No, these students do not have turnips in their ears. They are using Helmholtz resonators to help them hear the higher partials of a compound tone.
In this first-year seminar course, we learn about how sound is produced by musical instruments, and how those sounds have been used in music-making from the twelfth century to the present day. Like its subject, the course is a mixture of the objective/technical and the subjective/aesthetic, and the class provides a model of how the two types of analysis can fruitfully be brought to bear on a single topic.
The students make use of their understanding of the acoustics of conventional instruments to design and build unique instruments of their own. The "Grand Finale" of the class is a concert played upon those instruments, which is open to the public. This year's performance will take place on December 3, 2008. You can see pictures from the Spring 2005 performance as well as the 2004 performance and performances from 1999 and 2000. You can see pictures of stringed instruments from this year here,and those from 2006 as well as Spring 2005, Fall 2005, the 2004 class, the 2000 class, and the 1999 class. Pictures of wind instruments from the Fall 2005 class are available. You can also see pictures of wind instruments from Spring 2005, 2004, 2000, and 1999. Other pictures from the Fall 2000 class are found here.
No, these students do not have turnips in their ears. They are using Helmholtz resonators to help them hear the higher partials of a compound tone.
| Instructors: | |
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Prof. Laurie McNeil
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Phillips Hall 270 962-2079 mcneil@physics.unc.edu |
| photos courtesy of Dan Sears, UNC News Bureau | |
 |
Prof. Brent Wissick
Dept. of Music Person Hall 102 962-3763 bswissic@email.unc.edu |
| Class meetings: | Mondays 2:00 - 2:50 p.m. |
| Wednesdays 2:00 - 3:40 p.m. | |
| Phillips Hall 275 or Hill Hall 202 (as announced) | |
| Final exam: | Saturday, Dec. 6 at 4:00 p.m. |
| Textbooks: | The Acoustical Foundations of Music by J. Backus |
| The Six Brandenburg Concertos by J.S. Bach | |
| Additional articles posted on class website | |
Each student is expected to do the assigned reading before coming to
the class for which it is designated, and to participate in class discussions
and other activities.
| Grading: | 5% | Shorter assignments (2) |
| 20% | Etude reports (4) | |
| 15% | Oral presentations (3, including Grand Finale) | |
| 20% | Longer assignments (3) | |
| 10% | Midterm exam | |
| 20% | Final exam | |
| 10% | Class participation |
Enrolled students can find more detailed information about the assignments (and much else) here.
CLASS TOPICS, LOCATIONS, AND ASSIGNMENTS
| August 20 Hill 202
Introduction to course; objective and subjective analyses; music theory, ancient Greek theory | August 25 Hill 202
Music theory and ancient Greek theory continued; simple harmonic motion, intro to waves Johnston Chap. 1; B xi-xiv, 126-140 "Who I am" statements must be posted by Aug. 26 |
August 27 Phillips 275
Triads and scales, Greek modes; overtones, superposition, standing waves on a string B 3-62, 75-77; {"On hearing the "shape" of a vibrating string"} |
September 1
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September 3 Hill 202
Violin and guitar families; cavity modes; Brandenburg #3 B 107-124, 189-214; "Physics of violins" Physics reading exercise due |
September 8 Hill 202
Brandenburg #6; viola da gamba, strings played together |
September 10 Phillips 275
Etude #1: vibrational modes of a string Etude instructions from Website Music exercise due |
| September 15 Phillips 275
Physics of the bowed string; how to analyze your Etude data; Brandenburgs continued "Physics of the Bowed String" {"Why bows get stiffer and racquets get softer when the strings are added," "Saving the music tree"} |
September 17 Hill 202
The New Violin Family and a visit from Carolyn Field, violin maker; stringed instrument diversity Report on Etude #1 due |
| September 22 Hill 202
Brandenburg #5; keyboard family; sound boards B 281-297; "Acoustics of the Harpsichord,""Physics of the Piano" |
September 24 Phillips 275
Etude #2: plucked and hammered strings, real stringed instruments Etude instructions from Website |
| September 29 Phillips 275
Making science from musical instruments "Vibrational frequencies and tuning in the African mbira" |
October 1 Phillips 275/Music Library
Oral presentations on home-made stringed instruments Visit to the UNC Music Library "Concerto for Pencilina and Sewer Flute" |
| October 6 Hill 206
Tuning and temperaments B 141-158; "Tuning" {"comma arithmetic"} Rewrite of Etude #1 report due |
October 8 Person Recital Hall
Temperaments continued; harpsichord demonstration by Elane Funaro Re-creating piano performance: a visit from Eric Hirsh of Zenph Report on Etude #2 due |
| October 13 Hill 202
"Argument" discussion {"OK, Everyone in Tune, Whatever That Means"} |
October 15 Hill 202
In-class exam |
| October 20 Phillips 275
Percussion: membranes and bars B 299-306 |
Oct. 22 Hill 202, Percussion room (3:00 p.m.)
Percussion continued: real instruments "Physics of Kettledrums" {"Basic physics of xylophone and marimba bars"} "How my instrument works" paper due |
| October 27 Phillips 275
Wind instruments; organ pipes B 63-74, 249-252; "Physics of Organ Pipes" {"Air Power"} |
October 29 Hill 206/Univ. Methodist Church
Visit to Methodist Church organ with Tim Baker |
| November 3 Phillips 275
Reeds: valves and columns; Flutes and turbulence B 217-249; "Physics of Wood Winds"{"Unsound reasoning"} "Argument" paper due |
November 5 Phillips 275
Etude #3: pipe length and finger holes Etude instructions from Website |
| November 10 Phillips 275
Brass: a flare for sound B 259-279 |
November 12 Phillips 275
Etude #4: end bells Etude instructions from Website Report on Etude #3 due |
| November 17 Hill 202
Oral presentations on home-made wind instruments Free topic bibliography due |
November 19 Hill 202
Brandenburg #2; orchestration, registers Adler 266-282, 284-302, 311-325 |
| November 24 Hill 201 (piano lab)
Psychoacoustics: tonotopic organization and auditory illusions B 87-105; "Pitch, periodicity, and auditory organization" Report on Etude #4 due |
November 26
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| December 1 Hill 202
Concert hall acoustics B 163-184; "Science and Art Converge in Concert Hall Acoustics" Free topic paper due |
December 3 Person Recital Hall
The Grand Finale: original compositions on original instruments |
Reading assignments: B is Acoustical Foundations of Music,
Adler is The Study of Orchestration, which is on reserve in the Music Library,
all other titles refer to articles posted on the website. {Assignments in curly brackets} are optional, and
sometimes allow you to probe more deeply into the mathematical analysis.