i.e. – Would octaves even behave the same in a high-pressure ammonia-rich atmosphere? By extension would alien music necessarily sound harmonious to us if we encountered it?
In: 6
When you create any wave, harmonics will also be produced. Harmonics are waves that have integer multiple frequencies of the fundamental wave. Sometimes subharmonics can be created, that have frequency of 1/n times the fundamental, where n is an integer, but these are less common, and of usually lower magnitude. Harmonics happen because of slight imperfections in our instruments, even the best most accurate wave generators will still produce some harmonic content, although it’s magnitude will be teeny tiny. The harmonic content of instruments is what gives them their own unique sound, timbre, tonal quality, etc etc.
An octave is a doubling of frequency. Which means a note an octave above the fundamental, exactly equals the frequency of the first harmonic. The reason chords and octaves sound good when combined is that most of the harmonic content of the various notes are the same (in the frequency domain) so you’re not producing a lot of extra frequency content. Otherwise, you would just have a bunch of noise at different frequencies, which becomes close to white noise. Think lots of guitar distortion, heavy metal, etc etc.
So yes, this would happen no matter the medium of propagation. It’s a universal property.
Latest Answers