Mathematics, emotional response, algorithms and physics all come into play when analyzing sound vs. music.
by Daniel Kobialka, D.M.A.
Sound is described as a wave, but what does that mean? Sound is created by vibrating objects and is distributed through a medium from one location to another. A wave is a disturbance that travels through a medium, moving energy from one place to another.
There is an origin of the wave, a vibrating object capable of disturbing the first particle of the medium. This can be human vocal chords, the strings of a violin, or the diaphragm in a stereo speaker.
The sound wave moves from one place to another as particles of the medium interact with each other. If the medium which the sound is traveling through is air for example, then as one air particle is displaced from its equilibrium position, it exerts a push or pull on its nearest neighbors, causing them to be displaced from their equilibrium position.
Regardless of what vibrating object is creating the sound wave, the particles of the medium are vibrating in a back and forth motion at a given frequency. The frequency of a wave is measured as the number of complete back-and-forth vibrations of a particle of the medium per unit of time.
The sensations of these frequencies are commonly referred to as the pitch of a sound. The ability of humans to perceive pitch is associated with the frequency of the sound wave which affects the ear. The sound is "heard" when an object at the receiving end vibrates as a result of contact with the vibrating medium.
So any discussion of sound is primarily a discussion of scientifically measurable phenomenon. When we talk about pitch, amplitude, intensity, we talk about characteristics explainable by mathematical formulas and physical description. Loudness, on the other hand, is a subjective measurement, depending on an individual's personal perceptions - what is considered loud by an elderly person suffering from some hearing loss is different than what is loud to an infant.
Music is a combination of elements that interweave sounds into a blend of pitch, melody and rhythm and progresses from one chord to another invoking emotion. The experience of music is a subjective experience. One person's noise is another person's music!
Music rarely consists of sound waves of only one frequency played repetitively, but instead is a combination of sound waves with mathematical ratios between various frequencies. In fact, the major difference between music and noise is that noise consists of a mixture of frequencies with no mathematical order and music consists of a combination of frequencies with an obvious mathematical relationship between them.
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