Science of Musical Sounds

Science of musical sounds clues on daily mail 1 May 2017.

The answer is HARMONICS.

har·mon·ic
noun
1.MUSIC
an overtone accompanying a fundamental tone at a fixed interval, produced by vibration of a string, column of air, etc., in an exact fraction of its length.

2.PHYSICS
a component frequency of an oscillation or wave.

A harmonic is any member of the harmonic series, the divergent infinite series. Its name derives from the concept of overtones, or harmonics in musical instruments: the wavelengths of the overtones of a vibrating string or a column of air (as with a tuba) are derived from the string’s (or air column’s) fundamental wavelength.

Every term of the series (i.e., the higher harmonics) after the first is the “harmonic mean” of the neighboring terms. The phrase “harmonic mean” likewise derives from music.