A 30-year experiment in the acoustical and musical development of violin-family instruments
Carleen Maley Hutchins · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1992
The 30-year acoustical and musical development of the violin octet has shown that new instruments of the violin family can be constructed with fine tone and playing qualities based on acoustical parameters, free plate tuning, and skilled violin making. The frequency placement in relation to string tuning of the body-length air cavity mode (A1), originally called the ‘‘main wood’’ resonance, has been found to be the prime controlling factor differentiating overall tone quality of the violin from that of the viola, cello, and string bass. The frequency placement of the A0 cavity mode, originally labeled ‘‘Helmholtz’’ or ‘‘main air’’ resonance in relation to string tuning is secondary. For instruments smaller than the cello this A0 cavity mode frequency is controlled more by air volume than by compliance of the top, back, and sides (ribs). For cello and larger instruments the A0 mode frequency is controlled more by compliance of the top, back, and ribs than by air volume. Due to greatly increased compliance of the wooden walls of the basses particularly, it has been found structurally unsafe to make ribs shallow enough to place the A0 cavity mode seven semitones above the lowest note as our original scaling theory projected. The musical development of the violin octet and its potential for new sounds and compositions is discussed along with projections for its future in our musical culture.