Conventional wisdom used to treat science and the creative arts like feuding cousins; the more they were separated, the better. But College of Engineering students have a habit of rejecting dated paradigms like this one. Nearly 100 engineers across every CoE department participated with Westphal College of Media Arts & Design in 11 musical concerts this holiday season.
CoE students fill the ranks of the University Chorus and Jazztet; the Gospel Choir and the Pep Band; the All-College Choir and the Chamber Music/Strings ensemble, and others. They perform music ranging from the Chichester Psalms to “Hey Jude” to a Brahms piano piece that was completed in 1854 when the composer was no older than they are now. To these students, college isn’t just about engineering and it isn’t just about music; it’s about combining passions so the strengths of one field augments another.
“My observation has always been that engineering majors appreciate the sheer aesthetics and power of art, but also have an inherent awareness and curiosity for the science behind it,” said Luke Abruzzo, music program director and associate teaching professor of music at Westphal.
To prove the point, the three engineering students articulate below how their experiences as long-time musicians enhance their engineering work. Whether analyzing the structure of a Prokofiev film score or tackling the principles of combustion, they rock the idea that creativity and a technical mindset are better together.
Nicholas Tornetta
Senior; BS, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics (MEM)
It is safe to assume that Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant would appreciate the creativity that pairs a piano, trumpets, and a tuba for a new arrangement of the band’s rock anthem “Kashmir,” one of the pieces MEM undergrad Nicholas Tornetta played this season. In a nod to Plant’s distinctive voice, there were no vocalists: lyrics were spoken during the song’s performance with Drexel’s Mediterranean Ensemble.
Nicholas Tornetta
A guitarist and pianist, Tornetta has been playing with the Ensemble for just one term, although he already has four terms with the Rock Ensemble under his belt. That is nothing compared to all the years he’s been a musician. His father required all the siblings to learn piano at a young age, Tornetta said; later, they could choose to do with it what they wanted.
What he wanted was to combine a love of music with the pursuit of engineering. It was a natural for Tornetta, who sees proportions and ratios and tonal relations as phenomena the two fields have in common. For example, he explained that Bartók is reputed to have followed the Fibonacci number sequence when composing his “Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta” in the mid-1930s. The layering of instruments, he said, mimics the way integers build in the series, proving that Bartók’s approach was as technically inspired as it was creative.
For his own Vibrations Final Project for MEM423, Tornetta modeled a string instrument in MATLAB based on a Gibson ES-335 guitar, and applied different modes of vibration based on the input force of one plucked string.
“I think music makes me a little bit more creative in engineering,” Tornetta said. “A lot of times when I think of ideas, I try to prove them wrong. When I approach a piece of music, I think, where am I struggling, how can I do it differently? Then everything starts to come together and I put my own style to it. I feel like I apply that in my engineering studies, too.
“It’ just interesting how music, engineering, math, and architecture are pretty much the same,” he added. “They’re derived from similar topics and ideas – it’s a lot of patterns and numerical theories. Engineering takes super close attention to detail, but when you apply that to music, you can get stuck; you lose the overall feeling of the thing.
“Studying the two of them together,” Tornetta concluded, “creates balance.”
Mark Odorizzi
Senior, BS/MS, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (CAEE)
“Music seeps into every aspect of my life, molding the ways I think about problems, approach difficult tasks, and handle stressful situations.” That is not a recent quote. Odorizzi wrote it for a paper produced four years ago in a freshman writing class. That it remains as true now for the architectural and civil engineer is proof of Odorizzi’s commitment to both the analytical and the creative sides of his brain.
Mark Odorizzi rehearsing
Odorizzi has been a pianist since second grade. Today, he is an advanced performer. Classically trained, Odorizzi also enjoys the “freedom” of more contemporary pieces. Along with the Chamber Music/Strings ensemble here at Drexel, he plays piano each Sunday at the St. Agatha and St. James Parish in West Philadelphia because he enjoys volunteering his musical ability where it’s needed and because he likes working in a choir setting.
One of his most difficult musical challenges came when a friend majoring in biology who plays the cello handed him the sheet music for the “Brahms Piano Trio.” The challenge of the piece and the timeframe in which Odorizzi had to learn it provides a perfect example of how problem sets in music and engineering inform each other.
“The best skill set that carries over between being a musician and an engineer is the persistence in your work ethic, whether it’s one of my structural engineering problems that takes me eight hours to finish or working to prepare my senior design presentation,” said Odorizzi, who also serves as the president of the Drexel Chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society. “To gather my presentation I need to rehearse repeatedly with my design group, just as I would with any musical piece.
“The Brahms piece had the same initial shock as when I look at engineering problems that take me eight hours to do. The technicality can be just as tough for both of them. But there’s that mindset I learned in music of, okay, it’s going to take me awhile but I will achieve the end goal.”
Currently, Odorizzi is working on four pieces. He is also preparing to accompany a friend from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics (MEM) on a Saint-Saens violin concerto audition in January.
“People who have played instruments have a deeply instilled persistence and a drive that helps them tackle the really challenging engineering coursework,” Odorizzi said. “I have a million things on my mind at once. The piano keeps me grounded.”
Andrea Ruether
Freshman; BS, Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)
Ruether plays the Baritone saxophone, also called the bari sax. It is one of the largest members of the sax family. It’s a lower-pitch of the normal sax. It’s not very common. And it’s not necessarily an enjoyable instrument for most musicians.
Andrea Ruether
“That’s one of the things that drew me to it,” said Ruether, a musician since sixth grade. “It plays more of the undertones of songs, the support, which is something I love to do because I think that’s the backbone of music. I like just building the chords. When you’re listening to music, you’re not just hearing the melody. You’re hearing everything, and it creates such a tone and depth to the music.”
Ruether played the bari sax in a recent Concert Band performance of Eric Sessler’s classic piece, “Beyond the Earth,” which has just one movement. Ruether played continuously through it.
To Ruether, the parallels between music and engineering lie in patterns: teasing them out, picking through them to find out what’s important and what’s less worthy of her energy, putting them back together into a unified piece or project.
“I think one of the first things anyone does when approaching a problem is determining what the problem is. You have to run through it, whether it’s music or course work,” said Ruether, who just completed a term-long project on miniature cars powered by supercapacitors. “With the cars, you test them and look for problems; and with music, you also run through it and look for problems. You slowly come to a final result where you have created your own product.”
Time-management skills are honed through both music and engineering work, she said, as well as preparation. Ruether would be no more likely to show up to an engineering class unprepared than she would to Concert Band, which practices twice a week during term.
“They both teach you how to use your time well,” she said, “and even though it’s a lot, you still feel pride for what you’ve done.”