
>
> 1986
> Timbre is the miscellaneous category for describing the
> psychological
> attributes of sound, gathering into one bundle whatever was left over
> after
> pitch, loudness, and duration had been accounted for. - Dowling and
> Harwood.
>
> 1989
> Timbre is the subjective correlate of all those sound properties that
> do no
> directly influence pitch or loudness: sounds spectral power
> distribution,
> it's temporal envelope, rate and depth of amplitude and frequency
> modulation,
> and degree of its partials
> - Houtsma.
>
> 1989
> Levels of timbre description include: (i) commonalities shared by all
> oboe
> tones, commonalities shared by all bowed tones, commonalities shared
> by
> all timpani tones, (ii) expressive variation available to
> performing
> musi-cians and(iii) broader family distinctions of
> method-of-production
> distinc-tions (i.e., blown and bowed instruments whose behavior is
> controlled
> continuously; percussive instruments whose behavior is determined
> completely
> at the instant when they are set into motion - Krumhansl.
>
> 1990
> Until such time as the dimensions of timbre are clarified it is better
> to
> drop the term timbre.
> When we do find a characteristic of sound that can be obtained on
> different
> instruments, such as vibrato, the characteristic tends to be given a
> label
> and no longer falls into the nameless wastebasket of timbre
> - Bregman.
>
> 1990
> Timbre or tone quality depends upon the frequency of a tone, it's
> time
> enve-lope, it's duration, and the sound level at which it is heard
> - Rossing.
>
> 1991
> The character or quality of musical or vocal sound (distinct from its
> pitch
> and intensity) depending upon the particular voice or instrument
> producing
> it from sounds proceeding, from other sources; caused by the
> proportion in
> which the fundamental is combined with the harmonics or overtones
> \u2013
> OED.
>
> 1992
> Timbre is the subjective attribute of source (instrument) that is
> based on
> invariant properties that uniquely characterize the tones produced by
> the
> source. An adequate definition of timbre is both related to and
> dependent
> upon establishing which characteristics are important for
> perceptually
> determining an instrument's distinctive
> sound quality
> - Chi, Hall, and Pastore.
>
> 1994
> A timbre is a simple perceptual object. Adjectives for constellation
> of
> overtones: bright, dark, mellow, hollow, pure. Noise content:
> raspy,
> breathy,
> hoarse. Attack: smooth, abrupt, sharp, gentle, easing. We attempt
> to
> categorize timbre mainly by relating what we hear to what we have seen
> and
> heard of other musical instruments. Timbre is the aggregate effect of
> the
> periodic and nonperiodic components of a sound and their envelopes
> - Pellman.
>
> 1995
> Timbre is the perceptual quality of objects and events; that is, what
> it
> sounds like.
> Due to the interactive nature of sound production, there are many
> stable and
> time-varying acoustic properties. Timbre is an emergent property that
> is
> partly a function of the acoustic properties and partly a function of
> the
> perceptual process.
> Timbre generally has a certain constancy over large changes in the
> acoustical environment.
> Timbre is perceived in terms of the actions required to generate the
> event.
> Timbre is perceived in terms of the acoustic properties and that
> the
> connection between acoustic properties
> and object is learned by experience
> - Handel.
>
> 1996
> Timbre groups fall into categories that are constrained by the
> underlying
> physic of the sound-generating systems and that it is the goal of the
> ear/
> brain system to discover such commonalities in the sounding world.
> Parameters should be estimated in order to represent the articulatory
> aspect
> of timbre perception
> - Casey et. al.
>
>
> 1997
> Timbre is not a thing. It is an abstraction.
> Timbre is not an object. It does not exists in the real world as an
> object.
> Timbre is an attribute of a musical tone that is abstracted from the
> entity
> that we call a musical tone
> Timbre is not even the only attribute of tone connected to tone
> quality:
> consider volume and density.
> Timbre does have a perceptual order \u2013 actually, as a
> multidimensional
> attribute, it has several. In general, instruments are ordered first
> along
> impulse vs. continuant characteristics (relating to the rms amplitude
> attack
> and overall envelope) and secondly along nasality or brightness
> (relating to
> the spectral centroid) - John Hadja
>
> 1997
> Timbre is an emergent property of a stream \u2013 a grouping of the
> acoustic
> array influenced by acoustic context, and the attention and learning
> of the
> listener.
> - Stephen Malloch's summary of Albert Bregman
>
> Timbre can be defined as the primary aural information that is used in
> the
> perceptual task of assigning an identity to sound - Stephen
> Malloch
>
> 1997
> Electroacoustic musicians/composers and people doing
> analysis/synthesis
> would tend to think of timbre as a gestalt that includes time
> variations. It
> is difficult to decide whether the whole thing is a timbre or whether
> timbre
> itself is varying with time - James Beauchamp
>
> 1997
> Timbre becomes a rhetorical catch-all subsuming many diverse
> preoccupations
> - Born.
>
>
>
> > ------------------------------
> > Date:    Mon, 27 Sep 2004 09:36:20 -0400
> > From:    =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Claire_Pich=E9?=
> <clairepiche@xxxxxxx>
> > Subject: Re: origin of 'timbre'
> >
> > Hello Jim
> > here is some cues so you can follow parts of the evolution of the
> word.
> >
> > TIMBRE : n.m. emprunté au grec byzantin /timbanon /(...) du
> grec
> > classique /tumpanon /"tambourin", (...) étant associé
> aux cultes
> > orgiaques de Cybèle et de Dyonisos, le mot serait d'origine
> > sémitique.(...) /Tympanum,/ d'où viennent la forme
> héritée disparue
> > /tympe /(v.1155) et l'emprunt /tympan. /(...)/ Timbre /s'est
> > progressivement éloigné de son sens d'emprunt /tambour de
> basque /propre
> > à l'ancien français; il s'appliquait à la cloche immobile
> que l'on
> > frappait avec un marteau (1374), qui est à l'origine du
> sens
> > métaphorique de "tête" (v.1450). De cette valeur
> procède la locution
> > /avoir le timbre fêlé. /(1606). De nos jours, le mot au sens
> concret
> > désigne une calotte de métal qui, frappée par un marteau ou
> un vibreur,
> > sert de sonnette (1858). Par métonymie, il désigne la qualité
> de
> > sonorité d'un timbre (1762; 1740, "son d'un timbre"
> et, plus
> > généralement, d'un instrument donné, valeur importante en
> musique./ /Il
> > est employé aussi en phonétique
> (1926; /timbre d'une voyelle/)./ Timbre
> > /a eu un autre développement sémantique fondé sur une
> analogie de forme
> > avec le tambour ou la cloche nommée /timbre /au moyen âge.
> (...)
> >
> > Rey, Alain, /Dictionnaire historique de la langue française.
> /Éditions
> > LeRobert: Paris, 1998 (1992). Tome 3.
> >
> > Claire
> >
> >
> > beaucham a écrit :
> >
> > >I would like to have a good historical reference for the
> word
> > >"timbre". One book (Helmholtz's Sensations of Tone)
> says it
> > >was the original word for timpani. Another source says
> "a sort
> > >of drum with stretched strings". A dictionary says both
> "bell
> > >struck by a hammer" and "tymbanon kettledrum".
> Is there a
> > >good source that discusses the original meaning of the
> word
> > >and how it came to take on its modern meaning?
> > >
> > >Jim
> > >
> > >James W. Beauchamp
> > >Professor Emeritus of Music and Electrical & Computer
> Engineering
> > >University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> > >2136 Music Bldg. MC-056
> > >1114 W. Nevada, Urbana, IL 61801  USA
> > >email: jwbeauch@xxxxxxxx (also:
> beaucham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
> > >phone: +1-217-344-3307 (also:
> 217-244-1207 and 217-333-3691)
> > >fax: +1-217-344-3723 (also: 217-244-4585)
> > >WWW:  http://ems.music.uiuc.edu/beaucham
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------