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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 ...
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).
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, using harmonic timbres: A tone caused by a vibration twice the frequency of another (the ratio of 1:2) forms the natural sounding octave. A tone caused by a vibration three times the frequency of another (the ratio of 1:3) forms the natural sounding perfect twelfth, or perfect fifth (ratio of 2:3) when octave-reduced.
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.
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 standard A440 pitch equal temperament, the system begins at a frequency of 16.35160 Hz, which is assigned the value C 0. The octave 0 of the scientific pitch notation is traditionally called the sub-contra octave, and the tone marked C 0 in SPN is written as ,,C or C,, or CCC in traditional systems, such as Helmholtz notation.