Singing violin
How often have you played a singing violin?
What kind of violin sound are most violinists seeking? That’s good question.
It can only be answered by comparing different instruments. No words needed, just few notes and everything becomes clear. What makes one violin so much better?
Being violin makers, we - Birute and Czes - had to sort out, what makes some violins sound better, and some - even superb.
Violin - good and very good
Evaluation of a violin sound is a problem. Czes tried to define this problem in his article about ideal violin sound. Thorough analysis shows that perfect verbal description is almost impossible. In evaluating the quality of the violin the musicians are not able avoid subjective judgment; or in other words, emotions and feelings play a big part of judgment about the sound. However, similar problems are experienced by violin makers as well.
It is important to realize that the sound of the great Italian instruments we hear nowadays is very different from the sound they would have made in Stradivari’s time. Almost all Cremonese instruments went through considerable restoration and “improvement” in the 19th century. You need only listen to “authentic” baroque groups, in which most virtuoso performers play on fine Italian instruments restored to their previous state, to distinguish the vast difference in timbre between these restored originals and “modern” versions of the Cremonese violins. Nevertheless, experienced violinists say: ‘It is something only an experienced performer can hear and feel’.
Our passion to make the singing violin forced us to analyze all sources about violin acoustics in Russian, Polish, Lithuanian and English literature. We got lots of interesting sightings from E.F.Vitazcek about the way old Cremonese violin makers were tuning their instruments. In the period between word wars I & II word war he was looking after the Soviet Union State Collection of Stringed Musical Instruments. We have studied the plate tuning technique developed by other pioneers - H.Helmholtz, F.Savart and C.V.Raman. Finally the modern methods of plate tuning were combined together with empirical knowledge to achieve the desired tone quality of the violin.
Searching carefully through all available sources we realized that one of the most pronounced differences between an old and new good violin is the age of the wood. It is well known that all timber properties slowly change in the course of time. It matures. That’s the reason why experienced violin makers try to choose as old wood as possible for their instruments.
So why isn’t it possible to accelerate the process? Our experimentation continued almost ten years. It is not a problem to mature wood using aggressive damaging chemicals etc. Probably the best example is the paper industry…
However, we are violin makers. That means - we can not destroy wood or especially mar its acoustic qualities!
New wood —> old violin ?
We didn’t have the opportunity to create a violin using ten years or older wood. So instead of hunting for such a wood, we went an other way.
We, however, are violin makers. That means - we can not destroy wood or especially - affect its acoustic qualities! Therefore we searched for soft, mainly natural substances, that affect wood gently… Also, chemicals we use for wood aging are non toxic.
Our goal has been nicely described in one violin related article:
“What’s interesting about playing a Strad, about playing any great old Italian instrument, is under the ear, there’s a sweetness to it, there’s a depth of sound… And also you have the sense that no matter how much sound is coming out of the instrument, somehow or other there’s always more.”
Combining the wood aging technology and accumulated empirical knowledge, adding the relatively new acoustics science it is possible to build a mellow instrument, more rich in ‘good’ overtones - a singing violin. All violinists like and usually choose such a sound.