Stimmen

Stimme (plural Stimmen) has several related meanings in German. It most commonly denotes a voice or a sound, including the human voice and a musical tone, and in polyphonic music it can refer to a distinct melodic line assigned to a part. The verb stimmen means to tune or adjust something, and it can also mean to agree or be in accord. The plural noun Stimmen thus can mean multiple voices or, in a political context, votes.

In music, Stimmen are the individual melodic lines that together form a polyphonic texture. In choral and instrumental writing, parts are divided into Stimmen such as soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, or into other denoted lines. Stimmführung (voice leading) describes how these parts move to maintain coherence and balance; a Stimmwechsel can indicate a change in the active voice or part within a piece.

In elections and parliamentary contexts, Stimmen denote votes. A single vote is eine Stimme; Stimmen in the plural refer to the votes received by candidates or parties. Common phrases include Stimmen zählen (to count votes), die Mehrheit der Stimmen (the majority of votes), and ungültige Stimmen (invalid votes).

Beyond music and voting, Stimme also means voice quality or timbre, and in phonetics it denotes voicing—the property that distinguishes sounds such as b (voiced) from p (voiceless). The term thus spans several closely related senses, from the музыкale to the political, and from everyday speech to scientific description.