On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music / by Hermann L.F. Helmholtz ; translated, thoroughly revised and corrected, rendered conformable to the 4th (and last) German edition of 1877, with numerous additional notes and a new additional appendix bringing down information to 1885, and especially adapted to the use of musical students, by Alexander J. Ellis.

  • Helmholtz, Hermann von, 1821-1894.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music / by Hermann L.F. Helmholtz ; translated, thoroughly revised and corrected, rendered conformable to the 4th (and last) German edition of 1877, with numerous additional notes and a new additional appendix bringing down information to 1885, and especially adapted to the use of musical students, by Alexander J. Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PART I. VIBRATION. UPPER PARTIAL TORTES, AND QUALITIES OF TONE. CHAPTER I. ON THE SENSATION OF SOUND IN GENERAD. Sensations result from the action of an external Stimulus ou the sensitive appaiatus of our nerves. Sensations differ in kind, partly witli the organ of sense excited, and partly with the nature of the Stimulus employed. Each ot'gan of sense pro- duces peculiar sensations, which cannot be excited hy mcans of any other; the eve gives sensations of light, the ear sensations of sound, the skin sensations of touch. Even when the same sunbeams which excite in the eye sensations of light, impinge on the skin and excite its nerves, they are feit only as heat, not as light. In the same way the Vibration of elastic bodies heard by the ear, can also be feit by the skin, but in that case produce only a whirring fluttering Sensation, not sound. The Sensation of sound is therefore a species of reaction against external Stimulus, peculiar to the ear, and excitable in no other organ of the body, and is completely distinct from the Sensation of any other sense. As our problem is to study the laws of the Sensation of hearing, our first business will be to examine how many kinds of Sensation the ear can generate, and what differences in the external means of excitement or sound, correspond to these differcnces of Sensation. The first and principal difference between various sounds experienced by our ear, is that between noises and musical tones. The soughing, howling, and wliistling of the wind, the splashing of water, the rolling and rumbling of carriages, are examples of the first kind, and the tones of all musical instruments of tlie second. Noises and musical tones may certainly intermingle in very various degrees, and pass insensibly into one another, but their extremes are widcly separated. The nature of the difference between musical tones and noises, can generally be determined by attentive aural observation witliout artificial assistance. We perccive that generally, a noise is accompanicd by a rapid alternation of different kinds of sensations of sound. Think, for example, of the rattling of a carriage ovcr granite paving stones, the splashing or seething of a waterfall or of the waves of the sca, the rustling of leaves in a wood. In all these cases we have rapid, irregulär, but distinctly perceptiblc alternations of various kinds of sounds, which crop up fitfully. When the wind howls the alternation is slow, the sound slowly and gradually riscs and then falls again. It is also more or less possiblc to separate restlessly altcrnating sounds in case of the greater number of other noises. We shall hereafter become acquainted with an Instrument, called a resonator, which will materially assist the ear in making this Separation. On the other band, a musical tone strikes the ear as a perfectly undisturbed, uniform sound which