Under circumstances where we fire sound at a material.....Correct....unless you define the transmission of sound through the material as caused by vibrating molecules.
Are you saying that the material will ONLY vibrate at its resonance frequency, assuming that this frequency is present in the sound?
If any other sound frequency is used there will be NO vibration in the material? This with any energy level in the sound?
During Sound Transmission Testing of walls for apartment buildings, we test at all frequencies from 20Hz to 20,000Hz at SPL up to 100dB.
The resonant frequencies of all masonry and combination plasterboard/stud/insulation fall well below the audio band and no vibrations are detected.
Glass walls of certain sizes and thicknesses can be induced to vibrate at their resonant frequencies (20-30Hz) at high SPLs.