Empirical Tools in Contemporary Violin Making: Part I. Analysis of Design, Materials, Varnish, and Normal Modes

The perfection of the violin by the famed old masters is attributed to a long history of passionate innovative empirical work that has been replaced in modern times by a devotion to traditional prototypes. Improvements in violin design and performance during the 17 th and 18 th Centuries can be correlated with the development of progressively more demanding playing styles by composers, including Monteverdi, Corelli, and Torelli. The successful empirical approach of the old masters can be applied today using careful measurements, recordings, and documentation that allow us to relate specific changes in design to specific change in sound. Our work has documented the major aspects of instrument design (arching, thickness graduation pattern, and body outline shape) and modal characteristics of about 90 fine reference instruments, including many old Italians. We have also measured the materials in old Italian instruments, which generally are similar to modern materials. For example, the density of an entire top plate from a Stradivari cello is 0.39 g/cm 3 , which is not unusual. Further, our measurements indicate that the damping properties and modal characteristics of old and contemporary fine instruments are of comparable magnitude. Tools available to the violin maker include selection of design, materials, varnish treatments, sound analysis, and modal analysis. Successive varnish layers can enhance or denigrate material quality. Making “tonal copies” using modal analysis at many steps of the working process allows the maker to change the geometry of the copy to compensate for material differences between the reference instrument and the copy.