By Olivia McConney
Timbre is known as the “the quality of the
sound” or “tone color”.
Timbre has to do with describing a sound you
hear, not the pitch or dynamic but more to do
with the way the note sounds. For example
the note can sound dark, mellow, light or
sharp.
You can tell the difference between 2
instruments by just the timbre of the sound it
makes. For example, if an oboe and a
trumpet play the same note you can tell that
they are 2 different instruments because of
the way the note sounds.
AN OBOE
A TRUMPET
When a composer writes a piece of music he or
she might want the listener to feel a certain
way. To do this the composer will use a
certain timbre to create a mood for us, such
as making the piece sound dark or bright.
In this piece the timbre is light and relaxing.
The flute sounds like the singing of a bird.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLUOCR6x
98E
Timbre is caused by the note of an instrument
creating a certain sound frequency. If for
example, a violin and a viola play the same note
you can tell the difference between the two
because the viola has a deeper sound then the
violin. When we are listening to a piece of music
we are not listening to each individual frequency
that the instrument produces but we are listening
to all the frequencies together. This allows us to
feel the ‘mood’ of the piece of music or the
‘color’ of the music.
We can hear the difference between 2
instruments because of the frequency it plays
at. For example, if one person is playing the
violin with pizzicato and the other person is
not, we are able to hear the difference in the
2 instruments even though they are both a
violin. This can cause a different timbre in the
instruments because the violin that is played
with pizzicato can make the sound feel quick
and jumpy but the other violin can make us
feel calm and relaxed.
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http://cnx.org/content/m11059/latest/
http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Arts/
music/elements/elemofmusic/timbre.htm
http://people.sps.lane.edu/mhuiseng/Journal
%20pdf%20files/journal2timbre05.pdf
http://www.haitianmusicindustry.com/blogs/
hmi/142-understanding-basic-musictheory-timbre.html