ABSTRACT
In this study, we ascertained the degree of blend and identifiability of soprano orchestral winds. In general, the unison context produced the highest blend ratings, and the lowest identification. There was a moderately high negative correlation between degree of blend and accuracy of identification. We found that the degree of blend corresponded with the positions of instruments in a two-dimensional similarity space, that is, distances of instruments from one another in similarity corresponded to their degree of blend (Figures
3 & 4). Ordinal rankings of blend (Figure 5) and of identification (Figure 7) only loosely correspond to single dimensions in similarity space (Figures 2 & 3). In particular, nasal dyads are easiest to identify and produce the least blend.6 We note that blend is probably correlated with both energy and time-variancy contrasts of lower to upper partials. In fact, the energy ratio of fundamental to other components (the so-called total harmonic ‘distortion’) in a dyad is correlated with the degree of nasality, and thus with blend as well (Kendall & Carterette, 1989).
