Sixteen sine waves · one note
Why a clarinet
isn’t a violin
Same pitch, same loudness. The difference is these sixteen numbers — and you can move every one of them.
Ink key
One colour per partial, the same in every figure.
Plate I
One sine has only pitch
Move it. That is the whole vocabulary.
Plate II
Sixteen sines still make one note
Add sines at 2×, 3×, 4× the frequency — the partials. You do not hear a chord. You hear one note that has changed colour.
Plate III
Timbre is sixteen numbers
Odd partials sound hollow. All of them sound bright. Draw your own.
Plate IV
A note also has a shape
Same sixteen numbers. Only the starting and stopping changes.
Plate V
The partials choose the scale
Partials close together beat, and beating is what rough sounds like. Add it up for two notes at once and the sweet intervals appear as valleys.
The bench
Everything, on one instrument
Redraw the recipe while a note is sounding. Send what you make with a link.