Harmonics - whats the deal?

[Christian Marcussen]

Could someone be sokindto tell me the greatness of Harmonics? What it is etc

[jbm]

Depends what you mean...

Sometimes the word is used to refer to the partials themselves (as in "the instrument has a lot of strong upper harmonics"), while here it is mostly used to refer to a performance technique involving the production of an alternate mode of vibration of the string/air column on a given instrument. Violin harmonics, for example, are caused by touching the string lightly at the various nodes along the length of the string. There are also artificial harmonics (stupid name, since there's nothing 'artificial' about them), which involve stopping a note with one finger, while touching a partial at a given interval above the stopped note with another finger -- a common one is touching a 4th above the stopped note to produce an artificial harmonic sounding 2 octaves higher. The colour is much lighter, airy, and soft -- it's a great sound, somewhat ghostly, but it's fairly quiet. Harmonics are used quite frequently in orchestral music from Mahler on, and are thus highly desirable in sample libraries. We're all waiting for them in the VSL strings! (I believe the natural ones exist in the Chamber Strings.)

Other common instruments for harmonics are guitar, harp, and flute (not as common, but a good example can be found in Stravinsky's "Agon"). You can also find lots of this info covered in the "Instruments" section of this site -- a very cool resource!

Hope this helps.

J.

[Christian Marcussen]

Thanks alot...

I was wondering what all the fuss was about - why VSL should sample this. So thanks for the answer