Sound Design

On the Sensations of Tone

Hermann Helmholtz was a German scientist whose exhaustive study of sound melded western music theory and scientific fact into one. Helmholtz's greatest discovery was that of the "overtone series", the naturally occuring "overtones" that occur when a note is played. His fascinating experiments involve creating a machine to generate pure tones (which could be considered the first synthesizer). He then created glass balls whose sizes corresponded to the waveforms created by the machine. Playing a note on his machine and holding the ball for the tone a perfect fifth higher, he was the first human to really hear the overtone series. This is a Dover reprint of Helmholtz's book from 1887.

Sections:
1. Part I : Upper partial tones, and qualities of tone
2. Part II : Combinational tones and beats, consonance and dissonance
3. Part III : Scales and tonality

576 pgs, 9.25" x 6", orig pub in 1887
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