When: Wednesday 5th April, 2017 @ 5:10 PM

Where: Lecture Room A (A2.04), Alison House, University of Edinburgh

Seminar Title

Violin acoustics – An introduction and recent developments

Seminar Speaker

Prof Colin Gough (Professor Emeritus at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham)

Seminar Abstract

A brief introduction will first be given to the acoustics of the violin, including an overview of recent advances in measurements and understanding of the acoustical characteristic of many fine Italian instruments from the times of Stradivari and Guarneri . This will be followed by an overview of a model for the vibro-acoustic modes of the violin and related instruments, treating the violin as a shallow, thin-walled, guitar-shaped, box-like, shell structure, with arched orthotropic top and back plates supported around their edges by thin ribs. The modes of such a structure are computed using finite element software as a quasi-experimental tool, varying the physical properties of the component sub-structures over a much wide range than is physically possible by the violin maker. This elucidates their individual roles in determining the acoustic properties over the whole radiating frequency range up to 10 kHz.

Speaker Bio

Colin Gough is an Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Birmingham (UK), where he researched the quantum wave-mechanical, ultrasonic and microwave properties of both normal and high temperature superconductors. As a “weekend” professional violinist, Musical Acoustics has always been an added interest – publishing papers on various aspects of violin acoustics, teaching and supervising courses and projects for Physics students and more recently at the annual Oberlin Violin Acoustics Workshops. He contributed Chapters on Musical Acoustics and The Electric guitar and violin for Springer’s Handbook of Acoustics and The Science of String Instruments.