Music Technology

Music Technology — page 1 — Spreading News Before music players were invented songs were played by wandering musicians called minstrels They traveled around the country performing the latest songs and reciting poetry As well as providing entertainment minstrels also spread important news as they moved from town to town Introduction Sound is the main way people communicate We use our voice to explain ideas and songs are probably the oldest form of entertainment Sounds are waves or vibrations in the air Our ears pick up the vibrations and send signals to the brain which we hear as sound Until the 1800s every sound was unique once it was made it could never be heard again Recording technology changed all that Amphitheater In ancient times the best place to hear music was in amphitheaters These were built on the side of a curved hill The audience sat in a semicircle sometimes a full circle around the stage Sound bounced around the amphitheater so that all could hear it clearly 4

Music Technology — page 2 — Playing Loud The alpine horn is used in the mountainous regions of Switzerland The large size makes the horn very loud so it can be heard across the mountains A similar shape of horn was used in early music players to make sounds louder A DIFFERENT VIEW AN UNDERWATER CONCERT In 1855 the tsar of Russia Alexander II held a party around Kronstadt harbor and an unusual music system was designed to fill the area with sound A trio of musicians was lowered into the water inside a submarine Sound travels very well through water so when the band played its music was heard rising up out of the water 5

Music Technology — page 3 — Phonograph The ﬁ rst sound recorder was invented in 1877 It worked by converting the vibrations of a sound wave in air into a solid form Playing the solid recording would recreate the original sound An American inventor Thomas Edison invented a machine called the phonograph The name means voice writer It was designed to record speech but worked with music too Phonograph To record on this device you spoke into the horn while winding a cylinder The sound wave made a needle vibrate while it cut a groove into a sheet of tinfoil on the cylinder Running the needle back through the same groove made it vibrate the air which came out of the horn as sound THE HORN was used to capture the voice for recording and for playing back the sound A VIBRATING PLATE was attached to the needle which scratched a groove on the cylinder TIMELINE 1857 Phonautograph Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invents a device for turning sound vibrations into a wavy pattern on glass right The sound could not be played back 6 1880s Wax Cylinders The original foil cylinders used in the phonograph are replaced by ones made from soft wax right

Music Technology — page 4 — POWER PEOPLE THOMAS EDISON Thomas Edison was also involved in creating many other types of modern technology They include the film camera the light bulb and microphones He was also one of the first people to build power plants and set up an electrical power network A SHEET OF TINFOIL covered the cylinder Later versions use wax instead of foil THE CYLINDER or mandrel was turned during recording and to play back the sound A HANDLE was used to turn the cylinder during recording and playback 1895 Shellac Discs Wax cylinders were very fragile Shellac a plasticlike resin made by insects was used to make more permanent records 7

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