Harmonics on instrument - the haze of tone colour

On every acoustic instrument, when a string, an air column, or even a material vibrates, it does not just produce the frequency is played (the fundamental) but also the sequence of frequencies as the series of integers multiple of a fundamental. A note is played also means a series of notes are above sounding weak above. If we focus on playing around the harmonics, we can get a kind of hazy sound contrast to the solid fundamentals that we usually play.

On string instruments, harmonic is a quite standard technique. But on woodwind, it is a technique that has not been used widely. The hazy sound is very special and deserves to be heard more. These two pieces are stunning.

Skip to 03:26 for the harmonics tone color
A piece with harmonics as the major feature by Wil Offermans

The piece by Wil Offermans is the only piece I found used the harmonic extensively. Ravel and Toru Takemitsu have some examples of it but are not prominent. Thus, I improved based on the harmonic technique, to explore the technique more. Video is below.



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