Playing with your food: a cartload of fresh veggies, plus a group of musicians, equals savory music.

For anyone with a stale music collection, the First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra can freshen things up. This group of musicians plays instruments fashioned entirely from fresh vegetables, with a few kitchen gadgets like spoons and mixers thrown in. They use parsnip-flutes and leek-violins to create a funky mix of electronic and classical music. And, of course, all their songs have a good "beet."

(1)

Who needs a traditional drum when you can pound on a pumpkin instead? "Like all musical instruments, vegetables can create sound by getting the air vibrating," says Bryan H. Suits, a physicist at Michigan Technological University.

When a musician from the orchestra strikes a leek against a pumpkin, air molecules inside the pumpkin and surrounding it vibrate. These vibrations travel in all directions. "At any given time, there may be several complete vibrational cycles in the air on the way to your ears. These traveling vibrations are sound waves," says Suits. When sets of sound waves combine to produce pleasing tones and rhythms, the result is music.

(2)

During live concerts, audience members watch the musicians substitute typical woodwind instruments, such as a clarinet, with a cucumber-and-pepper- recorder or carrot-horn. The player changes the veggie instrument's pitch (how high or low a note sounds) by covering carved-out holes.

(3)

The musicians say that only fresh veggies are worth playing. So they carve out new instruments for each jam session. "As vegetables age, they become limp," says Suits. "Soft materials tend to absorb sound, which you wouldn't want for a musical instrument."

What to do with an overripe horn? After concerts, a chef cooks the instruments into soup so the audience can get a taste of the music.

WEB EXTRA

To listen online, visit: www.gemuese orchester.org/ anfang_e.htm

PHYSICAL: Sound Waves

Playing With Your Food

DID YOU KNOW?

* The First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra was formed in 1998. There is no group leader; it's a collaborative project. The group has released two CDs to date.

* According to the First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, approximately 70 percent of its sound quality depends on the freshness of the vegetables used to make the group's instruments.

* Another unique orchestra: Elephants at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center play jumbo versions of traditional Thai instruments. The four-legged animals have even released a CD.

CRITICAL THINKING:

* What vegetables might make poor instruments? Explain your reasoning.

CROSS-CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS:

MUSIC: Have each student create his or her own vegetable instrument. Then as a class, listen to the pitch of each instrument and try to group ones with a similar range together. These groups represent separate sections of a vegetable orchestra. Have the orchestra play a familiar tune or create an original piece of music.

RESOURCES

* For an informative and teen-friendly Web site on the science of music, visit: www.exploratorium.edu/music/

* For a great variety of classroom activities related to music, visit this teacher's Web site from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra: www.dsokids.com/2001/activityselectsubject.asp

DIRECTIONS: On a separate piece of paper, use details from the article to help you write the following essays.

1. You're a music teacher. Explain to your students what music is. Be sure to talk about sound waves.

2. You're a member of the First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. Explain to audience members what qualities you look for in vegetables when creating your instruments. Remember to talk about sound quality.

ANSWERS

1. Sound results when an object gets the air vibrating. For example, when strike a leek against a pumpkin, the action causes air molecules inside the pumpkin and surrounding it to vibrate. These vibrations then travel in all directions. At any given time there may be several complete vibrational cycles in the air on the way to your ears. These traveling vibrations are sound waves. When sets of sound waves combine to produce pleasing tones and rhythms, the result is music.

2. Only fresh vegetables are worth turning into instruments. That's because as vegetables age, they become limp. Soft materials tend to absorb sound, which isn't a good quality for a musical instrument. That's why the orchestra has to make new instruments each time they play.

HANDS-ON ACTIVITY

Name: --

SOUND OFF!

In "Playing With Your Food" (p. 12), you learned about how vibrations travel in all directions to produce sound waves. Below are instructions on how to build two simple instruments. Construct them and learn how the shape and texture of certain instrument parts affect vibrations--and the sound's pitch.

Before You Start, Keep This In Mind: The number of Vibrations per second, or frequency, affects an instrument's pitch. The higher the frequency (the faster the vibrations), the higher the pitch the instrument makes.

PART A: BUILD A STRAW PANPIPE 

YOU NEED:

3 plastic drinking straws cut into pieces with the following lengths: 15 cm (6 in.), 13 cm (5 in.), 10 cm (4 in.), 8 cm (3 in.), 5 cm (2 in.) * ruler * 1 piece of clear tape (18 cm or 7 in.) * cardboard (13 cm x 2 cm or 5 in. x 1 in.)

TO DO:

1. Lay the straws on a table. Then, arrange from left to right in order from the longest to the shortest straw.

2. Align the straws so that they are even on one end. Then, space them 1 cm (0.5 in.) apart.

3. Place a 18 cm (7 in.) piece of clear tape across the straws, 2 cm (1 in.) from the even end of the straws.

4. Slip the cardboard underneath the straws and position it directly under the piece of tape. Then, press the parts of the tape between the straws onto the cardboard. When you finish, the straws should be secured onto the cardboard by the tape.

5. Hold the even end of the "panpipe" near your mouth. Then, blow air through each straw.

6. Listen to the pitch made by each straw.

CONCLUSIONS:

1. Which straw produced the highest pitch? Which straw produced the lowest pitch?

2. Through which straw did vibrations experience the highest frequency?

PART B: CONSTRUCT A RUBBER-BAND GUITAR

YOU NEED:

1 small, plastic drinking cup * 1 variety pack of rubber bands

TO DO:

1. Select 3 rubber bands of different thickness.

2. Stretch one rubber band and put the cup lengthwise through the band's opening. Center the band across the cup's opening. Repeat with the other two rubber bands.

3. Space the bands 1 cm (0.5 in.) apart, when you finish, there should be three rubber bands stretching across the cup's opening. They are your "guitar strings." Use your fingers to pluck each string.

4. Listen to the pitch produced by each rubber band.

5. Pull on one rubber band to make it more taut. Pluck the band and listen to the pitch.

CONCLUSIONS:

1. How did the thickness or the tautness of the rubber band affect its pitch?

2. How did the tautness of the rubber band affect the frequency of its vibrations?

DON'T STOP NOW:

Experiment with different lengths of straws or various sizes of rubber bands to perfect your instruments.

ANSWERS

Part A

1. The 15 cm (6 in.) straw should have produced the lowest pitch. The 5 cm (2 in.) straw should have produced the highest pitch.

2. Vibrations experienced the highest frequency through the 5 cm (2 in.) straw.

Part B

1. The thicker the rubber band, the lower the pitch it produced.

2. The more taut he band, the higher the frequency of its vibrations.