thesis : beatings : afterthoughts

“Tones of the same, or of nearly the same pitch, which therefore affect the same nerve fibers, do not produce a sensation which is the sum of the two they would have separately excited, but new and peculiar phenomena arise which we term interference, when caused by two perfectly equal simple tones, and beats when due to two nearly equal simple tones.”
Hermann Helmholtz “On the sensations of tone” , 160, interference of sound

As explained in the beatings theory chapter: beatings are a physical sound phenomenon, an interference pattern that happens in the air and not only in our minds. Still Hermann Helmholtz writes about how tones of nearly the same pitch affect the same nerve fibers, as if beatings are produced in our mind because of a lack of fibers. We do know what is physically happening in the air and we do know how we experience this phenomenon. But how much of this experience is what is physically happening in the air and how much is what our mind makes out of it depending on the amount of nerve fibers we have?
There is this turning point, between hearing beatings and hearing 2 tones.
Experimenting with the beatings invitation I wonder if it’s something you can train. That would mean that next to the nerve fibers and what physically in the air happens you can also train your mind to hear beatings or 2 separate tones.

long, low and slow beatings, combining two flutes tuned around 55Hz

After a day testing my graduation project with Annabel Schouten we reflected on what we experienced while (and after) listening to two ceramic flutes tuned around 55Hz, 06.03.2024:

When two tones become
a pulse
a rhythm
a palpitation

becoming slower how closer the two tones become
there is a certain vagueness,
of not understanding what you experience
as if the sound plays with our perception

low and slow beatings,
gets close to our boundary of hearing, of perceiving sound,
our senses intermingle
not knowing if and what you are hearing, feeling or imagining
playing with our consciousness and subconsciousness
re-feeling¹⁹ moving air

disorienting
distorting
confusing
morphing
changing
the sounds around

not knowing when it’s starting or ending
vague border, sweet border
after ending
re-learning, re-hearing the sounds around

19. With ‘re-something’ I mean: experiencing something as if it’s the first time in your life.

resonance : theory