Pitch Perception an episode of Columbia Workshop -

Please enjoy Pitch Perception a great episode of the legendaryColumbia Workshop - - A Classic Old Time radio Show

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Play Columbia Workshops under the direction ofIrving Lease, Ladies and gentlemen, The
Columbia Workshop presents as its thirty firstprogram in a series devoted to experimental radio,
the first of a new group ofdemonstration programs designed to acquaint you with
the unusual properties of the human ears. Your ears have characteristics as definite as

(00:20):
your weight or height, the colorof your eyes, or the quality of
your voice. Because these characteristics mustbe reckoned with in telephony and in transmitting
programs by radio to you, theear has been a subject for exhaustive scientific
riskm of modern laboratory equipment. Scientistshave learned a great deal about the amazing
properties of its organ and some ofthe operators. Developed during these studies has

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also been of great value in thefields of education, music, pathology,
and allied sciences. The Columbia Workshophopes to bring you, from time to
time on its schedule, programs whichwill demonstrate and acquaint you with the interesting
story of these inventions and the peaceles. We have been fortunate in securing the
cooperation of scientists at the Bell TelephoneLaboratories, one of America's foremost research institutions,

(01:08):
where these studies have been carried onas an aide to improving the telephone.
For this and duet tore broadcast,Doctor John Z Steinberg of the Bell
Telephone Laboratory, staff, who havedone a great deal of investigation on the
characteristics of the human ear, willconduct to Night's experiments. Doctor Steinberg.

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Many of us have marveled that theaffrays which makes radio possible, but are
inclined to take for granted an ancientinstrument without which radio could not exist.
The human ear has been thousands ofyears in development, and its construction and
function is vastly more intricate than themost modern radio equipment. Tonight, I

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wish to describe and demonstrate what isprobably the most interesting quality of the ear,
its ability to judge the pitch ofsounds. What color is to the
eye, pitch is to the ear. Without the ability of the eye to
sense colors, the world would bea bad place of black and white.

(02:12):
Without the ability of the ear tojudge pitch, the world of sound,
in its various phases, from thesleeping beauty of music to the recognition of
the voice of a friend, wouldbe reduced to a monotony of primitive sound.
Let us begin the demonstration. Whilelistening to the very simplest form of
sound, a puler tone. Youand Donneddy notice that this tone was not

(02:38):
pleasant to the ear. Now listento the same tone again, and then
listen while we introduce a minute changeand pits in the latter tone. The

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pitch was varied only three percent andat a rate of six times per second.
The ability of your ear to appreciatethis small change ordered a sound from
a lifeless tone to one having analmost musical quality, like the sound of
a human voice singing a high note. Under normal room conditions, the ear

(03:22):
can detect a change one thousand timesas small as the one you heard.
Such fits variations, when they occurin music, enhance the artistic effects.
This is particularly true in the humanvoice, as will now be demonstrated by
mister Douglas's Fanley distinguished bocal teacher,mister Stanley. Few people realize when listening

(03:47):
to the ring tones of great singerwith the pick and intensity of fluctuating over
a wide reign, there are twoseparate and distinct types of vice movements,
plato and tremolos. The real singeremploys the vibrato and the crooner, that
is, any performer seems very softlyclose up to the microphone absolute tremelo.

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This tremlo is quite similar to thewarbletone you have just heard. Vibrato is
characterized by a fluctuation of intensity aswell as a pitch. A steady tone
is very unpleasant to listen to,since it sounds dead and lacks freedom,
vibrancy, and those characteristics of tonewhich we hear a good quality. I

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help within the studio two pupils,a baritone, mister Lawrence Read, mister
Brano, Miss Diurtwood Gibson, whoI will ask to produce tones as nearly
as steady as possible. You willnotice the extremely unpleasant quality. Ooh again,

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when the vibraco is too slow,the quality is dead. Mister Reed
will sing a tone with far tooslow a vibrato, which he will then
speed up until a proper frequency isattained. Notice the improvement in the quality
as the speed of the vibrato increases. Ah. A permissimo tone has practically

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no vibrato, and as the intensityis increased, the vibraco widens until at
portissimo a very wide movement is first. I will ask both mister Reed and
Miss Gibson to show the swell onthe vibraco. Oh, it is very

(06:09):
difficult for a properly trained singer toproduce the tremolo, but I will ask
the soprano to try to do so. Notice the relative rapidity of the flatter.
The tremolo occurs when the throat isin constricted tensions on the walls of

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this cavity is flatter. The tremoloemployed by the crooner is a relatively rapid
flatter, since it occurs from sevento eleven times a second, while the
vibrato movement is never more than sixand a half times a second and maybe
as low as five. The idealspeed is six. When the attitute temlo
is amplified for broadcasting, the effectis very clesant. The vibrato, which

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only occurs when the muscles of theshots are in opening chinction, is the
result of an on and off impulseto all the muscles used in the acts
of phone nations. The breathing musclescoordinate with this movement, while they do
not coordinate with the samola. Thevibrato allows the singer to produce full free
tones without building up tunction on themuscles in vowing. It is employed by

(07:19):
the singer for rhythmic surfaces and foractions. It is also the basis of
cleton clear cut rapid singing. Allrun to betune on the vibrato. I
will ask Miss Gibson to vibrato fivetimes and then have run of five notes
five tones of the major scale onthe vibrato. An outstend this protest and

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ask that vibrato in groups of fourand then run a scale. When the
voice moves from tone to tone onthe vibrato, all slurring or jerking is
eliminated and the singer is able toaccompany the crowe le gago again. When

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a note is tied over through anaccent or a beat, the accent is
indicated by one vigorous vibrato, whereasslur is indicated on the music. The
singer vibratos up or down, producinga pearly musical effect pleasant to the ear,
in place of a slur, whichis a form of steady tones despite
theffects for pitch changes, and istherefore unpleasant to the ear. Mister Lawrence

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Read was being part of to bristhe inn of Bloomer by tumor illustrating these
points are dody, go longing,doy. They can all lo every coastun

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tone could have movements. The propermovement is vibrato. However, a temo
sounds pleasant when emphasized for broadcasting orrecording, despite the fact that it is
always associated with a very somb stone. Of course, the singer who uses
a real vibrato gives a far moredramatic procession from telling performance. And now

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miss Gibson musting part of Madame Butterflyentrance from the upper Madame Butterfly, illustrating
the use of the vibrato sumb up. All singing could be done under the

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bragos, which stops when the singerstarts singing, and never stops to give
you a silence. The steady toneis always anathema, and Day has only
perceived a fluctuating tone as one ofgood qualities. Thank you, mister Stanley.

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The pets of the musical sound isthe position that pays on the musical
scale, and this position is simplythe one your ears were given by comparing
it with others of the same pitsand noticing the likeness. The ability of
persons to recognize pitch varies to ahigh degree some people acquired by painting an

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aptitude, a remarkable ability to placetones in the musical scale when they have
no comparison to aid them. Thisability is referred to as absolute pitch.
We have in the studio Mark Warno, Columbia's well known conductor who is noted
for his keen ability to assign pitsvalues to musical tones. We are going

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to sound several tones and ask youand mister Varno to place their pits value.
See if you agree with the answers, and then they will tell you
how cold he came to being right. Well, that was as mainatural as
a little seed. Correct, misterVarno. The notes you just heard was

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a above middle C. As mostof you know, the smallest pitch intervals
on the standard musical scale is asemma, or half tone. It is
a difference between the black and thenearest white notes on the piano. We
will now give mister Varno a tonethat is not on the musical scale,
that falls between two of the standardmusical notes. See how close you can

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come too. That was about annatural approach to natual above middle see as
the note was halfway between E andF above middle c. Mister Varnod's answer
was correct. He was not onlyable to place the tone, but was
able to tell approximately where it waslocated on the scale. We will now

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sound the tone very much nearer tothe standard tone, but still not on
the musical scale, and see howclosely mister Varno can place it. That
was foremost the b N actual aroundseven tones above middle see right, mister
Varno. The note that was playedwith one eighth of anchis about being natural.

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The difference mister Varner was able todetect was so slight that it would
be undetectable to many people. Nowlisten carefully and see if you can detect
the difference. While we first playthe note mister Varno recognized, and then
the standard note near a stip.Thank you, mister Varno. The demonstration

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you just heard the absolute pit sensitivityillustrates the delicate quolities of perceptions. The
ear is capable of where it hasbeen trained to perform such work, but
your own ears are called on eachsecond. They listened to sounds to perform
even more delicate work unconsciously without pitsensitivity. A violin and a piano,

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which sound almost alike to you.In the next portion of our demonstration,
I should like to show just whythey do not sound alike and what your
ear does to make the difference.All musical sounds have a fundamental tone and
several additional tones called harmony. Sucha sound can be likened to a house,

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the foundation of which is the fundamentaland the harmonics the structure floor by
floor. There is not very muchdifference in the kind of foundation buildings have
that once the structure rises, theyvary considerably. Here is a fundamental tone
like the foundation of a house.Now we add one harmony, the building

(15:43):
starts to rise. Now we addtwo stories to the base. Foo now
the fundamental plus three harmony. Doyou notice that as harmonic stucture was built
up, the tone began to assumemore identifiable musical proportions. All the tones

(16:07):
you just heard had the same fundamentalor foundation. The addition of the harmony
changed the quality of the tone,but not the pitch. Here is an
interesting demonstration. Listen to a simpletone played in fundamental tones only. Now

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listen to the same tone played inharmonics only with the fundamental tone stripped,
and now in fundamentals again. Atfirst and then with three different harmony changes.
As you listen, remember that thesame notes are being used each time,

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only the harmonics are being altered.So you see that each tone has

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a foundation called the fundamental and severalfloors called harmony. The architecture of the
floors, or the style, determineswhether it is the tone of the violin
or piano or voice. A noteof the same fundamental pitch heard on a
piano and then violins differs greatly ina harmonic structure or architecture. The ability

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of our ears not only to recognizethe fundamental of each note, but also
to register the duration and loudness ofeach of us many harmonies is chiefly what
enables us to distinguish between instruments.In a symphony orchestra of one hundred or
more instruments playing several notes per seconds, the varied harmonic structures the ears called

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on to do a more delicate workthan any man made machine to perform.
Listen for a moment while they playa short section on the piano with and
without the harmonies, and then thesame on the violins, now the same

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on the violins. The ear's responseto these quick harmonic changes is what keep
Sultan the entire world of orchestral andvoice tone colors. It is often surprising

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to learn how far the equality amusical sound can be distorted without the ear
regarding the pitch as having changed.This is especially true of the human voice.
Miss rohto Arnold, soprano, hasbeen kind enough to assist us in
the experiment. As she sings,the lower harmonies of her voice will be
removed, marring the richness of hertom equality, but the pitch will remain

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unchanged, Miss Arnold. One not. When you hear a sound, your

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ears act instantaneously in bringing to thebrain a message for it to interpret.
Fast as the act, however,a chain of many things must happen as
the sound penetrates its way through thedelicate and intricate labyrinth of the ear.
The central and most important organ isthe inner ear, which has the form
of a snail shell filled with liquid, and has along its surface an extensive

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row of nerve fibers. The nervefibers may be likened to the long row
of panoties connected with the strings ofthe brain. The pitch range in human
beings varies according to age and theindividual characteristics of the ear. No two
persons. Ears respond the same wayto high and low pitched sounds, but

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the degree of pit that the earcan identify is nearly the same in all
humans, and this knowledge is usedin music and in radio to a great
extent. You are undoubtedly familiar witha musical scale at which the following is
an achy. As we noted before, there are twelve sema or half tones

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in an okie. Here is anexample of a sematone. What you heard
then was the difference between a anda sharps on the piano scale. It
is the smallest interval. It isthe smallest tonal difference that separates any notes
on the piano. But how closemust two tones correspond before the ear cease

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to tell them apart? In pitch? Here are two tones only one eighths
of a tone of part, orat one quarter of a distance of separation
from the closest tones of your pianosh You should have been able to hear
the difference between these two tones,which the poles they strike two tones one

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one hundredth of a tone apart?Like this, could you tell a difference
the point where you seek to beable to distinguish tones determines how close the
musicians of two in their instruments foryour enjoyment of their music. The nerve

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fibers of your inner ear, whichis to each ear's keyboard, send high
tones to one section of the brainand low tones to another. But when
tones such as you just heard,come too close together, there is an
overlapping of the fibers affected, sincein the structure of the sale shell inner
ear, there is not complete separationin the action of the individual nerve fibers.

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Consequently, if pitches are too closetogether, the brain finally ceases being
able to differentiate them. For pitcheson the musical scale, the sensitivity of
the average year is such that toesthey be detected, which are about three
tenths of a percent apart in pitch, or one twentieth of a semotone closer.
Distinctions can be made under certain acousticconditions, which we will demonstrate in

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a moment, or when rapid changesfrom one tone to another permits comparisons.
I will now have the violinists playtwo tones a semotone apart. He will
now play two tones one twentieth ofa tone apart. The average year can

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detect that difference. To illustrate thepoint more strikingly, the piano will accomp
to the violin, first in perfecttune, then with the two instruments out
of tune by one fourth of atone, and then out of tunes,
one twentieth of a tone in tifytwo, and now a quarter of a

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tone out of tune, and nowone tunniest of a tone out of tune.

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How close tones must be to appearthe same pitch depends on the pitch
of the tones themselves, and somewhaton their loudness. Tones of medium location
in the pitch scale are most easilytold apart, and low pitched tones are
told apart with more difficulty. You'veheard on their workshop programs in other demonstrations

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a great deal about the acoustics ofstudios. You've heard of live rooms,
which reverberates sound, and the deadrooms, whose walls are goorde sounds so
that no reflections come back. Mostmusical instruments sound better when the realm or
studio in which they are played hassome degree of liveness. Just why this

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is so is a psychological question,the answer to which is not altogether known.
But it is interesting that one's abilityto detect changing pitch is as much
as one hundred polls rads in alive room than in a perfectly dead one.
This is something you shower beast thingers. They've known them for a long
time, without perhaps being aware ofthe true reason. Your voice sounds very

(26:23):
pleasant to you in the bathroom,which usually has tile surfaces reflecting the sound.
Then as you step into the bedroom, which usually contains rugs and draperies,
abbortment to sound disillusionments comes. Hereis a little experiment which you will
which will enable you to judge whichof two studios is more lively. We

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shall play a steady tone in StudioA, and then in Studio B.
See if you can tell which isa live one. The steady tone in
Studio A the steady tone in StudioB. You could not tell whether Studio
A or B was the more lively. Now we shall play tomes whose pitch

(27:08):
is modulated or changed, and unlessyou are listening in a room of pronounced
liveness, you should be able totell clearly which of the two tones is
the livelier. You and Donnedy wereable to tell that the second of the

(27:29):
two studios was the livelier. Soyou see how these studies of a human
ear invariably lead to improvement of deviceswhich are built to cater to them.
For example, this studio which weare broadcasting from has a live end and
a dead end, so that programswhich depend on a great deal of color
of tones, such as statonic broadcasts, are picked up from the live end,

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other programs as the dramatic plays inthe dead end. Not only do
these studies of the characteristics of humanerrors can try previet vital information in the
construction of rooms acoustically, but inthe design of telephones, microphones and receivers
and cells. Great care is takento see that the harmonic beauty of sound

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comes to you as much to thefinality your ear would hear it in the
room. Thank you, doctor Steinberg. Ladies and gentlemen. The Columbia Workshop
has presented the first of a groupof programs dealing with sound and the human
ear. Tonight's experimental demonstration was onpitch and pitch perception. This broadcast was
made possible by the assistance of scientistsof the Bell Telephone Laboratories, one of

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America's foremos scientific research institutions, wheresuch studies have been carried on as an
aid to improving the telephone. DoctorJohn P. Steinberg conducted the demonstrations,
many of which were based on investigationsconducted under the direction of doctor Harvey Fletcher
of the laboratory staff. The Workshopwishes to acknowledge its indebtedence to these men,
and to mister ke E Shay andmister John Mills, whose generous health

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is enabling us to present this serieson sound and the human ear, the
next of which will be heard inabout four weeks. We always appreciate your
comments on these programs. They aidconsiderably in shaping future presentations The Columbia Workshop.
Presentations are arranged and directed by IrvingRed. Listen to the Columbia Broadcasting System SIM