Beyond the Spectrum of Music

Sound color is one of the most elusive parameters in music, and consequently, one for which our vocabulary is most limited and least precise. It could be described as the unified sonority of a musical moment, and it comprises harmony, timbre, and instrumentation. This book presents an analytical approach that can be used to facilitate discussion of this musical parameter on the basis of its concrete sonic attributes as represented in its Fourier spectrum. Using this information, various algorithms make it possible to derive visual representations of specific sonic elements such as brightness or roughness directly from a digital recording. The resulting graphs elucidate the development of these elements through large sections of music, while providing a clear and concrete vocabulary to discuss them. While the first two sections of this book serve to introduce the above mentioned analytical tools, the last section utilizes them in a comprehensive analysis of sound color in the second movement of the Alban Berg Violin Concerto. In this way, this book represents an interdisciplinary bridge, which can be interesting and useful to scientists, music theorists, and performers alike.