Overtones and Tone Color

Can somebody in this forum help me understand the concepts of overtones and
tone color? For example, A440 produced by a tuning fork consists of
vibrations having frequencies of mostly A440. But A440 played on a piano or a
tuba will have more overtones, frequencies that are multiples of 440 - 880,
1320 etc. This is were I lose it. Are overtones different frequencies
produced by different aspects of whatever materials are producing the sound?
So if the sound is being created by simpler materials such as a tuning fork,
the will be fewer other frequencies involved, whereas if the sound is created
by a piano, the hammer and string are more complex materials and therefore
have more frequencies or overtones?

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On Wed, 22 Jul 1998, Aline Surman wrote:
> Just listening to Bartok this morning, and got to thinking...he did a
> lot of research into Hungarian, Eastern European, and Middle Eastern folk
> music, cataloging thousands of tunes...are the results of this research
> published? Is it available for purchase? Did he talk about the tunings in
> any depth? Of course, he used "microtones" occasionally, so he was
> obviously hip to the concept...I would like to know more about this area
> of his life, so if anyone has any info, let me know...

I find the following eight titles in our catalog with "Bartok" as an
author and "Folk Music" as a subject heading. Some are actual
collections of tunes, others are writings about them. Hope it helps.

UNIFORM TITL Magyar nepdalok (Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia. Bartok Archivum)
TITLE Hungarian folk songs : complete collection / compiled by Bela
Bartok ; commissioned by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from
1934 to 1940 ; edited by Sandor Kovacs and Ferenc Sebo ;
[English translation by Ria Julian and Ferenc Sebo]
PUBLISHED Budapest : Akademiai Kiado, 1993-
DESCRIPTION v. of music : facsims. ; 25 cm.
NOTE Unacc. melodies.
Hungarian words; prefatory matter in English.
"Bartok Archives of the Institute of Musicology of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences"--Vol. 1, p. [2]
Originally published under title: Magyar nepdalok.
NOTE Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
CONTENTS vol. 1. Class AI, nos 1-416.
SUBJECTS Folk songs, Hungarian -- Hungary.
Folk music -- Hungary.
OTHER AUTHOR Bartok, Bela, 1881-1945.
Kovacs, Sandor, 1949-
Sebo, Ferenc.
Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia. Bartok Archivum.
ISBN 9630563142 (set)
9630563150 (v. 1)

AUTHOR Bartok, Bela, 1881-1945.
UNIFORM TITL Magyar nepdalok, voice, piano (1929). German & Hungarian.
TITLE Zwanzig ungarische Volkslieder. Twenty Hungarian folksongs.
Gesang und Klavier.
PUBLISHED London, Hawkes [c1939]
DESCRIPTION 4 v. 30 cm.
NOTE Caption title: 20 magyar nepdal.
Words in Hungarian and German: German translations: v. 1, B.
Szabolcsi, v. 2-4, R. St. Hoffmann.
Indexed in: de Charms. Songs in collections.
CONTENTS 1. Lieder der Trauer.--2. Tanzlieder.--3. Diverse Lieder.--4.
Lieder der Jugend.
SUBJECTS Songs with piano.
Folk songs, Hungarian -- Hungary.
Folk music -- Hungary.
OTHER AUTHOR Szabolcsi, Bence, 1899-1973, Translator.
Hoffmann, Rudolf Stephan, 1878-1931, Translator.
OTHER TITLE 20 ungarische Volkslieder.
Ungarische Volkslieder.
Twenty Hungarian folksongs.
20 Hungarian folksongs.
Hungarian folksongs.
20 magyar nepdal.
Husz magyar nepdal.
Magyar nepdal.
PUB # Pl. no. B. & H. 17651-17654 Hawkes.

AUTHOR Bartok, Bela, 1881-1945.
TITLE Rumanian folk music. Edited by Benjamin Suchoff. With a foreword
by Victor Bator.
PUBLISHED The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1967-1975.
DESCRIPTION 5 v. illus., plates, port. 24 cm.
SERIES New York Bartok Archive studies in musicology ; no. 2-6.
NOTE Includes bibliographies.
CONTENTS v. 1. Instrumental melodies.--v. 2. Vocal melodies.--v. 3.
Texts-- v. 4. Carols and Christmas songs (Colinde)--v. 5
Maramures County.
SUBJECTS Folk music -- Romania.
Folk songs, Romanian.
Folk songs, Romanian -- Texts.
OTHER AUTHOR Suchoff, Benjamin, ed.

AUTHOR Bartok, Bela, 1881-1945.
TITLE Rumanische Volkslieder aus dem Komitat Bihar / Bela Bartok ;
Hrsg. von D. Dille.
PUBLISHED Mainz : B. Schott's Sohne, c1967.
DESCRIPTION 17, xxii, 450 p. : facsim., map, music ; 25 cm.
SERIES Ethnomusikologische Schriften Faksimile-Nachdrucke ; 3.
NOTE Unacc. melodies and tunes : p. 1-358.
Facsimile of 1913 ed., with his MS. notes, additions, and
corrections throughout.
SUBJECTS Folk songs, Romanian -- Hungary -- Bihar.
Folk music -- Romania -- Hungary -- Bihar Megye.
OTHER AUTHOR Dille, Denijs, ed.

AUTHOR Bartok, Bela, 1881-1945.
TITLE Volksmusik der Rumanen von Maramures, Hrsg. von D. Dille.
PUBLISHED Mainz, B. Schott's Sohne [c1966]
DESCRIPTION 10, xxxvii, 286 p. illus., tables, map. 25 cm.
SERIES Ethnomusikologische Schriften Faksimile-Nachdrucke, 2.
Sammelbande fur vergleichende Musikwissenschaft ; 4. Bd.
NOTE Unacc. melodies and tunes: p. 1-183.
Reproduced from the original ed. (Munchen, Drei Masken Verlag,
1923)(Sammelbande vur vergleichende Musikwissenschaft, 4. Bd.)
with "Anhang," "Bemerkungen und Verbesserungen," and "Indexe";
p. [229]-286.
SUBJECTS Folk songs, Romanian -- Maramures -- History and criticism.
Folk songs, Romanian -- Maramures.
Folk music -- Romania -- Maramures.
OTHER AUTHOR Dille, Denijs, ed.

AUTHOR Bartok, Bela, 1881-1945.
TITLE Turkish folk music from Asia Minor / by Bela Bartok ; edited by
Benjamin Suchoff ; with an afterword by Kurt Reinhard.
PUBLISHED Princeton, [N.J.] : Princeton University Press, 1976.
DESCRIPTION 288 p. : music ; 23 cm.
SERIES New York Bartok Archive studies in musicology ; no. 7.
NOTE Includes indexes.
NOTE Bibliography: p. 253.
SUBJECTS Folk music -- Turkey -- History and criticism.
OTHER AUTHOR Suchoff, Benjamin.
ISBN 069109120X :

AUTHOR Bartok, Bela, 1881-1945.
UNIFORM TITL Essays. English. Selections.
TITLE Bela Bartok studies in ethnomusicology / selected and edited by
Benjamin Suchoff.
PUBLISHED Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
DESCRIPTION xxiii, 295 p. : ill., music ; 24 cm.
SUMMARY Composer, folklorist, and performer Bela Bartok (1881-1945) is
internationally renowned as one of the most important and
influential musicians of the twentieth century. Throughout his
life he wrote lectures and essays that dealt with virtually
every aspect of East European folk music. Many of those essays,
previously scattered in specialty journals in four different
languages, are collected here for the first time. All are
concerned with that branch of musicology within which Bartok
was most influential, and for which he is best known: research
into folk music, or ethnomusicology. The volume includes a
preface by editor Benjamin Suchoff, a leading expert on
Bartok's music and writings. Suchoff examines Bartok's
developing views on the folk-music traditions of Hungary,
Romania, Slovakia, and the Arab world.
NOTE Includes bibliographical references and index.
SUBJECTS Folk music -- Europe, Eastern -- History and criticism.
Folk dance music -- Europe, Eastern -- History and criticism.
OTHER AUTHOR Suchoff, Benjamin.
OTHER TITLE Studies in ethnomusicology.
ISBN 0803242476 (cloth : alk. paper)

TITLE Sammelbande fur vergleichende Musikwissenschaft / hrsg. von Carl
Stumpf und Erich Moritz von Hornbostel.
EDITION Nachdr. d. Ausg. Munchen 1922-23.
PUBLISHED Hildesheim ; New York : Olms, 1975.
DESCRIPTION 3 v. in 1 : ill., music ; 20 cm.
NOTE Each volume has its own t.p.
Reprint of the ed. published by Drei Masken Verlag.
Vol. 2. not published.
Includes indexes.
NOTE Bibliography: v. 3, p. [389]-391.
CONTENTS Bd. 1. Ellis, A. J. et al. Abhandlungen zur vergleichenden
Musikwissenschaft.--Bd. 3. Schunemann, G. Das Lied der
deutschen Kolonisten in Russland.--Bd. 4. Bartok, B. Volksmusik
der Rumanen von Maramures.
SUBJECTS Music -- History and criticism.
Folk music -- History and criticism.
OTHER AUTHOR Stumpf, Carl, 1848-1936.
Hornbostel, Erich Moritz von, 1877-1935.
Schunemann, Georg, 1884-1945 Lied der deutschen Kolonisten in
Russland.
Bartok, Bela, 1881-1945. Volksmusik der Rumanen von Maramures.
OTHER TITLE Abhandlungen zur vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft.
ISBN 3487054973 :

--pH http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote
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> Aline Surman wrote:
>
> Just listening to Bartok this morning, and got to thinking...he did a
> lot of research into Hungarian, Eastern European, and Middle Eastern folk
> music, cataloging thousands of tunes...are the results of this research
> published? Is it available for purchase? Did he talk about the tunings in
> any depth? Of course, he used "microtones" occasionally, so he was
> obviously hip to the concept...I would like to know more about this area
> of his life, so if anyone has any info, let me know...also, the forum CD
> master DAT is done, I'll pick it up real soon...Hstick

Professor Hahn's list is good, but there's more: Bartok wrote multi-volume analyses
of Serbo-Croatian music in Yugoslavia, and also some little-known studies of Egyptian
music. I'm surprised that the list didn't mention the really huge (something like
seven-volume!) collection of Hungarian folk melodies that Bartok and Kodaly jointly
produced. I know this stuff because a) the materials are in the Florida State
University library (where I studied), b) I happen to be an ethnomusicologist and
pianist (and love Bartok's music), and c) my piano teacher, Edward Kilenyi, knew
Bartok personally. By the way, Bartok's extremely meticulous notations are not so
easy to read; he was very precise in how he heard and wrote down everything, and his
system of symbols for microtones (and other "non-standard" musical phenomena) seems
quite arcane, until you get used to it.All The Best,
Dr_Orient

On Fri, 24 Jul 1998, Dr_Orient wrote:
> Professor Hahn's list is good,

Hey, a promotion! Woohoo!

> but there's more: [snip]

I should've searched the OCLC worldwide database, instead of just our
own local catalog. When I get a chance I'll do that and post the
results.

--p"lowly Library Assistant"H

http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote
O
/\ "Churchill? Can he run a hundred balls?"
-\-\-- o
NOTE: dehyphenate node to remove spamblock. <*>

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