The influence of the musician on the vibrational behavior of a violin
Kenneth D. Marshall · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1985
Modal analysis techniques were used to take a “first look” at how the presence of the musician alters the vibrational behavior of a violin. Animated mode shapes of a freely suspended violin will be presented, and compared to the response of the same instrument when held by five different players. The results show that the player imposes a constraint, or boundary condition, to the neck and lower bout of the violin, consisting primarily of a strong viscous damper acting in parallel with a weak spring. The resonant frequencies and mode shapes are only slightly affected, but the amplitude of the response of the violin is significantly lowered. It is concluded: (a) A variety of different violins should be measured for comparison purposes and to establish a decent data base. (b) A violin should always be measured freely suspended. Boundary conditions can always be added later in a mathematical model, but it is extremely difficult to remove a constraint that is present in the test data.