All Topics  
Spectral glide

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Spectral glide
 
 
  Topics Spectral glide Topic Home

A spectral glide is a "modification of the vowel quality of a tone" (Erickson 1975, p.72). Since the vowel quality of a tone
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
 is determined by the overtone
Overtone

An overtone is a natural resonance of a system. Systems described by overtones are often sound systems, for example, blown pipes or plucked strings....
s, spectrum
Spectrum

A spectrum is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a Continuum . The word saw its first scientific use within the field of optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light when separated using a triangular prism ; it has since been applied by analogy to many fields other than op...
, or timbre
Timbre

In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices or musical instruments....
 (all three terms being near equal) of that tone, a spectral glide is a move from one spectrum characteristic of a vowel to another. A spectral glide may be accomplished through a wah-wah
Wah-wah

Wah-wah is an imitative word for the sound of altering the resonance of musical notes to extend expressiveness, sounding much like a human voice saying the syllable wah....
 mute or pedal or through the modiciation of ones vocal tract
Vocal tract

The vocal tract is the cavity in animals where sound that is produced at the sound source is filtered. In birds it consists of the Vertebrate trachea, the Syrinx , the oral cavity, the upper part of the esophagus, and the beak....
 while speaking, singing, or playing an instrument such as the didgeridoo
Didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a wind musical instrument of the Australian Aborigines of northern Australia. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Spectral glide'
Start a new discussion about 'Spectral glide'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A spectral glide is a "modification of the vowel quality of a tone" (Erickson 1975, p.72). Since the vowel quality of a tone
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
 is determined by the overtone
Overtone

An overtone is a natural resonance of a system. Systems described by overtones are often sound systems, for example, blown pipes or plucked strings....
s, spectrum
Spectrum

A spectrum is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a Continuum . The word saw its first scientific use within the field of optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light when separated using a triangular prism ; it has since been applied by analogy to many fields other than op...
, or timbre
Timbre

In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices or musical instruments....
 (all three terms being near equal) of that tone, a spectral glide is a move from one spectrum characteristic of a vowel to another. A spectral glide may be accomplished through a wah-wah
Wah-wah

Wah-wah is an imitative word for the sound of altering the resonance of musical notes to extend expressiveness, sounding much like a human voice saying the syllable wah....
 mute or pedal or through the modiciation of ones vocal tract
Vocal tract

The vocal tract is the cavity in animals where sound that is produced at the sound source is filtered. In birds it consists of the Vertebrate trachea, the Syrinx , the oral cavity, the upper part of the esophagus, and the beak....
 while speaking, singing, or playing an instrument such as the didgeridoo
Didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a wind musical instrument of the Australian Aborigines of northern Australia. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"....
. Buzzed-lip instruments with large mouthpieces such as tuba and trombone allow extensive modification of vowel quality while woodwinds have a smaller range with the exception of the flute in air-sound mode. Strings have the smallest range. (ibid)

Important in the compositional use of spectral glides is the glide rate and the vowel contrasts used. Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries....
 specifies the use of a wah-wah pedal in his Punkte (1952/1962) through open and closed circles connected by a line. A. Wayne Slawson's computer generated Wishful Thinking about Winter (Decca DL 710180) uses speechlike sounds featuring a large range of spectral glide rates. Loren Rush
Loren Rush

Loren Rush is a United States composer. His works include the drone piece Hard Music for three amplified pianos. The piece features no melody Figure but rather Cloud created by only one note , the low D above cello C, repeated quickly enough by each player to be heard as nearly continuous....
 began investigating in 1967 the computer-generated modeling of timbres "in between" familiar instruments such as a bassoon and bass clarinet and devised a program to provide a smooth transition between timbres. (ibid, p.73)

Source

  • Erickson, Robert (1975). Sound Structure in Music. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02376-5.