source file: m1388.txt
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 14:50:04 -0400

Subject: Re: Over-/Undertone series

From: "Paul H. Erlich" <PErlich@Acadian-Asset.com>

>>The controversy is over the concept of the undertone series _as an
>>acoustical phenomenon_ -- and this is something that, as Max Meyer
>>pointed out clearly, cannot exist.

>I should point out a couple of exceptions. In overblown winds, the
>fundamental can softly sound and affect the timbre. Likewise in string
>harmonics (flageolet tones).

These are not examples of undertone series but of overtone series where
a note other than the fundamental functions as the pitch due to the
relative amplitutes of the partials. The waveform in these cases is
periodic, having a frequency equal to that of the true fundamental, and
therefore only integer multiples of that fundamental are present in the
spectrum. At best, the tone can be said to have one "undertone", but
nothing like an "undertone series".