The Figures

This short film, created by David Megarrity and Luke Monsour, experimented within a short timeframe with the challenge of superimposition of hand-drawn backgrounds, non-verbal action, and a short, sharp shoot. The aim was also to find a single piece of standalone music that would act as an unedited soundtrack It won Best Queensland Film at the Woodford Film Festival in 2005, and was screened at Base-Court, Lausanne Switzerland in 2006, and the Westgarth Film Festival 2005. It was acquired by comedy website minimovie in 2007.

Defining synthesizer teaching

The synthesizer has come a long way since wendy Carlos' 'Switched On Bach'. Unfortunately many would not realise it. Synthesizers are in most of the popular and commercial music we hear, and their development has followed the rapid development of computing technology, allowing sugnificant perfromance leaps every five years. In the last 10 years or so, the physical interface of synthesizers has changed little even while the sound generating hardware has raced ahead. The stabilisation of gestural controller, particularly keyboard-based controllers, has enabled tje synthesizer to establish itself as an expressive instrument and one worthy of the hours of practice required on any instrument to reach a high level of proficiency. It is now time for the instrumental study of synthesizer to be taken seriously by music educators across Australia, and I hope, through this paper, to shed some light on the path forward.

Using computers in the music classroom

Computers are now being widely used in the making of music and the extent of computer use in the music that we hear is farlarger than most people realise. This paper will discuss how computer technology is used in music, with particular reference to music education.

Thermal stability of the soil minerals destinezite and diadochite Fe3+2(PO4)(SO4)(OH)·6H2O - implications for soils in bush fires

Thermogravimetry combined with evolved gas mass spectrometry has been used to ascertain the stability of the soil minerals destinezite and diadochite. These two minerals are identical except for their morphology. Diadochite is amorphous whereas destinezite is crystalline. Both minerals are found in soils. It is important to understand the stability of these minerals because soils are subject to bush fires especially in Australia. The thermal analysis patterns of the two minerals are similar but not identical. Subtle differences are observed in the DTG patterns. For destinezite, two DTG peaks are observed at 129 and 182°C attributed to the loss of hydration water, whereas only a broad peak with maximum at 84°C is observed for diadochite. Higher temperature mass losses at 685°C for destinezite and 655°C for diadochite, based upon the ion current curves, are due to sulphate decomposition. This research has shown that at low temperatures the minerals are stable but at high temperatures, as might be experienced in a bush fire, the minerals decompose.

The application of Raman spectroscopy to the study of the uranyl mineral coconinoite Fe2Al2(UO2)2(PO4)4(SO4)(OH)2•20H2O

Raman spectra of the uranyl containing mineral coconinoite, Fe2Al2(UO2)2(PO4)4(SO4)(OH)2•20H2O, are presented and compared with the mineral’s infrared spectra. Bands connected with (UO2)2+, (PO4)3- , (SO4)2-, (OH)- and H2O stretching and bending vibrations, are assigned. Approximate U-O bond lengths in uranyl, (UO2)2+, and O-H...O hydrogen bond lengths are calculated from the wavenumbers of the U-O stretching vibrations and (OH)- and H2O stretching vibrations, respectively, and compared with published data for similar natural and synthetic compounds.

Raman spectroscopic study of the minerals diadochite and destinezite Fe3+2(PO4,SO4)2(OH)•6H2O – implications for soil science

The two minerals diadochite and destinezite of formula Fe2(PO4,SO4)2(OH)•6H2O have been characterised by Raman spectroscopy and complimented with infrared spectroscopy. These two minerals are both found in soils and are identical except for their morphology. Diadochite is amorphous whereas destinezite is highly crystalline. The spectra of diadochite are broad and ill-defined, whereas the spectra of destinezite are intense and well defined. Bands are assigned to phosphate and sulphate stretching and bending modes. Two symmetric stretching modes for both the phosphate and sulphate symmetric stretching modes support the concept of non-equivalent phosphate and sulphate units in the mineral structure. Multiple water bending and stretching modes imply that non-equivalent water molecules in the structure exist with different hydrogen bond strengths.