Musical acoustics

DiscoverE

Some instruments of Egypt

• Kawala (a short end-blown reed flute, open on both ends)
• Nay (like a kawala, but longer)
• Toora (cymbals, beaten together)
• Oud (fretless lute)
• Tabla (an hour-glass shaped drum)
• Daff (a frame drum)

Sufi performances

Many of these instruments are used in mystical Islamic (Sufi) music, as in this staged performance.

Here are some of these instruments performed in a real religious ritual called hadra. Name the instruments you see. Which instruments didn't appear?

Classification of musical instruments by vibration dimension and material

Musical instruments can be classified by vibration material and dimension according to a system devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs in 1914. It is known as the Hornbostel-Sachs system of musical instrument classification.

• Idiophones: the whole instrument vibrates (3D)
• Membranophones: a membrane vibrates (2D)
• Chordophones: a string vibrates (1D)
• Aerophones: an air column vibrates (1D)

In this Virtual instrument museum, all the instruments are organized according to the Hornbostel-Sachs system.

How do these classes of instruments make musical sounds? Here are some animations. Note how vibrations in more than one dimension get very complicated!

• Idiophone: tuning fork
• Membranophone
• Chordophone
• Aerophone: open flute

Slow motion videos demonstrate the complex vibrations of percussion instruments:

snare drum

cymbal

drumset

Your turn....how would you classify the instruments I brought today?

• Kawala
• Nay
• Toora
• Oud
• Tabla
• Daff

General acoustics

http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/SoundsOfWaveforms/

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/TheSoundOfSineWaves/

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/OutgoingWavesGeneratedByAPulsatingSource/

Musical acoustics

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Musical_acoustics

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/

http://www.audiosonica.com/en/course/post/2/Index

http://www.physics.umd.edu/deptinfo/facilities/lecdem/misc/phys102/index.htm

http://www.phys.cwru.edu/ccpi/

http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/lennon/362/english/acoustics.htm

http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/feschools/index.htm

Classification

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Hornbostel%E2%80%93Sachs

Chordophones

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/TheVibratingString/

http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html

Aerophones

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/flutes.v.clarinets.html

Two dimensional vibrations

Membranophones

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/VibrationsOfARectangularMembrane/

http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ChladniFigures/

Three dimensional vibrations

Idiophones

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/TuningFork/