8/31/2023 0 Comments Shepard tone illusion![]() ![]() But because two of the instruments are always "covering" the one that drops down an octave, it seems that the scale never stops rising. ![]() So no instrument ever exceeds an octave range, and essentially keeps playing the exact same seven notes over and over again. When they reach the B, the horn similarly drops down an octave, but the trumpet and tuba continue to climb, and when they get to what would be the second D of the scale, the tuba drops down to repeat the last seven notes of the scale. They're all still playing the same pitch class, but at different octaves. When they reach the G of the scale, the trumpet drops down an octave, but the horn and tuba continue climbing. they all start playing Cs, but their notes are all in different octaves. They all start to play a repeating C scale (C–D–E–F–G–A–B–C) in their respective ranges, i.e. The illusion is more convincing if there is a short time between successive notes ( staccato or marcato instead of legato or portamento).Īs a more concrete example, consider a brass trio consisting of a trumpet, a horn, and a tuba. The scale as described, with discrete steps between each tone, is known as the discrete Shepard scale. (In other words, each tone consists of ten sine waves with frequencies separated by octaves the intensity of each is a gaussian function of its separation in semitones from a peak frequency, which in the above example would be B(4).) The twelfth tone would then be the same as the first, and the cycle could continue indefinitely. ![]() The two frequencies would be equally loud at the middle of the octave (F#), and the eleventh tone would be a loud B(4) and an almost inaudible B(5) with the addition of an almost inaudible B(3). The next would be a slightly louder C#(4) and a slightly quieter C#(5) the next would be a still louder D(4) and a still quieter D(5). As a conceptual example of an ascending Shepard scale, the first tone could be an almost inaudible C(4) ( middle C) and a loud C(5) (an octave higher). Overlapping notes that play at the same time are exactly one octave apart, and each scale fades in and fades out so that hearing the beginning or end of any given scale is impossible. The color of each square indicates the loudness of the note, with purple being the quietest and green the loudest. Escher's lithograph Ascending and Descending) or a barber's pole, the basic concept is shown in Figure 1.Įach square in the figure indicates a tone, any set of squares in vertical alignment together making one Shepard tone. Similar to the Penrose stairs optical illusion (as in M. Perhaps what makes this score by Zimmer the most powerful out of his Nolan projects (a collaboration that goes back to “The Dark Knight” franchise) is the limited amount of dialogue in “Dunkirk.” Zimmer’s ticking score doesn’t just heighten the thrills, but explains what’s going on in the scene as much as the photography does.The acoustical illusion can be constructed by creating a series of overlapping ascending or descending scales. So there's a fusion of music and sound effects and picture that we've never been able to achieve before.” So I wanted to build the music on similar mathematical principals. I interwove the three timelines in such a way that there's a continual feeling of intensity. And I wrote the script according to that principle. It’s always going up and up and up but it never goes outside of its range. “It's an illusion where there's a continuing ascension of tone. “There's an audio illusion, if you will, in music called a ‘ Shepard tone’ and with my composer David Julyan on ‘The Prestige’ we explored that, and based a lot of the score around that,” Nolan said. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. ![]()
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