Appendix V:

Timbre

Timbre is the tone quality of a single line of sound and is directly related to what makes that sound.   Timbre (pronounced tamber) is what makes a violin sound different than a trumpet even if they are playing the same pitch.  In the physical world, sound is produced by sound waves, and the shape of a particular wave determines the timbre, or quality, of that sound.   Brass instruments like the trumpet produce sound in a different way (a vibrating air column bouncing around in a metal tube) than a string instrument (vibrating string), so the resulting sound wave looks and sounds different.

Because the world has so many different instruments, we classify instruments by the material with which the instrument is made, which makes the biggest different in quality of sound.  This method is called the hornbostel-sachs system, named after the two men who created it in the late 19th century.

Chordophone: Vibrating strings make the sounds.   This includes violin, guitar, piano (which has strings inside of it), mandolin, banjo, and many more.  The strings page of the cite  HyperPhysics shows modern orchestral instruments, and The Atlas of Plucked Instruments highlights stringed instruments from different places in the world.

Aerophone: vibrating winds make the sounds.   This includes flutes, trumpets, harmonicas, accordions (wind vibrates reeds inside), and many more.  The Encyclopedia Britannica has a general introduction to wind instruments from around the world, and the HyprPhysics pages for woodwinds and brass show European aerophones that are more familiar to us.

Membranophones: are instruments that make sounds with vibrating membranes.  We tend to call these drums, but there are many different kinds of drums. The website for Zing instruments not only shows different types of modern drum sets, but towards the bottom of their page Different types of Drums from Around the World, they show different types of membranophones. 

Ideophones are  a type of percussion instrument that makes  sound by vibrating themselves.  Think about a rattle, gong or a bell, where the entire instrument vibrates.  Other ideophones include the marimba, the triangle, claves and wood blocks.  On Youtube, the Kingsley Music Lessons Channel has produced a video about ideophones that has many pictures and sounds of the vast variety of types of ideophones.

While the type of sound and instrument making the sound is interesting and important, the quality, description and impact of the sound is important, too.    Is a sound bright and uplifting? Is a sound dark and sad? The emotive quality of the sound is what impacts how we hear and what we feel from the music.  Performers can change the sound of an instrument to give different effects as they play.

For example, the trumpet can be played brightly or darkly.  “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” recorded by the Andrew Sisters opens with a bright, lively trumpet timbre.

Duke Ellington’s “Concerto for Cootie” also opens with a trumpet, but this is played with a mute that changes the sound, making it not merely softer, but darker as well.

The human voice is one of the most versatile, flexible, and variable of all instruments, different singers have different timbres, and individual singers can produce very different timbres with their voice.   This example is a series of clips from different songs, all sung by Lila Downs.  Not only can you hear her change her timbre from song to song, but in several of the examples, she changes her timbre a bit within a single song.

Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald often changed the timbre of her voice when she sang long improvised sections.   Listen to her 1966 performance of “How High the Moon.”    at about 3:20 the winds drop out so she is only accompanied by the drums and she starts changing her vocal timbre at about 3:40.

In the song “Superstar” by Lauren Hill, as in many hiphop and rap songs, there are constantly changing layers and timbres.  Different timbres – sound qualities –  are used as musical punctuation and interjections, just like the voices backing her up.  

Here is a description of this song which focuses on the timbres:

From the beginning of this song to 0:23, there are three main timbres that happen in the different layers: a high-pitched sound halfway between a bell and a buzz, a percussion instrument like a xylophone or marimba that has a chiming timbre, and the melodic vocal line which has a speaking timbre. From that point until 1:10, there are new layer introduced with new timbres; there is a percussion layer that has a sharp timbre, like the instrument is made of wood, and the guitar layer, which has a plucked timbre that softend when the note is allowed to reverberate and continue. There are also two vocal lines that are introduced, the main melodic line, where the mixed voices give an open and smooth timbre, and a vocal line that provides interjections in between each line of the verse, which has a more nasal timbre.

At the 1:11 mark, the timbres of the string and percussion sections remain the same, but each vocal line begins on a new timbre, switching from the previous section. The main melodic line becomes more nasal and is a solo voice, where the interjections become more open and cool, with mixed voices. At 1:38, the two timbres switch back again for the main chorus of the song, with the open timbres as the main melodic line and the nasal, more focused timbre as the background, providing responses to each of the lines of the verse. This continues into the next verse, until the 2:18 mark, where, as in the previous verse, the two timbres switch one again. At 2:40 there is another switch as the singers repeat the main chorus, with the open, smooth timbre as the main melodic line.

At 3:01, there is another shift, as the main melodic line has the same speaking timbre as the beginning of the song, and the interjections switch back and forth between singing in the focused, almost nasal timbre, and interjections that have the same speaking quality as the main melodic line. At 3:49, the open timbre takes the main melodic line for the final chorus, and the interjections become less nasal and more like the main melodic line, however, it is still a solo voice and has less breathiness and more purity in the timbre. At 4:40, the first line of the chorus is sung by a solo voice for the first time, with a smooth and focused timbre, and the song is concluded by another repetition of the main chorus.