This module is designed for musicians to give insight into the physical processes involved in the production of sound from musical instruments, the acoustical environment of music making and our physiological and psychological response to musical sounds.

 It aims to

• introduce concepts relating to the production, transmission and reception of musical sounds;
• provide an objective basis for the understanding of pitch, loudness and timbre of musical sounds and of musical scales and harmony;
• demonstrate the mechanical and acoustical principles involved in sound production in the various families of orchestral instruments and in the human voice;
• provide an opportunity to undertake some practical laboratory work.

• show an understanding of the acoustical principles relevant to musical practice;
• describe the physical principles involved in making music on one or more musical instruments;
• demonstrate a critical awareness of the factors which govern human perception and recognition of musical sounds and scales;
• demonstrate critical, objective thinking about sound and sound production from musical instruments to complement his/her practical experiences as a musician;
• assimilate and synthesise information that crosses the boundaries between music, physics and mathematics;
• apply reasoning and logic in order to analyse data and to evaluate relevant arguments and hypotheses;
• conduct a short experiment and be able to present and interpret their findings.

Teaching is centred on ten 50-minute lectures.  Students are provided with comprehensive notes prior to the lectures so that they can do preparatory reading.  In the lectures demonstrations, sound examples, computer programmes and diagrammatic material are used to emphasise underlying concepts and to relate acoustical theory to practical musicianship.  Each lecture is a ‘self-contained unit’ dealing with one specific topic or section of the conventional symphony orchestra. Students also complete a two-hour laboratory assignment in Week 9 of the module (undertaken in the School of Physics and Astronomy).  A comprehensive set of notes is made available at the first lecture. Lecture notes and copies of the lecture presentations are available on Learning Central.

Discipline-specific skills:

The ability to:

• reflect on and evaluate historic or current debates on the production, transmission and reception of sound;
• undertake simple analysis or synthesis of musical sounds;
• exploit quantitative relationships and information in graphical form to explain the acoustical function of musical instruments and describe our aural environment.

Generic skills:

The ability to:

• demonstrate an awareness of the multidisciplinary nature of music, specifically its links with mathematics, science and technology;
• demonstrate the ability to absorb concepts, to build upon them and to communicate the resultant synthesis;
• use and interpret graphical information and demonstrate basic numeracy and simple equation manipulation.

The potential for reassessment in this module

The examination can be retaken in the resit period subject to the approval of the Undergraduate Examination Board.

By lecture:

1.         The production, transmission and reception of sound

2.         Analysis and synthesis of musical sounds

3.         Harmonics, vibration and resonance

4.         Harmony and scales

5.         Stringed instruments: bowed, plucked and struck strings

6.         Wind Instruments: reeds and air-column interactions

7.         Wind instruments: air-column profiles – cones and flares

8.         Percussion instruments

9.         The singing voice

10.       Concert-hall acoustics

Backus, John, The Acoustical Foundations of Music (New York: Norton, 1969)

Benade, Arthur H., Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics (New York: Dover, 1990)

Campbell, Murray, and Clive Greated, The Musician's Guide to Acoustics (London: Dent, 1987)

Hutchins, C. M., The Physics of Music, Scientific American Library (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1978)

Meyer, Jürgen, Acoustics and the Performance of Music, trans. Uwe Hansen, 5th edn (New York: Springer, 2009)

Pierce, John R., The Science of Musical Sound (New York: Scientific American Library, 1983)

Roederer, J. G., Introduction to the Physics and Psychophysics of Music, 2nd edn (New York: Springer, 1975)

Rossing, Thomas D., The Science of Sound, 3rd edn (San Francisco: Addison Wesley, 2002)

Taylor, C. A., Sounds of Music (New York: Scribner, 1976)

———, Exploring Music: The Science and Technology of Tones and Tunes (Bristol, PA: Institute of Physics Publications, 1992)

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