The record-union., 1897-06-24
OF MUSICAL ODDITIES.
What Science Has Discovered In Sound
Vibrations.
Prof. Van Der Weyde's Theory as to
the Keys i'm Which War and Pas
toral Music is Written.

| by the Woman'S Department OF the
National Music Teachers Association,
of which Mrs. Theodore Sutro is Pres
ident, has brought out many odd and
| interesting facts concerning music, mu-
sicians and musical instruments. There
is great field here which has scarcely
been more than glanced over by writ
ers and lecturers. and which, if it were
collected. would make volume of ex-
traordinary interest, and it might be OF
great value.
Professor Van der Weyde of this city,
devoted considera BILE time to the sub
/ ject some years ago, and delivered a
course of lectures before the American
Institute and the Brooklyn Philosophi-
cal Club.
In these he called attention to the
! fact that the vibrations of the normal
| Co, (E) and Co bore the same relation
/ to one another as those in the colors
| (red), (yellow) and (blue); for this rea-
son, he said, most war songs were writ
! ten in (C), because they were red mus
ic; songs of the ocean and the sky were
written in (G), because they were blue
music; few pieces of composition
which described green forests and green
meadows were written, as might be ex-
pected, in CD, the gEsen key, which
was combination or Ouniting link be-
tween the yellow and blue.
The Professor constructed xylophones
from broomsticks by saving off the
ends He sharpened the note given by
! the stick when struck by hammer,
and by planning and sandpapering the
| ciH ho do 6aanar
In one lecture he produced very de-
! lightful instrument, which was made
up of sixteen brooms, suspended from a
frame, on which he played many lively
airs with a couple of wooden mallets.
At home the Professor planed a num-
ber of banisters on his stairs, SO that
the children could play tunes and run
the scales on rainy days when they
We're kept in the house.
Professor Dyer of Providence, r. l..
performed a trick in parlor magic
which baff1ed everybody. He connect
ed the sounding board of his piano by
bars of dry wood with the sounding
board of another piano in house some
distance away from his own. The bars
ran from the sounding board through
the floor into the cellar and from the
cellar through a tube of some sort to
protect them from moisture under
ground into the cellar of the second
house and thence up through the floor
to the second piano.
When a professional sat down in the
latter place and performed upon the
piano .the notes were carried by the
bars from one sounding board to the
other and from the second sounding
board by the law of sympathetic or in
ductive action to the wires of the Sec
ond piano. He called it spiritual music
and so sweet and delicate was the ef-
feet that it we'll deserved the title.
1t has been found since by the
makers of mechanical telephones that
the same effect can be produced much
better by employing a very stiff, dry
and elastic wooden diaphragm, to the
center of which is fastened a large cop
per wire connected in similar style to a
second diaphragm placed near the
piano that is being played.
This was employed by a telephone
concern which gave exhibitions some
years ago in this city. The simple ap-
paratus described would carry music
even better than the ordinary phone
over distances not exceeding a half
mile.
| The German acousticians long ago
discovered musical curves. These are
produced by putting fine sand upon
parchment, wood or metallic diaphra gm
and connecting them with a musical
instrument giving one note It was
found that when the note was given the
diaphragm vibrated and the sand or
other powder collected in certain
curves or straight lines The patterns
were always regular and always beau
tiful. Some were very simple and some
extremely complicated, and every note
and harmony was found to produce its
own particular pattern or figure.
| Many Of these We're published and Gre
ated considerable discussion among
scientists at the time. The first one to
do any considerable work in the matter
was Professor Charlotte Hawes, Chair
/ man of one of Mrs. Sutro's commit
| tees. She was very much fascinated by
| the figures, and gave them very care
| full and comprehensive examination. She
| found that the curves We're more COM
plicated than had been supposed at first
and depended first upon the musical note
or harmony; second upon the shape OF
| the Diaphragm: third upon the thick
ness and material; fourth upon the way
in which it was held, and fifth upon the
temperature.
| She established the general rule
underlying the formation of all these
! figures. and showed that nearly all the
discrepancies which had been noticed
| IN, b,
| imperfections in the apparatus or the
thermometric influences.
/ Most ingenious of all, she demon
strated that where precautions were
I taken perfect notes expressed them
selves in exquisiteiy beautiful patterns,
and that these patterns could be ar
ranged so as to form sequences the same
as the notes could be made into melo-
dies, and odder still, the figures could be
combined into symmetrical and artistic
wholes only when the notes themselves
| could be combined into perfectly har-
monte chords
| Professor Rood of Columbia College is
one of the great masters in this delight
/ full field of science. a field so pleasant
| that it has often been called a play
ground.
Some Of his experiments have been of
remarkable interest. The singing flames
| produced by burning gas in a certain
way in the chimney of chandelier, he
utilized to form a musical instrument.
BY careful experiment he finally OBJ
tanned a set of flames representing pure
musical notes. BY burning in normal
way they made no noise whatever, but
| by a slight change in the position of the