To Build a Better Violin

Abstract

B efore morning breaks in Montclair, N.J., Carleen M. Hutchins enters the cellar of her rambling Victorian home. There, in her laboratory, she switches on electronic acoustical equipment, then saunters to a chipped workbench on which newly varnished violin fronts are strewn. Beside them are piles of fresh wood shavings. Behind her, cellos line up along a wall. A tone sounds as she taps the thin, arched top of an instrument. Her hands gauge its delicacy, its thickness, its edges. She takes a tool and shaves away a sliver of wood. Again, she feels and taps the violin's top. Again, a tone sounds. Trained ears listen. Another scrape. Another tap. Now the overtones harmonize mellifluously. Soon, she will begin tuning the curly maple back of another violin tapping, scraping, listening, coaxing it to vibrate at a precise 370 times a second, radiating the perfect blend of sound.