HARMONICS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Harmonics

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noun

Harmonics n.

The doctrine or science of musical sounds.

pl. (Mus.) Secondary and less distinct tones which accompany any principal, and apparently simple, tone, as the octave, the twelfth, the fifteenth, and the seventeenth. The name is also applied to the artificial tones produced by a string or column of air, when the impulse given to it suffices only to make a part of the string or column vibrate; overtones.

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Etymology of 'Harmonics'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Harmonics" Quotes from Famous Books

... effects, in superadding what his genius and perseverance gave birth to, he arrived at that distinctive character of performance which contributed to his ultimate greatness. The diversity of sounds, the different methods of tuning his instrument, the frequent employment of harmonics, single and double, the simultaneous pizzicato and bow passages, the various staccato effects, the use of double and even triple notes, a prodigious facility in executing wide intervals with unerring ...

— Great Violinists And Pianists • George T. Ferris

... delicacy could never be confounded with feebleness. Every dynamic nuance he exacted of fingers that fell with freedom and elasticity on the keys, and he knew how to augment the warmth and richness of tone-coloring by setting in vibration sympathetic harmonics of the principal notes through judicious ...

— For Every Music Lover - A Series of Practical Essays on Music • Aubertine Woodward Moore

... in silence while the musician annotated his triumph by a series of gay little harmonics, and young Hopeful, trudging in the rear, executed a soundless fantasia on the cornstalk fiddle ...

— The Christmas Miracle - 1911 • Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)

... martial daring, whereas when idealized in Beatrice it became almost undistinguishable from the ferveurs of religion, we find it with Tasso sinking into a weak and mawkish sensuality. More than any other sentimentalist Tasso justified his title by 'fiddling harmonics on the strings of sensualism,' and it may be added that the ear is constantly catching ...

— Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama - A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration - Stage in England • Walter W. Greg

... fifth, one-third, being just half of two-thirds, will produce a tone an octave higher than two-thirds. For illustration, if the string be tuned to 1C, the harmonic tone produced as above will be 2G. We might go on for pages concerning harmonics, but for our present use it is only necessary to show the general principles. For our needs we will discuss the relative length of string necessary to produce the various tones of the diatonic scale, showing ratios of the intervals in ...

— Piano Tuning - A Simple and Accurate Method for Amateurs • J. Cree Fischer

... but permanence as well.' —Grave note whence—list aloft!—harmonics sound, that mean: Truth inside, and outside, truth also; and between Each, falsehood that is change, as truth is permanence. The individual soul works through the shows of sense, (Which, ever proving false, still promise to be ...

— A Handbook to the Works of Browning (6th ed.) • Mrs. Sutherland Orr