The Harmonic Structure of Violin Tones
Arnold McC. Small · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1937
Violin tones covering the greater part of the playing range of the instrument have been subjected to harmonic analysis. The analyses included normal tones and “harmonics,” which were studied with a variety of technical playing conditions obtaining, for example, variable point of contact between bow, and string, sympathetic vibration of unstopped strings, constant pitch but with change of string, variable pitch on each string, and recording in a music studio and a “dead” room. The results show (1) that change in point of contact between bow and string effects a characteristic variation in harmonic structure; (2) that harmonic constitution varies with the introduction of sympathetic vibration of open strings; (3) that not only do tones of the same pitch played on different strings vary in harmonic structure but also different pitches played on the same string; (4) that the lower natural harmonics are not essentially different in structure from fully-stopped tones of the same pitch and same string; (5) that the higher natural and artificial harmonics are not pure tones but approach a much greater degree of purity than do most normal tones.