Physics of music

Article

The physics of music examines how musical sounds are produced, transmitted, measured, and perceived. It connects acoustics with the behaviour of strings, air columns, membranes, electronic circuits, and the human auditory system.

Musical pitch is closely related to frequency, while loudness depends partly on sound pressure and intensity. Timbre is shaped by the mixture of harmonics, transients, resonance, noise, and changes over time.

Instruments create sound through vibrating systems such as strings, reeds, lips, membranes, bars, plates, and enclosed air. Their dimensions, materials, tension, boundary conditions, and resonant modes determine the frequencies they favour.

The subject also includes tuning systems, intervals, beats, room acoustics, recording, synthesis, and psychoacoustics. It explains why different instruments can play the same note yet sound distinct, and why simple numerical frequency relationships often correspond to musically important intervals.

Source details and credits

• Source / publisher: Wikipedia
• URL type: WWW
• Credits: Wikipedia
• URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_of_music