How do you find the vibration frequency of a molecule like melanin?

[Dakai]

Molecular Vibration...

I'm not sure if this is a Chemistry question or a Physics question. Please take time to correct me if I have posted in the wrong area.

How do you find the frequency which a certain molecule vibrates?

Like Melanin, or Serotonin, or Insulin.

My brother and I are musicians and have long wanted to make the idea of healing with music a reality. The idea is if you can play with the harmonic resonance of a molecule then you can control it with music.

Anybody think they can point me in the right direction?

 

[hilbert2]

A molecule composed of many atoms always has several vibrational normal modes that have different frequencies. The normal mode frequencies can be calculated if one knows the geometry of the molecule and the bond strengths (measure of how difficult it is to stretch a chemical bond).

The vibrational frequencies of molecules are many orders of magnitude larger than acoustic frequencies, so there's no point in trying to use sound waves to control molecular vibration. If you want to excite a vibrational mode, you have to expose the molecule to infrared radiation of correct wavelength.

 

[Dakai]

I appreciate your reply.

I am aware that the vibration of molecules is beyond natural hearing, and direct control is not possible through limitations of acoustic instruments. I do believe that those frequencies can be transposed to be understood.

I just need a way get the frequencies so I can. So is there a way to calculate the vibrational frequencies with pen and paper or is this an issue for the laboratory?

 

[DrDu]

I remember a very nice CD "Die Welt ist Klang" (The world is sound) by Joachim-Ernst Berendt where the sounds of all kinds of natural phenomena where played, among them the drumming of pulsars and there was also a section about the harmonic relations in some molecules.
There seems to be an english version, too:
"The World Is Sound: Nada Brahma: Music and the Landscape of Consciousness"