{"id":11,"date":"2016-06-29T15:16:35","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T19:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/?p=11"},"modified":"2016-07-06T13:41:34","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T17:41:34","slug":"shepards-tone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/2016\/06\/29\/shepards-tone\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical precursors to the Shepard&#8217;s Tone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are many examples of the shepard&#8217;s tone used in musical compositions before it was even discovered or named. It can create a sense of rising excitement and energy in the music, but can also create an eerie and unsettling tone.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: x-large\">Tchaikovsky passage: (from <a href=\"http:\/\/people.uwec.edu\/walkerjs\/picturesofmusic\/audio\/pitch_perception_examples\/Shepard_tones.htm\" target=\"_blank\">University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire<\/a>)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this musical excerpt from\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: large\">Tchaikovsky&#8217;s <em>Symphony No. 6 in B Minor (Pathetique)<\/em><\/span>, we can hear an example of the shepard&#8217;s tone illusion before it was recognized as such. In the score we\u00a0can see that only one octave is used in the scale, but when we listen to the music we can hear the illusion that the notes seem to continue above an octave.<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-11-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/wav\" src=\"http:\/\/people.uwec.edu\/walkerjs\/picturesofmusic\/audio\/pitch_perception_examples\/Pathetique_Infinite_Rising_Scales.wav?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/people.uwec.edu\/walkerjs\/picturesofmusic\/audio\/pitch_perception_examples\/Pathetique_Infinite_Rising_Scales.wav\">http:\/\/people.uwec.edu\/walkerjs\/picturesofmusic\/audio\/pitch_perception_examples\/Pathetique_Infinite_Rising_Scales.wav<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/files\/2016\/06\/Pathetique_Score_Clip_1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-27\" src=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/files\/2016\/06\/Pathetique_Score_Clip_1-300x74.jpg\" alt=\"Pathetique_Score_Clip_1\" width=\"348\" height=\"86\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/files\/2016\/06\/Pathetique_Score_Clip_1-300x74.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/files\/2016\/06\/Pathetique_Score_Clip_1-1024x252.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/files\/2016\/06\/Pathetique_Score_Clip_1.jpg 1083w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/files\/2016\/06\/Pathetique_Score_Clip_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-28\" src=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/files\/2016\/06\/Pathetique_Score_Clip_2-300x71.jpg\" alt=\"Pathetique_Score_Clip_2\" width=\"347\" height=\"82\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/files\/2016\/06\/Pathetique_Score_Clip_2-300x71.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/files\/2016\/06\/Pathetique_Score_Clip_2-1024x242.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/files\/2016\/06\/Pathetique_Score_Clip_2.jpg 1088w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 347px) 100vw, 347px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(from Leonard Bernstein&#8217;s\u00a0<em>The Infinite Variety of Music<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: x-large\">Passage from\u00a0Alban Berg&#8217;s 1925 opera <em>Wozzeck<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Berg-  Wozzeck   &quot;Act 3 Scene 4&quot;\" width=\"660\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sWMMhfY3ulY?start=200&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In his 1925 opera Wozzeck, Berg employed a continuously rising scale that was orchestrated in such a way that the upper instruments faded out at the top of their range while the lower instruments faded in at the low end.&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/deutsch.ucsd.edu\/pdf\/Acoustics_Today_2010_Jul.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Diana Deutch<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many examples of the shepard&#8217;s tone used in musical compositions before it was even discovered or named. It can create a sense of rising excitement and energy in the music, but can also create an eerie and unsettling tone. Tchaikovsky passage: (from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) In this musical excerpt from\u00a0Tchaikovsky&#8217;s Symphony No. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/2016\/06\/29\/shepards-tone\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Musical precursors to the Shepard&#8217;s Tone<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4531,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114283,114281],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio-illusions","category-sheppards-tone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4531"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/seeingvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}