The acoustics of music

This chapter begins with a brief description of the physical characteristics of sound waves and illustrates a few principles of acoustics as they apply to a variety of musical instruments. It explores the acoustics of some grand concert halls and opera houses around the world. The perception of sound as music and the perceptual dimensions of sound accompanying a description of the auditory system. When a guitarist plucks a string, the resulting vibrations of the string lead to a corresponding disturbance in the air surrounding it. Air is important; it functions as a medium through which sound propagates. Direct sound travels directly from the source to the listener; it contains auditory information in an uncontaminated form. Reflected sound reaches the listener by &s;bouncing off&s; one or more surfaces such as walls, ceilings, pillars, and sound baffles. The overtone series influences timbre in part based on the mathematical relationship among the frequencies in the overtone series.