Everything about Overtone
Tone with a frequency higher than the frequency of the reference tone
An overtone is any resonant frequency above the fundamental frequency of a sound. An overtone may or may not be a harmonic. In other words, overtones are all pitches higher than the lowest pitch within an individual sound; the fundamental is the lowest pitch. While the fundamental is usually heard most prominently, overtones are actually present in any pitch except a true sine wave. The relative volume or amplitude of various overtone partials is one of the key identifying features of timbre, or the individual characteristic of a sound. The human vocal tract is able to produce highly variable amplitudes of the overtones, called formants, which define different vowels. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: OvertoneA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: Searching for a ringdown overtone in GW150914Influential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: Utopia for RealistsThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: Ultrasensitive detections in atomic and molecular physics: demonstration in molecular overtone spectroscopyCited 360 times
- Go sideways: HarmonicA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Harmonic series (music)A closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Noun A tone whose frequency is an integer multiple of another; a member of the harmonic series.
Noun An implicit message (in a film, book, verbal discussion, or similar) perceived as overwhelming the explicit message.
Noun An implicit message (in a film, book, verbal discussion, or similar) perceived subtly alongside, but not overwhelming, the explicit message.
Verb To give an overtone to.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
Ultrasensitive detections in atomic and molecular physics: demonstration in molecular overtone spectroscopy
Highly vibrationally excited benzene: Overtone spectroscopy and intramolecular dynamics of C6H6, C6D6, and partially deuterated or substituted benzenes
Ring-down cavity absorption spectroscopy of the very weak HCN overtone bands with six, seven, and eight stretching quanta
Anharmonicity in Polyatomic Molecules. The CH-Stretching Overtone Spectrum of Benzene
The local mode model and overtone spectra: a probe of molecular structure and conformation
The effects of symmetry within the local mode picture: A reanalysis of the overtone spectra of the dihalomethanes
Overtone absorption in macromolecules for polymer optical fibers
Overtone emission spectroscopy of HF and DF: Vibrational matrix elements and dipole moment function
🆕 Influential since 2022
Searching for a ringdown overtone in GW150914
Subpromille Measurements and Calculations of CO (3–0) Overtone Line Intensities
JWST: Deuterated PAHs, PAH Nitriles, and PAH Overtone and Combination Bands. I. Program Description and First Look
Mechanical overtone frequency combs
Using rational filters to uncover the first ringdown overtone in GW150914
📚 Books worth reading
Utopia for RealistsRutger Bregman · 2016
Levellers : A History of the Writings of Three Seventeenth-Century Social DemocratsJoseph Frank · 1955
God Isn't HereRichard, E Overton, Richard E. Overton · 2007
Following the Levellers, Volume TwoGary S. De Krey · 2018- 📕The Langford family, their life and times from 1800-1978Virginia Ann Hawkins Mabrey · 1979
- 📕Portfolio of Frank Overton. · 1963
A first look at THE HARMONYNCWalter Mantovani · 2015- 📕Healing with ImagesMichael Midgley · 1996
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
- Harmonic A harmonic is a sinusoidal wave whose frequency is a positive integer multiple of the fundamental frequency in a periodic signal. The fundamental counts…
- Harmonic series (music) The harmonic series (also overtone series) is the sequence of harmonics, musical tones, or pure tones whose frequency is an integer multiple of a fundamental…
- Musical acoustics Musical acoustics or music acoustics is a multidisciplinary field that combines knowledge from physics, psychophysics, organology (classification of the…
- Undertone series In music, the undertone series or subharmonic series is a sequence of notes that results from inverting the intervals of the overtone series. While overtones…
- Inharmonicity In music, inharmonicity is the degree to which the frequencies of overtones (also known as partials or partial tones) depart from whole multiples of the…
- String harmonic Playing a string harmonic (a flageolet) is a string instrument technique that uses the nodes of natural harmonics of a musical string to isolate overtones…
- Multiphonic A multiphonic is an extended technique on a monophonic musical instrument (one that generally produces only one note at a time) in which several notes…
- Pitch of brass instruments The pitch of a brass instrument corresponds to the lowest playable resonance frequency of the open instrument. The combined resonances resemble a harmonic…