PHYS 006D/MUSC 006D
THE INTERPLAY OF MUSIC AND PHYSICS
Pictures from Fall 2000

 

On August 24, 2000, our new Chancellor came to visit.
Photos courtesy of Dan Sears, UNC News Bureau Here he addresses the class while Profs. McNeil and Wissick listen in the background.

Prof. McNeil explains simple harmonic motion while the students and Chancellor Moeser listen.

 

John Montgomery, a Raleigh instrument maker (who made one of Prof. Wissick's cellos)
visited the class on Sept. 14, 2000.

Here he talks about the arch of the top of the violin, and its structural and acoustic importance.
With one of his violins-in-progress, he showed how the interior is constructed.

A violin sawn in half (not one that he made!) allowed the class to see the location of the bass bar
and the soundpost, and the subtle changes in thickness of the top and bottom plates.

Mr. Montgomery brought along some apparatus to demonstrate
the vibration of the top plate of a cello induced by the forces applied by the bridge.
Here Prof. Wissick creates Chladni patterns by bowing the string.

Mr. Montgomery also demonstrated how to adjust a soundpost.  Prof. Wissick said (and we heard) that
the sound of his cello was much improved by this very small shift of the post.

 

In Etude #2, the students measured the frequency spectra of various stringed instruments.

Here the Dresden group (Mike Truzy, Daniel Thigpen, Mike Johnson and Luke Selden) measure the spectrum of a bowed violin string.

Members of the Salzburg group (Trevor Hutton, Christy Nell, and Alex Danilowicz)
make measurements and watch the computer screen.

The "bandolin" was the instrument of choice of the Stuttgart group.
Here David Spencer and Mela Kirkpatrick make a measurement.
In the background Jamie Darst of the Bamburg group can be seen.

 
 
 

On Oct. 19, local harpsichord virtuoso Elaine Funaro visited our class.  We met in Person Recital Hall, and she used three harpsichords to demonstrate various temperaments:  Pythagorean, 1/4-comma meantone, Werckmeister, and equal temperament.


 

In Etude #4, the students measured the frequency spectra of compound horns made from cylindrical piping and the end bells from real brass instruments.

On the left the Salzburg group (Trevor Hutton, Christy Nell and Alex Danilowicz) study the properties of a French horn bell.  On the right the Bamburg group (Jamie Darst, Michael Johnson and Doug Little) look for resonant frequencies in a trombone bell.

  

Megan Ketch, Wilson Fuller, Dave Spencer, and Mela Kirkpatrick (the Stuttgart group) had the trumpet bell.  On the right, Daniel Thigpen, Luke Selden, and Mike Truzy (Dresden) are looking at another trombone bell.
  

The Aachen group (David Harris, Annie Poskozim, Toby Butts and Jonathan Thompson) had the third trombone bell to work with.