TIMBRAL SEMANTICS AND THE PIPE ORGAN

Words used to describe timbre are usually difficult to define or relate to a measurable phenomenon. This paper attempts to establish if any such words are objective with a common understanding, or if they are all subjective. The pipe organ is used because it is both a complex timbral synthesizer and a non-electronic instrument from which repeatable samples can be taken. A number of adjectives were gathered from English speaking subjects. The most common words were selected and used without specific definition as rating scales in comparative listening tests. Comparison with spectral analyses revealed possible cues for some words, and audio examples were synthesized to test these theories. Some adjectives have emerged as having degrees of common understanding across a majority of subjects. 1