Strings Of Violin Research Articles

How different strings affect violin qualities

The brand and model of strings used on violins are considered to play a significant role in their playability and sound quality. An experiment was designed to test the perceptual quality of different violin strings. A professional violinist selected two violins, from a set of the same make/model, that had similar sound and playing qualities. Three different types of strings were chosen for this study: Dominant, Kaplan and Pro-Arte strings. Professional and advanced student violinists were invited to play and evaluate the violins. Two violins were both strung with Dominant strings initially (session labelled D1-D2). Subjects rated the difference between the two violins (violin 2 compared to violin 1) according to eight criteria. Then the strings of violin 2 were changed to a different type. Subjects rated the difference between the two violins again. In Oberlin, subjects compared Dominant and Kaplan strings in two sessions (called respectively D1-D2 and D1-K2). In Montreal, subjects compared Dominant, Kaplan and Pro-Arte strings in three trials (D1-D2, D1-K2 and D1-P2). Results showed no significant differences between the experiment conditions in either place except that the brightness difference ratings in D1-D2 were found to be significantly higher than in D1-P2 based on the Montreal results.

Violin Resonances Studied by Electrical Simulation

A study of the resonances of a violin was made by attaching an electric pickup to the strings of a normal violin and passing the signal so obtained through a set of electrical resonances. Frequencies, bandwidths, and amplitudes of the resonances could easily be adjusted and resulting sound evaluated aurally. About 20 resonances were used. The frequencies were set equal to the peaks of a published response curve of a Stradivarius. Amplitudes could be adjusted so the tone matched a range of instruments from an orchestral violin to a hillbilly fiddle. Bandwidths from 7 to 100 Hz were tried, about 50 Hz being best. Components of the sound due to individual resonances were heard separately. Low-frequency resonances gave a rich but muffled tone, midfrequency resonances a thin sound, and the high-frequency resonances a harsh penetrating sound.

Significant points of emphasis in teaching

We know, according to Biblical adage, what happens when old wine is poured into new bottles. Neither does it change contents when we change appearance of label. The primrose by river's brim will still be primrose, and a rose by any other name will be just as sweet as when we started talking about how we might encourage nature to make it otherwise. Education still has at its core those basic, essential, and effective truths which make all teaching meaningful. The processes of education must take individual for what he is, and then organize existence around his purposes and plans until we create life, not find it. Success and happiness must arise from within. Environment and all else is but an educational means of focalizing upon that which is already there. Truth for its own sake and virtue for its own reward must somehow offset ticker-tape type of educational effort which characterizes our endeavors. Curricula, administration, supervision, and all educational planning merely set stage for successful performance; meaningful teaching, in final analysis, depends upon effectiveness of teacher-pupil-parent-community relationship. Such criteria, we believe, may be summarized, with relationship to following six-point emphasis. First, I would say that we must again teach dignity of labor. This will involve assuming and sharing of responsibility. Many young person has been willing to succeed if he might begin somewhere near top rung of ladder, but he has somehow lost energy or enthusiasm for climbing. The modern parent has anticipated too much for child. The toy is bought before child asks for it or anticipates it. We must again learn that those who are to become successful must know how to make sweet music on three strings of life's violin after A-string has snapped. Second, we must reteach respect for individual and collective rights of others. Since we had to unlearn this principle in many of our attitudes toward foe upon battlefield, it is vital that we relearn it now in order to teach it effectively to our children. Again this attitude may have resulted in an apparent selfishness in hurlyburly of war effort and in anxiety for personal gain which may yet leave smoke-trail of the devil that hindmost. Perhaps

I. On the function of the sound-post and on the proportional thickness of the strings of the violin

Sir John Herschel says: “It (the bridge) sets the wood of the upper face in a state of regular vibration, and this is communicated to the back through a peg set up in the middle of the fiddle, and through its sides, called the ‘soul’ of the fiddle, or its sounding-post.” Savart says: “L’âme a pour usage de transmettre au fond les vibrations de la table .... son diamétre est determiné par la qualité du son qu’on veut avoir; il est maigre quand elle est trop mince, et sourd quand elle est trop grossest."

On the motion of the strings of a violin

On the motion of the strings of a violin