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Oct 1931

Volume 3, Issue 2B, pp. 1-25


Some Physical Characteristics of Speech and Music

Harvey Fletcher

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 3, Issue 2B, pp. 1-25 (1931); (25 pages)

Online Publication Date: 13 Jun 2005

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Show Abstract
Kinematic and statistical descriptions of the physical aspects of speech and music are given in this paper. As the speech or music proceeds, the kinematic description consists in giving the principal melodic stream, namely, the pitch variation and also the intensity and the quality variations. For speech and song, the quality changes are principally described by giving, besides the main melodic stream, two secondary melodic streams corresponding, respectively, to the resonant pitches of the throat and mouth cavities. To this must also be added the positions of the stops and the high pitched components of the fricative consonant sounds as functions of the time. The statistical description consists in giving the average, the peak, and the probable variations of the power involved as the various kinds of speech and music proceed. These general ideas are illustrated by numerous experimental data taken by various instrumental devices which have been evolved in the Laboratories during the past fifteen years.
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