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Science of Music

 

This page has information about the science of music related to the display on the Science and Engineering Library's Third Floor. Below you will find information about the items on display and also links to web pages for further reading.

science of music recordingsscience of music books

Books from the display

The following are books in the display and can be checked out. Click on the link to go to the catalog for more information about the book. The list also contains books labeled with (ebook) which are available electronically. Most of these require the Off-campus Sign-in before using.

 

Musical Media: From Wax Cylinders to CDs - Objects on which Music Has Been Recorded


Below you will find images of items in the display case and information about them. These are items on which music has been stored over the years.

Item Image Description More Information
Phonograph Cylinder phonographic cylinder
Year Invented: 1877
Materials: Tinfoil, wax, celluloid
Important Names: Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell
Cylinder Recordings: A Primer
78 rpm Records 78 RPM record
Year Invented: 1898
Materials: shellac, vinyl
The history of 78 RPM recordings
LP (33 1/3 rpm) LP

 

Year Invented: 1948
Material: polyvinyl chloride
Important Names: Columbia Records
Other: 33 1/3 rpm
Vinyl Records: LPs and 45s
Reel to Reel Tape reel-to-reel
Year Invented: 1948
Material: magnetic tape (cellulose acetate, iron oxide)
Important Names: Poulsen, Pfleumer, Allgemeine Elektrizitatsgesellschaft, BASF
The History of Magnetic Recording
8 Track Cassette 8 track
Year Invented: 1965
Material: magnetic tape in a plastic cartridge
Important Names: Bill Lear
Other: Also known as Stereo 8
The History of the 8-track Tape
Audio Cassette audio cassette
Year Invented: 1961
Material: magnetic tape in a plastic cartridge
Important Names: Philips
Also known as: compact cassette
From Poulsen to Plastic: A Survey of Recordable Magnetic Media
Compact Disc CD
Year Invented: 1980
Material: polycarbonate plastic, metal (usually aluminum, sometimes gold)
Important Names: Philips, Sony
Also known as: CD
Molecular Expressions: History of the Compact Disc

Bonus: Electronic Access Music

The following resources require you to click on the Off-campus Sign-in link.

  • NAXOS Music Library
    • The most comprehensive collection of classical music available online. It includes the complete Naxos, Marco Polo and Dacapo catalogues of over 85,000 tracks, including Classical music, Jazz, World, Folk and Chinese music. We have 10 simultaneous users capacity.
    • Example: BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 (Furtwangler) (1943)
  • NAXOS Music Library Jazz
    • NAXOS Music Library Jazz contains over 23,000 tracks from Fantasy Records of jazz and rhythm and blues. Over 1800 albums and over 500 artists are represented in the database. 10 concurrent users

 

Recommended web pages for further viewing:


This page last modified: December 15, 2009