Music lab wins prize and praise

15 October 2003

UNSW physicist Associate Professor Joe Wolfe has been recognised with an award by the Acoustical Society of America for a website article on clarinet acoustics.

It is the first time the ASA has recognised a web-based multimedia publication for its annual Science Writing Award aimed at musicians and acoustics professionals.

Professor Wolfe said the Internet was an important way to make research available to as wide an audience as possible.

"We don't simply publish our results about instruments in scientific journals," he said.

"We also write simple, user-friendly accounts of our work and put them on the web in the sort of detail that musicians want."

Tucked away in the basement of the university's Physics School, the Acoustics Department - or 'music lab' as it's informally known - has over the past seven years published a wealth of research on the acoustics of musical instruments and musicians.

"While much is now known about the unique acoustics of woodwind instruments such as the flute, the clarinet and the didgeridoo, our understandings of what musicians bring to the sound of music is less clear," Professor Wolfe said.

With Claudia Fritz and collaborator Dr John Smith, Wolfe has worked with several of Australia's eminent woodwind players to discover more precisely what they do with their mouth and vocal tract to produce music.

They include Lawrence Dobell, Principal Clarinet with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Catherine McCorkill, Principal Clarinettist with the Australian Australia Ensemble.

"We've measured several great classical clarinettists but we're turning now to jazz players because they make a wider different range of tonal colours - more varied tones than classical players," Professor Wolfe said.

"That's interesting because if we can learn precisely how they produce those sounds, we might make it easier for musicians to learn important techniques of musicianship."

The latest to collaborate with the UNSW music lab is Australia's jazz great, Don Burrows.

"I'm happy to work with Joe and the music lab because I know the research will ultimately benefit musicians," the 75-year-old jazz veteran said.

"It's difficult often to explain to students exactly what happens with the soft palate, the tongue and the vocal chords because they're internal.

"But I think it's vital to pass on these techniques of music-making, so I'm happy to collaborate," Burrows said.

The website of the UNSW Acoustics Department attracts more than 20,000 unique visitors per month, suggesting that musicians rate the website highly.

It has been recommended by the National Science Teachers Association (USA), and the journals Science and New Scientist.

Useful links:

Music acoustics at UNSW

UNSW's award winning article: An Introduction to Clarinet Acoustics

Don Burrows

Catherine McCorkill

Lawrence Dobell