Acoustical significance of the violin octet
Carleen Maley Hutchins · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1991
The 30-year acoustical and musical development of the violin octet has shown the following. (1) New instruments of the violin family can be created with fine tone and playing qualitites based on acoustical parameters, free-plate tuning, and skilled violin making. (2) The prime controlling factor differentiating overall tone quality of the violin from that of viola, cello, and string bass is frequency placement in relation to string tuning of the body length air cavity mode (A1) originally called the “main wood” resonance. (3) The secondary controlling factor for tone quality, especially on the two lower strings is frequency placement in relation to string tuning of the A0 cavity mode originally labeled “Helmholtz” or “main air” resonance. (4) For instruments smaller than the cello, the A0 cavity mode frequency is controlled more by air volume than by compliance of the top, back, and ribs (sides). (5) For cello and larger instruments the A0 cavity mode frequency is controlled more by compliance of the top, back, and ribs than by air volume. (6) Due to greatly increased compliance of the wooden walls of basses, 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 scaling theory projected originally. These findings will be discussed and illustrated.