User:Dr. Skullthumper/adopted/Encyclopedic tone

An Encyclopedic Tone is the perceived fundamental frequency of the sound produced by dropping an encyclopedia. In concert music it is more precisely defined than in general usage.

Reference pitch

In music an encyclopedic tone is the range of frequencies produced by dropping each of the 137 volumes of the 1847 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica from a height of 1.5 meters at 0 centigrade with the frequency range measured at 15 centimeters radially from the point directly below the volume being dropped.

This standard was devised in the great unification, which was a period following the end of a period when no consistency in encyclopedic tone had led to widespread inconsistency in music due to variations in encyclopedia quality, sizes, and measuring methodologies.

General pitch

Due to the scarcity of full copies of the 1847 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, most people use the range produced by dropping an entire printout of every article in Wikipedia. Due to the inconsistency of Wikipedia's writing, editing, and numerous stubs, the results have been quite erratic and are seen as a throwback to earlier methods of defining encyclopedic tone that were long considered obsolete.

The range is roughly 307Hz through 562Hz and is seen as far too broad a range for orchestra use, while it is clearly within the accepted tolerances for most garage bands.

Concert Encyclopedic Tone

• Featured
• Encyclopedic tone

Examples of General Encyclopedic Tone

• Euroipods
• AAAAAAAAA! (Meta-tone)