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Last month, on the same stage where the Concert of Electronic Music will be performed on Wednesday, Professors Peter Hulen and Martin Madsen teamed up for a demonstration that was nothing short of electric.

Hulen played his composition 'Buzz Feed' on a singing Tesla coil—a solid state Tesla coil modified to produced musical tones by modulating its spark output.

The Tesla coil was loaned by the Wabash Society of Physics Students and set up by physics Professor Martin Madsen and physics Technician Matt Roark.

The Tesla coil in Salter Hall.

Luke Walker ’17, the College's first electronic music minor, showed up for his lesson and learned something completely different than what he expected.

Professor Madsen sets up the 'cage' that surrounds the coil.

Matt Roark helps set up the cage.

Due to a shift in the coil's base, it took a while to get it all working. Here Madsen tightens the top or 'toroid' of the coil.

Madsen finds out the coil isn't working.

The complete set-up, with computer to be played by Hulen (left), the coil in its cage, and Madsen working on the electronics that regulate the coil.

A music-physics collaboration in troubleshooting!

The plastic crumhorn Hulen plays on 'Buzz Feed—for Electronic Fixed Media, Digitally Processed Crumhorn, and Tesla Coil.'

'It was like composing for a harpist,' Hulen said. 'I treated the tesla coil just like any other instrument with its own possibilities and limitations to be considered when composing for it and when integrating it with other parts, including collaborating with an expert who knows the instrument in ways that go far beyond what my composer's perspective provides.'

Madsen 'tunes' the coil. 'I was mostly working on adjusting the power output of the coil,' he says. 'If we ran too much current through the solid state electronics, we could damage them. So I monitored the current and made adjustments to keep the tesla coil happy '

'Because this was the first time we've played that piece on the coil, there were a couple of adjustments that needed to be made,' Madsen says. 'First, the higher notes draw more power, so when Peter had the coil play a fast burst of high notes, that was a problem. So he was ok cutting off one octave off the top of his score to keep the power down. From there it was mostly working on providing the right level of power to get enough sound out of the coil to balance the speakers.'

Hulen plays the coil.

'There's no way anyone could do something like this without all the work and expertise that Martin and Matthew bring to it, or the support of the whole Physics Department, since they are onboard with using the Tesla coil in this way.'

'It feels like a lot of fun to me because it is so novel, and I think they feel that way, too, so it's something fun and kind of funny we can share.'

'But, it's also a lot of work: I set up and tore down all that audio equipment, and they hauled the tesla coil over, set it up, and did all the troubleshooting. I hope it was worth it for them, too.'