Pitch and Brightness

How is pitch different from brightness?

• pitch depends on periodicity.
• brightness depends on distribution of total power between high and low frequencies.

High-frequency partials make a sound bright.

• since musical tones ordinarily have no partials below their pitch frequency¹, a high pitch tends to be brighter than a low pitch.

Example: at the same pitch:

• vowel /i/ (``beet'') is brighter than /u/ ``boot'';
• trombone sounds brighter than a French horn:
  • Trombone
  • French Horn
    

    Figure 3: French horn played facing away from the listener with hand in the bell.