Proceedings of the Second Vienna Talk, Sept. 19−21, 2010, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria COMBINATION TONES IN VIOLINS Angela Lohri, Sandra Carral and Vasileios Chatziioannou Institute of Musical Acoustics and International Centre of Harmonics University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria
[email protected] ABSTRACT two different instruments, generated a third tone, in Tartini’s In this study we investigate the appearance of combination words “terzo suono”. He observed that, lying lower than the tones in violins. Most modern textbooks emphasise that played interval, the third tone acted like a bass giving the combination tones occur inside the ear exclusively (intra- interval a third dimension, a subtle harmonic context.[1], pp. 13- aural). In this study this assumption will be subjected to 17. Tartini, not only a genius musician but also a genius thinker, scrutiny based on evidence found in an empirical study, in wrote down the detected correlations between mathematics and which combination tones were measured outside the ear the third tones in his book Trattato di musica secondo la vera (extra-aural). scienza dell’armonia (“Treatise on Music according to the True Science of Harmony”). His insights about the principles of the An experiment was performed in which a violinist played third tone had a significant influence on the development of two tones of a particular musical interval simultaneously. music theory. Tartini’s discovery opened up entirely new This was recorded and subsequently analysed using a possibilities of how sound quality can be understood and Fourier Transformation. In addition to the partial tones of realized by practising musicians.