Musical spectroscopy II: The sound score in composition and analysis
Robert Cogan, Charles E. Potter, Dale T. Teaney · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1979
In Visible Speech [R. Potter et al., Van Nostrand, New York (1947)] musical applications of a suitably adapted sonogram were foreseen, and Charles Seeger [Musical Quarterly 44, 184–195 (1958)] gave both practical examples of and the theoretical apology for descriptive music writing. In Sonic Design [Cogan and P. Escot, Prentice Hall. New Jersey (1976)] extended music-spectrographic methods are developed for both analytical and procedural purposes. Our spectrometer (see preceding abstract) generates a simple sound score on a grey-scale storage monitor. The display is, in effect, proportional notation of the spectral components over a 5-octave range against a 5- to 50-s horizontal span. The spectral density function. presented at the (z axis) luminance signal, is weighted to give approximately uniform brightness for a sine tone, top to bottom. Klavier or register staff lines are overlaid, and an audiographic equalizer permits modest refinements. Normally read in real time while listening to the music, the sound score can be photographed frame by frame. Examples from diverse musics will be presented.