2. The nature of sound
Mike Goldsmith
in Sound: A Very Short Introduction
Sound is a physical phenomenon as well as a sensual one. The relationships between the physical and sensual aspects of sound are complex in that many of the impressions sound makes on us ...
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5. A history of film music II: 1927–1960
Kathryn Kalinak
in Film Music: A Very Short Introduction
Synchronization of music and image was achieved as early as 1894, but the quest for synchronization and its realization have long preceded the conversion to sound. ‘A history of film music ...
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1. The study of language
P. H. Matthews
in Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction
‘The study of language’ argues that studying language ‘scientifically’ is, in part, to refuse to accept uncritically the ways of thinking that, without any professional training, we all ...
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3. Sounds in harmony
Mike Goldsmith
in Sound: A Very Short Introduction
The words ‘tone’ and ‘note’ reflect the subjective/objective nature of sound: a tone is a sound wave with a particular frequency, a note is its subjective impact, with a particular pitch. ...
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8. Sound out of place
Mike Goldsmith
in Sound: A Very Short Introduction
Noise can be two very different things: for a scientist, noise is extraneous acoustic or electromagnetic energy, but for most of us ‘noise’ is any sound that is unwanted by the person ...
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5. Sensing, perceiving, and acting
Michael O’Shea
in The Brain: A Very Short Introduction
‘Sensing, perceiving, and acting’ investigates how the brain processes and acts upon sensory information. Visual information is sensed by retinal cells before travelling down the optic ...
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3. Sound waves
Mike Goldsmith
in Waves: A Very Short Introduction
Sound is a small fraction of the pressure wave spectrum. In terms of wavelength, we can hear far more than we can see: while deep red light has waves about twice as long as those of deep ...
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Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction
P. H. Matthews
Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction considers a subject that falls in the gap between arts and science, on the edges of which fascinating discoveries and important problems ...
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2. ‘Homo loquens’
P. H. Matthews
in Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction
‘Homo loquens’ argues that no other aspect of behaviour is as distinctively human as speech. Language has evolved as primarily vocal, though closely integrated with non-vocal behaviour. It ...
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8. Sounds
P. H. Matthews
in Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction
‘Sounds’ makes the point that in their sounds, too, languages have different systems. Numbers of vowels and consonants vary between languages and it is possible to abstract general rules by ...
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9. Language and the brain
P. H. Matthews
in Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction
‘Language and the brain’ points out that, though we know how the sound of speech is generated, we do not know how our brains determine the production of specific combinations of words. Nor ...
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7. Objectivity in numbers?
Stephen Gaukroger
in Objectivity: A Very Short Introduction
‘Objectivity in numbers?’ considers the connection between objectivity and numerical presentation. Logical positivists believed that if scientific theories were to be truly objective, they ...
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1. Overview: sound and setting
Mark Slobin
in Folk Music: A Very Short Introduction
‘Overview: sounds and settings’ attempts to place folk music in a broad social context. There is no fixed definition of folk music. Indeed, even the International Folk Music Council have ...
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Sound: A Very Short Introduction
Mike Goldsmith
Sound is integral to how we experience the world, in the form of noise as well as music. But what is sound? What is the physical basis of pitch and harmony? And how are sound waves ...
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1. Past sounds
Mike Goldsmith
in Sound: A Very Short Introduction
‘Past sounds’ provides a history of sound from the origin of sound waves 300,000 years after the Big Bang to the modern day of ultrasound and electroacoustic technology. Primordial sound ...
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4. Hearing sound
Mike Goldsmith
in Sound: A Very Short Introduction
Our ears have two functions, hearing and balance, but what do they hear and how? We can experience a whole world of sound due to the precise coordination of highly evolved anatomical, ...
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5. Electronic sound
Mike Goldsmith
in Sound: A Very Short Introduction
‘Electronic sound’ explains the conversion of sound to electricity through the development of microphones, amplifiers, and loudspeakers. There are several types of microphones, but only ...
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6. Ultrasound and infrasound
Mike Goldsmith
in Sound: A Very Short Introduction
‘Ultrasound and infrasound’ explains that humans can hear sounds with frequencies in the range of 20 Hz to around 17 kHz, but there is a wide ultrasound soundscape beyond this range. Bats, ...
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7. Sound underwater and underground
Mike Goldsmith
in Sound: A Very Short Introduction
‘Sound underwater and underground’ focuses on the areas of sound that we can’t hear. It was not until World War II that the richness of the underwater soundscape became clear. Listening ...
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3. The religions of Abraham: Jewish understandings of God
John Bowker
in God: A Very Short Introduction
‘The religions of Abraham: Jewish understandings of God’ looks at Judaism in detail and the foundations in the Biblical period in order to show how the distinctive Jewish understandings of ...
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