When is a structure a musical instrument? Adventures in tuned percussion. A pre-concert lecture by Professor Jim Woodhouse

Many things make a noise when you hit them, but not many are commonly used to play music — why is that? This talk will explore the science underlying tuned percussion instruments, and the ingenious ways in which different cultures have created them, ranging from the marimba through timpani and Indian drums to Caribbean steel pans. The maker of such an instrument must manipulate the vibration resonance frequencies so that some of them fall into harmonic (i.e. whole-number) relationships.