- Amplitude
- A physical characteristic of sound. The strength of vibration which produces loudness.
- Beat Rate
- The “throbbing” heard when two notes of an interval disagree slightly; the degree of “out of tuneness.”
- Bloom
- The beginning moment of the tonal envelope; where “chiff” occurs. The expansion of transient sounds through the initial oscillation to the tonal corpus which becomes the consistent, identifiable tone of generation.
- Cents
- The 100 segments between two adjacent semitones. The term used to describe the small distances in interval tuning as “cents wide” and “cents narrow.”
- Comma
- The out of tuneness between the leading note and tonic in the mean-tone tempered scale; where the seventh and flatted seventh (augmented sixth) scale degrees produce “wolf tones.”
- Duration
- The length of time of vibration; length of sound from beginning to end.
- Equal Temper
- The tuning arrangement of the chromatic scale to the 12th root of 2.
- Frequency
- A physical characteristic of sound; produces the characteristic known as “pitch.”
- Fundamental
- The tone we hear most clearly in a note. The first harmonic in the tone complex.
- Harmonic
- A sine wave being generated in the tonal complex of a single note. An “overtone.” The dominant wave pattern produced by “over-blowing” a winded tone generator. The agreed relationship of two or more notes played together.
- Inharmonicity
- The disagreement between two or more musical tones. The incompatibility of two or more modes of oscillation in a unison tone generator or between tones of an interval, as in “unison inharmonicity” and “interval inharmonicity.”
- Initial Oscillation
- Very first flip of the wind sheet in the generation of tone in an organ pipe; identified as outside or inside.
- Interval
- The distance between two notes of the musical scale; usually stated as a number and noted major, minor, augmented, etc.
- Mean-tone Temper
- A tuning arrangement of the chromatic scale based on successive perfect fifth intervals; produces “sheep” and “wolf” intervals; usually varied to achieve colour intervals in specific key scales.
- Mode of Oscillation
- The sine wave pattern of any single harmonic being generated.
- Music
- The normal sounds we call “tones” moving through time in timbre, dynamics, form, and texture.
- Overtone Structure
- A physical characteristic of sound; the harmonic profile of a single sound complex; the difference between two notes of the same pitch from two different musical instruments.
- Pitch
- Frequency; usually stated in cycles per second (c.p.s.). The relative tension of a vibrating column to produce a tunable (identifiable) note or tone.
- Scale
- Arrangement of successive musical notes within an octave; chromatic, diatonic, major, minor, etc.
- Semi-tone
- The distance between two chromatic notes in a musical scale; divided into 100 smaller segments called “cents.”
- Sheep
- The purity of tuneness of certain notes in relation to the tonic in the mean-tone tempered scale; purity of tuneness of certain intervals in the mean-tone tempered scale.
- Style
- The synthesis of basic musical elements: tempo, tone, colour, timbre, texture, volume, form, dynamics, and agogics.
- Timbre
- A physical characteristic of sound, overtone structure and profile of a tone; includes a number of relative pitches in various intensities.
- Tonal Envelope
- The complete tonal pattern of a single note from beginning to end; includes bloom, tone of generation, and wilt (fall off).
- Tone of Generation
- The consistent and identifiable portion of the tonal envelope following the bloom. The expected tone. The tunable note.
- Touch
- The individual “feel” of a keyboard instrument as its keys are depressed during the playing motion. It involves such qualities as “after-touch” and “pluck.”
- Well Temper
- The curved tuning arrangement of the chromatic scale toward purer third and sixth intervals in selected key scales; usually involves a progressive adjustment of interval “beats” within the circle of fifths.
- White Noise
- The transient random sound bites mixed into the tonal envelope; gurgling, hissing undercurrents in the tone being generated.
- Wind Link
- The final common wind source for two or more organ pipes; usually two or more pipes on the same wind channel. The frequency sympathy between two organ pipes carried on in a common wind supply.
- Wolf
- The out of tuneness of certain notes in relation to the tonic in the mean-tone tempered scale; successive out of tuneness of notes backward from the tonic as pertains to certain intervals.