Summary: Two groups of instruments use strings as the primary source of sound: those in which plucking sets the strings in vibration, and the bowed strings. This program shows how the demand for more powerful sounds was met, and examines the instruments of Stradivari to determine what science can and cannot reveal about their magic. It also examines the ways in which scientific methods complement the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program is devoted to analyzing the essential features required in any instrument if a usable musical sound is to be produced. The first requirement is for a device that will produce regularity of pressure change, whether a vibration or wobble, a rotation (like the wheel of a siren), vibration of air in pipes, or tightly stretched strings, or more or less flat plates, or hollow vessels...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program covers such problems as the production of varying degrees of loudness on harpsichords and spinets, the mechanical engineering of the modern piano, the origin of scales, and the inability of keyboard instruments to produce scales in all keys exactly in tune. Synthesizers demonstrate both the problem and its solution. The progression is from electronic organs to analogue...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Despite its title, this program actually covers all the wind instruments, including the pipe organ. It considers the way in which the technology of making instruments has affected the course of musical development, particularly the development of valves for trumpets and Boehm's system of woodwind keys. The program examines the subject of vibrations in tubes, the role of finger holes, and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007