Coupling of violin bridge modes to corpus modes analytical model

Abstract

The transmission of string vibration forces to the violin belly by the bridge is modulated by two principal bridge resonances around 3KHz and 6 KHz, frequency bands critical to tone perception by the human hearing system. Much music acoustics research has dealt with these bridge modes (and those of the ‘cello and bass) and their influence on the excitation of the corpus modes at the bridge feet. This analytical treatment of the string to corpus transmission by the bridge is necessarily complex, but reveals factors in the process which explain the action of the different strings through the bridge and the levels of corpus mode excitation amplified by the bridge modes. The theoretical predictions are tested against experimental responses with normal bridges and bridges blocked to eliminate the two important modes.