“Music is the pleasure the human soul experiences
from counting without being aware that it is counting.”
– Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
August, 2024 to May, 2025 – The Sigal Music Museum’s new special exhibition, A Measure of Music: S.T.E.A.M. and the Musical Mind, highlights the intersections of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and music. A Measure of Music uses a wide range of historical instruments, interactive displays, and visual representations to illustrate numerous thought-provoking concepts underlying the musical arts.
For this exhibition, the second floor of the museum is transformed into an exploration zone where an array of music-related principles will be demonstrated. Visitors will leave the museum with an assortment of new musical experiences that will provide a greater appreciation and understanding of the world of sound.
“An interest in music can profoundly stimulate an interest in science, physics, and mathematics by revealing the connections between these fields.”, said Exhibit Manager Madeleine Wiggs.
“Engaging with music naturally inspires curiosity about the underpinnings of sound, and this leads to a richer, multifaceted understanding that blends artistic creativity with scientific and mathematical exploration.”
Sure to engage the budding mechanical engineers in your family, exhibits include an “exploded” piano, comprised of the isolated pieces of a piano mechanism suspended in space. This gives visitors an easily understandable visualization of the inner workings of the instrument. Visitors will also get to play that legendary instrument of early science-fiction films – the theremin – which provides a fun way to learn about and interact with concepts such as frequency (pitch) and amplitude (volume).
Sigal Music Museum’s instrument digitization program is also featured in the exhibition, including a keyboard station where visitors can play (via digital sample libraries) a selection of historic pianos and harpsichords from the museum’s collection that have been digitally captured.
Vibration (and its absence) is the foundation of all music – Sound is, at its core, mechanical vibrations that travel through a gas (air), liquids, or solids. A vibrating object creates a back-and-forth movement, moving more slowly for low frequencies and far more rapidly for the highest frequencies. For example, when a musician strums guitar strings, the strings vibrate, which then causes the wood top to vibrate, moving a considerably higher volume of air than the strings alone and allowing us to hear the vibration clearly. What we hear with our ears is our brain interpreting those vibrations. Every object that creates a vibration also creates sympathetic vibrations (harmonics), unique to how that sound is produced. So, when we cause an object to vibrate, it makes a specific sound that someone can recognize and identify. For this reason, a flute sounds very different than a trumpet, a piano, or an oboe, even when they are all playing the same note.
Aerophones are instruments in which a vibrating body of air produces the sound, without the use of strings, membranes, or the vibration of the instrument itself adding considerably to the sound. Aerophones are further classified by whether or not the vibrating body of air is contained within the instrument. Those that do not are called free aerophones and include free reed instruments, such as the harmonica, as well as sirens and clappers. Aerophones that contain the vibrating air when played include almost all in the wind instrument category, such as the didgeridoo, brass instruments, and woodwinds.
Most aerophones have a tubular or vessel-shaped body with vibrating air enclosed during play. The pitch produced depends on the mass of the free reed (harmonica, etc.) or the length of the tube containing the vibrating air column. The tube’s length determines the length of the sound waves and, consequently, the number of waves (frequencies) produced in a second. The pitch is altered by shortening or lengthening how far the air can vibrate in the tube before being released, which is done by covering or uncovering the keys, fingerholes, or valves found on most aerophones.
Idiophones are instruments made of naturally sonorous material played in various ways and classified according to how they produce sound. Including being stamped, shaken, and struck (as in percussion), sounding methods used for this classification cause the object itself to vibrate.
Shaken idiophones include rattles, while percussion idiophones include xylophones. Those that function by rubbing are friction idiophones, which include musical saws as an example. Scraped idiophones have a notched or ridged surface that is run over with a stick, such as bone scrapers and the washboard. Plucked idiophones, such as kalimbas or thumb pianos, are types of lamellophones and bridge the gap between true idiophones and chordophones.
Percussion idiophones include gongs and xylophones, while rattles are an example of shaken idiophone. Friction idiophones function by rubbing, with the musical saw as an example. Scraped idiophones have a notched or ridged surface that is run over with a stick, such as the washboard or bone scrapers. Plucked idiophones, such as kalimbas or thumb pianos, are types of lamellophones, which bridge the gap between idiophones and chordophones.
Membranophones are instruments in which sound is made by the vibration of a stretched membrane or skin. Drums largely make up this classification and are further divided into classifications based on categories such as shape. Cylindrical drums are straight-sided, conical drums have sloping sides, while Barrel drums bulge out on the sides.
There are many different ways to lace or attach a drum skin and adjust the tension and, subsequently, the tuning. Drums may be single-headed with only one skin or double-headed with a skin at each end. Double-headed drums may be played on one or both heads. Timpani are a form of drum designed to play specific musical notes, adjustable to various other notes while the player performs on them. The drum skin may be made to vibrate by beating with hands, sticks, or wire brushes, depending on the type and style of playing.
Chordophone instruments produce sound through the vibration of strings and include such diverse instruments as the guitar, violin, piano, sitar, and harp. The five basic types are simple bows, lyres, harps (including pianos and harpsichords), lutes (including the violin family), and zithers.
The relationship between the strings and the resonating body provides the typical classifications of chordophones.
A variety of methods are used for playing chordophones, such as plucking, bowing, and hammering.
An electrophone is an electronic musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic, or digital audio signal, plugged into a power amplifier that drives headphones, a loudspeaker, or other medium, such as light, creating the sound or visual impression experienced by the performer and listener.
An electronic instrument might include a user interface for controlling its sound, often by adjusting the pitch, frequency, or duration of a note. A common user interface is a musical keyboard, which functions similarly to the keyboard on an acoustic piano. On an acoustic piano, the keys are each linked mechanically to swinging string hammers; however, on an electronic keyboard, the keyboard interface connects to a synth module, computer, or other electronic or digital sound generator, which then creates a sound.
Certain electronic instruments are actually hybrids of other classifications, such as the electric guitar – a chordophone/electrophone using strings, a sensor, and an electronic amplifier. Electronic hybrids with aerophones, ideophones, and membranophones are also common. However, pure electrophones are now commonly used worldwide, imitating the sounds of all the physically produced musical expressions.
Sigal Living Presence offers a dynamic soundscape that brings to life the works of prominent composers on the types of keyboards for which their pieces were composed. These extraordinary instruments narrate important legacies of music history, invention, performance, and craftsmanship. As you explore this exhibit, note how these instruments provide the tools to resurrect the past, becoming the catalysts that grant history a living presence.
Listen to this instrument being played!
