# Musical phyisicists



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Now here's something off the beaten track. I knew Einstein played the violin, but I never realized he was actually pretty good it:






Apparently physicists are good at music. Here's Feynman playing bongo drums:


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Yup. We've just been watching a Christmas University Challenge and one of the questions referred to Einstein playing violin with the astronomer Patrick Moore












> To digress for a few moments, I must add that during the same period I met Albert Einstein, who turned out to be precisely the sort of person I had expected; I could well have believed that he had come from another planet. He was utterly charming to everybody, though of course this was my sole encounter with him. We met at a small reception, and there was one amusing episode. As we all know, Einstein was a talented violinist, and on this occasion he had a violin with him - he had been playing in a private concert. Pressed to show his skill, he said that he needed an accompanist. There was a piano to hand - and so there was Einstein playing Saint-Saens' Swan to my accompaniment. Oh for tape a tape! But there were no tape recorders in those days, and whether there is any recording of Einstein as a violinist I do not know, if there is, I would like to obtain it.


"80 not out." Patrick Moore. 2003 Contender Books London

There is extant a private recording of Albert Einstein and Toscha Seidel playing the Bach Double Violin Concerto owned by the Seidel family. The recording was made when Einstein and Seidel were both teaching a Princeton University.

I do believe there are several physicists on TC.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I don't know how good physicists are at music in general, but in my experience a significantly higher percentage of physicists enjoy classical music than people I know in other fields (besides music, of course). 

That's a great sound track of Einstein. He actually played better than I expected.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Some of Einstein's opinions on music can be found here:

https://sites.google.com/site/kenocstuff/albert-einstein-on-music


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## Yardrax (Apr 29, 2013)

brianvds said:


> Now here's something off the beaten track. I knew Einstein played the violin, but I never realized he was actually pretty good it:


I hate to burst your bubble, but read the video description and see what happens when you put together the words that have been capitalised:

Happy April Fools The Violinist Carl Flesch


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I once heard a story, though it's probably not true, that during the war Einstein, Heifetz and others, all of the European émigrés were playing string quartet music together. Heifetz stops playing, turns to Einstein and says, "you would think that someone who came up with The Theory of Relativity could actually count to four!" 

BTW, I'm a high school Physics teacher who can scratch out a few tunes on the violin.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Einstein with another famous Jewish emigre....


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Taggart said:


> Yup. We've just been watching a Christmas University Challenge and one of the questions referred to Einstein playing violin with the astronomer Patrick Moore.


The late Patrick Moore was quite a virtuoso on the xylophone himself.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

brianvds said:


> Apparently physicists are good at music. Here's Feynman playing bongo drums:


After being given an introduction to one of his physics lectures which mentioned that he played the bongos, Feynman observed that "On the infrequent occasions when I have been called upon in a formal place to play the bongo drums, the introducer never seems to find it necessary to mention that I also do theoretical physics."


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Mahlerian said:


> Einstein with another famous Jewish emigre....


Who's the guy on the left?


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Galileo was a well known virtuoso of the _viola da gamba_ in his youth.

It's a well-documented historical fact that I certainly didn't make up just now!


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

senza sordino said:


> Who's the guy on the left?


Leopold Godowsky, he of the infamously difficult versions of Chopin's etudes.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Planck was a cellist and Heisenberg played the piano. Unfortunately, there's uncertainty regarding the musical talent of the latter. D)


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

ahammel said:


> Galileo was a well known virtuoso of the _viola da gamba_ in his youth.
> 
> It's a well-documented historical fact that I certainly didn't make up just now!


Galileo's father was a renowned lutenist and composer I think.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Yardrax said:


> I hate to burst your bubble, but read the video description and see what happens when you put together the words that have been capitalised:
> 
> Happy April Fools The Violinist Carl Flesch


Hahaha, well caught me out there! Now I'm all paranoid about all the other pictures in this thread of Einstein with other celebrities: they have all been Photoshopped, I tell you!



Art Rock said:


> The late Patrick Moore was quite a virtuoso on the xylophone himself.


He also composed several operas, if I remember correctly. I don't know how good those are or whether they have ever been performed.



ahammel said:


> Galileo was a well known virtuoso of the _viola da gamba_ in his youth.


It was my understanding that he played lute, which he learned from his musician father.



aleazk said:


> Planck was a cellist and Heisenberg played the piano. Unfortunately, there's uncertainty regarding the musical talent of the latter. D)


Apparently Einstein disliked aleatory music, because he maintained that musicians shouldn't play dice with the piano.


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## echmain (Jan 18, 2013)

aleazk said:


> Planck was a cellist and Heisenberg played the piano. Unfortunately, there's uncertainty regarding the musical talent of the latter. D)


Depending on whether you were listening, he was playing and not playing the piano at the same time.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

echmain said:


> Depending on whether you were listening, he was playing and not playing the piano at the same time.


You're thinking of Schrödinger. Heisenberg knew either where he was in the score or how fast he was playing, but not both.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Just think: if Einstein had concentrated more on music, eschewing physics, then America might have instead dropped a grand piano on Hiroshima.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

ahammel said:


> You're thinking of Schrödinger. Heisenberg knew either where he was in the score or how fast he was playing, but not both.


When there's only gut strings in the box, you kind of know how Schrodinger's cat is doing.


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