Don’t like Triangles, Pulse - we all share
A distrust of Sawtooth - we don’t care
For their shapes, we’re too pure.
One day **Fourier sulked: "Sure!
Remain single!  Don't mix!  Is that fair?"

Sawtooth - rich; Square - more sparse; Sine - alone;
A Recorder's not like a trombone.
Hear that Oboe a-heavin'?
Has it all - Odd and Even.
Must admit we sound thin on our own.

When our Frequencies merge – we're less bare
We become Complex Tones in some ‘air’.
Like our Harmonic bliss?
Well the moral is this:
If you’re Odd and you mingle you’re Square.

The words in bold print are dealt with in detail in these timbre lessons. (AMH 2000)

*Sinusoidal is the word that describes Sine waves.

**Fourier was a French mathematician who found that any repeating wave no matter how complicated, is made up of simple sine waves.