Last edited Mon Feb 13, 2012, 12:55 AM - Edit history (1)
The harmonic series is the spectrum of 'partials' or 'harmonics' that occur naturally due to the physics of sound.
When a fundamental tone is struck, say, a string that is held taut between two bridges, it will vibrate along the entire length of the string .... It will also vibrate along a 'half string', at twice the frequency and at a reduced energy level, which produces an octave of the fundamental tone (first harmonic) at reduced volume...
It will also vibrate at each of the integer divisions of the string length; Divide by 3 = Second partial = Dominant tone (5th), divide by 4 = Third partial (octave), divide by 5 = Fourth partial = mediant tone (3rd) .... etc .... with each successive partial sounding at lower and lower volume levels. All of these partials exist for all acoustic instruments, but each sounding body emphasizes or de-emphasizes certain partial tones, depending on the length/shape/composition of the sounding body itself .... It is the 'formant spectrum' that is unique between different instruments, and in the case of stringed instruments; it is what makes the violin, the banjo, the ukelele and the guitar sound so different, even though the vibrating string is present in each one. Pipes also carry the same characteristics; Organs, flutes, oboes, clarinets ... ALL have this same relationship between fundamental and harmonic tones, but in different sounding bodies that create different formant spectrums.
In other words: Nature automatically generates the 'major key' of a tone simply by striking that tone. Human beings have an innate sense of the major scale because of this, and, using tones generated from those harmonic divisions that occur naturally, one can create the scales and chords that have defined western music for centuries. Humans respond to musical scales created by nature itself - There is a field known as 'psycho-acoustics' that defines how human beings react to sounds, and notions of 'consonance' and 'dissonance' exist as a direct consequence of this series of naturally occurring tones.
In a reaction to the constraints of formal western scales, so called '12 tone' or 'atonal' music was introduced in the early 20th century, which consciously suppresses the traditional scales and forces all melodies to sound each of the twelve chromatic scale tones before repeating a tone, thereby dissolving a 'tonal center' or key. Atonal music changed the nature of modern music composition and has been assimilated in many ways by various genres in the culture at large
Having said that: Music is itself more than the pure tones of a pipe or a string - Percussive rhythms created by striking certain objects in an iterative manner are understood by most different cultures as 'music'.
Also; Having said THAT - The harmonic series exists, and it has established a foundation for musical scales in western music, but music is not limited to those tones exclusively : One can find music that rejects notions of consonance and/or may NOT use traditional western scales .... And that music would have the same philosophical validity in the culture which produced it as any other.
The basic answer to the question > "What is music?" is "Music is the iteration of sounds that can be recognized as a pattern ..
Sounds that do not form a recognizable pattern are rarely considered to be 'music'
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