The picture becomes different if we apply to the aural experience Goethe’s theorem that, in so far as we are deluded, it is not by our senses but by our own reasoning. For we then realize that sounds never occur of themselves without some tone-colour, whilst physically ‘pure’ tones – those that represent simple harmonic motions – exist only as an artificial laboratory product. The colour of a tone, therefore, is an integral part of it, and must not be conceived of as an additional attribute resulting from a summing up of a number of colourless tone experiences.