Yesterday as I strolled along a street in Antibes an ambulance drove down a nearby street. It may, of course, have actually been a fire truck. I couldn't see it. But I could certainly hear it. And I noticed something that I had never noticed before - what exactly it is that makes the sound so annoying.
First of all, it's very loud. And the tone quality of the sound is not appealing. But the really interesting thing is that initially one assumes that it is a single alternating tone. (It moves between an A and a B above middle C, in case you were wondering.) But as the vehicle, whatever it might have been, came nearer and then passed by, I noticed that it was actually several tones. It was the alternating A and B, but had subsidiary tones slightly below those, and also a set of tones an octave above, almost. In other words, there were three tones sounding at any given time, one of them close to a unison and one of them close to an octave, but not close enough.
It reminds one of the old joke: "What do you call two oboes playing in unison?" Answer: "A minor second."
But the really odd thing about this is that the difference between the three tones appeared to widen because of the doppler effect, which alters the tones as it passes. It makes absolutely no sense to me that the different tones would "doppler" at different rates, but that's the only explanation I can come up with. Unless the tones that the vehicle is producing actually cycle through a series of slightly different tones. I'm going to have to search out more emergency vehicles and see if this effect is constant. I've heard two so far and they both seemed to alter as they approached my location in just about the same way.
And to anticipate your next question, I haven't paid attention one way or another to American emergency vehicles, so I can't say for certain whether they do this as well. When I get back I will certainly listen to any passing ambulances and report my findings. In the meantime, if anyone has a good explanation for what I'm hearing, I would love to hear from you.
Admittedly this has nothing to do with choral music, or even music at all, really, but there isn't a lot of choral music in the area at the moment, as far as I can tell, so this is all I've got. Just count yourself lucky that it isn't a requiem for the Steelers.
However, if you would like to read one of those, here's a link to my latest post on Behind the Steel Curtain. It isn't really a requiem - it's an homage. But homages also have a distiguished musical lineage. In the meantime, I'll try to come up with some choral-related material : )
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