39. Scientific Giant

When we are listening to this splendid music, I am sure some of us wonder just why symphonies affect us as they do. Why do some compositions stir and others soothe us? Before the time of Helmholtz, music was a mysterious thing, a gift from the gods which could not be explained by man. By turning his attention to both the physical and artistic parts of music, Helmholtz explained this mystery and brought about a new method of studying the pleasing as well as the disagreeable characters of sounds.

Musical tones such as we are listening to this afternoon are very complex, and Helmholtz developed the Resonator, an instrument by which sounds could be resolved into their simple components just as a glass prism breaks up a beam of light into its elementary colors. From this work he concluded that all musical tones could be measured by three factors, pitch, intensity and quality.

Now pitch as we all know is the frequency of vibration, Middle C being 256 per second. The frequency doubles for each octave above. Intensity is loudness. The most important factor however is quality which is the blending of selected pure tones of various pitches and intensities. You recognize the voice of a friend, not so much by loudness or pitch but by the quality which is almost the same as his personality.



Short Stories of Science and Invention A Collection of Radio Talks by Charles F. Kettering INDEX		*39.* *Scientific Giant* When we are listening to this splendid music, I am sure some of us wonder just why symphonies affect us as they do. Why do some compositions stir and others soothe us? Before the time of Helmholtz, music was a mysterious thing, a gift from the gods which could not be explained by man. By turning his attention to both the physical and artistic parts of music, Helmholtz explained this mystery and brought about a new method of studying the pleasing as well as the disagreeable characters of sounds. Musical tones such as we are listening to this afternoon are very complex, and Helmholtz developed the Resonator, an instrument by which sounds could be resolved into their simple components just as a glass prism breaks up a beam of light into its elementary colors. From this work he concluded that all musical tones could be measured by three factors, pitch, intensity and quality. Now pitch as we all know is the frequency of vibration, Middle C being 256 per second. The frequency doubles for each octave above. Intensity is loudness. The most important factor however is quality which is the blending of selected pure tones of various pitches and intensities. You recognize the voice of a friend, not so much by loudness or pitch but by the quality which is almost the same as his personality.