We can now amplify this by saying that while the relative presence or absence of overtones determines the clang or color of a tone, their presence or absence is determined by the _character of the resonance_.
An English writer records that he was once in the garden at the back of a house while a gentleman was singing in the drawing-room.

The tone-quality was good, and the pitch so unusually high he hastened to learn who sang tenor high C so beautifully.

On entering the room, instead of the tenor he had supposed, he found the singer was a baritone, and the note sung was only middle C.The fundamental tone had not reached him in the garden but the first overtone, an octave above it, had.

Concrete illustrations will make the subject still clearer.
Experiment II If an ordinary tuning-fork when vibrating is held in the hand its intrinsic tone is too weak to carry far.

Rest the handle of the vibrating fork on a bare table or the panel of the door, and the sound is greatly augmented.