Ideal Violin Sound
Dr. Czes Kul, violin maker
Living in Vilnius, the capital of the Baltic country of Lithuania, my wife Birute and I were involved in creating, repair and maintenance of violin family instruments. As I was always thinking that the main violin aspect is it sound, I started gathering information about ideal violin sound.
The city where we lived is highly artistic and has centuries - old cultural traditions. A huge number of professional musicians reside in Vilnius - four symphonic orchestras, a National chamber orchestra as well as three quartets. Players are trained at the National Musical Academy.
Historically as well as geographically the main influence Lithuanian violinists experience comes from the so-called Russian violin playing school. It is quite obvious that everybody involved in violin playing knows about the benefits and prominent results of this teaching system. By the way, Jascha Heifetz - one of the all-time best violinists, was born in Vilnius.
One of the famous Renaissance violin makers Baltazar Dankwart (2nd half XVI century - 1622) lived in Vilnius. One of his made created violins, created in 1602, survived till these days. Sound peculiarities of this violin, are comparable with these, created by most known Cremona makers.
As a rule, quality of services depends on what the customer wants. Being surrounded by top quality violin players, we were able to repair and maintain many supreme grade instruments. It gave us an appreciation of what a really fine instrument is. This is something completely impossible to pick up by reading books or watching TV.
Having an established clientele, it was not an easy decision to emigrate. However, some reasons forced us to move. First of all, we were not happy with the climate. Those long really cold, cloudy and dark winter months did not allow recovery after illness or sometimes even induced it. Furthermore, the economic situation in our country steadily worsened for a period of over five years, so it became hardly possible for artisans to survive - the flow of our clients permanently declined… These are probably the main reasons why we abandoned the city we were all born in.
Being violin makers and repairers, we were visited by musicians quite often (throughout this article the word ‘violin’ is taken to refer to other members of the violin family too). Some of them brought violins with broken bridges, some wanted pegs to be replaced… and some wanted just ‘better instrument sound’.Most serious problems usually occur mainly with those who are unhappy with instrument sound. Many adjustment problems come down to communication and players’ lack of experience with adjustment. Many players do not get to experience playing lots of violins and making adjustments on them. Moreover, there is not really any common understandable vocabulary for talking about tone.
Probably the best description of the problem was delivered by one violin maker - repairer - adjuster: “One player felt that his instrument sounded too ’round’ and wanted something more ‘oval’. Players may have impossible ideas of what they want, drawn from their experience with different instruments belonging to friends, and want a mix of all those instruments in their own”.
The player usually really does not know, what he or she wants and is literally lost. I sometimes did a small innocuous ‘experiment’. I changed nothing and told the player: “It must be OK”. As a rule, a player felt a difference, most often - a change for the better. Strange? Not really. Some researchers describe problems of this sort as a field of psychoacoustics. Discussions on this subject lack full understanding of how hearing works. The perception of sounds by the ear in combination with the brain (whole audible system) is very complex and contains lots of subjective components, which cannot easily be either assessed or analyzed. This situation is totally different from when sound is registered by electronic equipment.
Significance of the instrument is often overestimated. A good player with an average violin is not transformed to an excellent level by a much better instrument. Again, very good instruments are often played by excellent players. These usually do know how to make the best use of them.
There exist a lot of objective, as well as subjective parameters of instrument sound. One of the best contemporary American violin makers Joseph Curtin described them as: tone quality, projection, response, evenness, sensitivity to vibrato, and dynamic range. Anyway, it is essential to separate these as much as possible to be able to evaluate an instrument objectively. There is far more than one factor involved in instrument sound creation, and they interact. Therefore it is essential to be very cautious in an objective analysis of the sound qualities of an instrument and to separate the factors. In this context at least five major factors must be considered:
- Timbre. Very often timbre is named as ‘tone’. It seems that it is much simpler to evaluate: “This timbre is bad, or poor, or nasal, or terrible…” More problems appear when somebody tries to describe a good timbre. This parameter varies strongly with different bowing techniques (it is well known to players) and also to some extent depends on the bow itself. Additionally - the most essential aspect for timbre evaluation is that players definitely hear a different timbre from what listeners do. Again, listeners hear different timbres in different rooms or depending on their? position in the room. So, along with objective characteristics timbre has a lot of subjective features.Closely related to timbre is a phenomenon known to musicians as playing-in of an instrument. As it is proved in objective experiments, human memory for sounds is defective. So, it was only assumed, that playing-in has an influence on timbre. However, some recently performed objective experiments clearly showed influence of prolonged playing on some voice-determining instrument parameters.
Evidently timbre strongly depends on materials used and design applied. These are almost impossible to change in a finished instrument. But it can be changed to some extent by replacing and/or adjusting some accessories - bridge, sound post, pegs… Experienced luthiers know, how to move to the desired sound characteristics.
- Responsiveness. It is difficult even to imagine that all musicians like the same violin timbre. However, every player prefers an effortless response to bowing or easy speaking of an instrument. Term ‘playability’ is usually used to describe this feature of an instrument.
- Carrying power. This parameter is sometimes named as projection. It is the ability of a violin sound to fill even big halls. Just because of this feature, a solo violin player can be heard while an orchestra plays forte. Instrument projection can be quite easily tested by two or more players, testing several good instruments, looking for best approximation to the ideal violin sound.
- Dynamic range. Players know it as the distance between most quiet and most loud ‘musical’ sound that can be produced with every instrument. Obviously, the more responsive the instrument is, the more wide is its dynamic range. Also, the better the player, the bigger the dynamic range he or she requires from an instrument.
- Evenness. No violin can produce the same output power on all notes. Even quite simple modern measurements and techniques show lots of peaks and dips in a violin’s frequency range. To some extent it is caused by generated harmonics (overtones). It is also well known, that ear sensitivity varies to different frequencies. So acceptable evenness is achieved, when loudness of all notes sounds similar. This is affected by violin design and to some degree by proper setup, strings and playing. Regretfully, some instruments cannot produce equal loudness on all notes or even strings. It is better to reject such an instrument, as usually the unevenness is caused by poor design - that really cannot be improved.
These above described parameters are objective. However, there are always important subjective aspects as well. I already described the phenomenon and some aspects of psychoacoustics. It becomes especially important when the area of old (especially old Italian) instruments is entered. It really resembles the history of the Phoenix bird. Ultimately all the histories have connection with mystique. More detailed explanation follows.
The question often arises: “Isn’t it true that violin necessarily must be old and Italian to be good?” This question becomes most important when one is speaking about ideal violin sound. To understand the basis of this saying it is wise to consider its origin. Strictly speaking, it is a complex situation: dealers want to make big money while world-class musicians feel they must have such an instrument. As one honest and very experienced American luthier said: “It is part of a game”.
There is a widespread term among musicians: “typical Italian sound” or “Cremonese sound” to describe that so special sound, which helps to easily distinguish this ‘very special, superior’ voice from that of non-Italian instruments. To verify if it was the case, lots of precise tests were performed. Probably the most known among them are two tests, performed in Paris between 1910 and 1920.? Contemporary scientists, especially medical, describe such tests as a ‘double blind experiment’ - nobody (neither those, who perform them, nor the subject) knows essential details. In the case of instrument testing, neither listeners nor performers knew which instrument was played. Performance on different instruments was executed behind the curtain or in the dark. Instruments were played by exceptional players, listeners were musicians as well as other sophisticated audiences.
Results (repeating) were improbable - Italian violins (including Stradivarius) never came first. Moreover, their placing depended on the test room… As one highly experienced listener stressed: “in order to recognize Italian, one has to see it”.
As described in one interview with the superior violinist Jascha Heifetz, “…he knew and said that a new instrument is often as good as, sometimes superior to, an old one…” He participated in extensive tests to compare the relative values of original handmade violins (i.e., old and antique instruments) with those produced by modern methods and reported that modern instruments produced tones whose quality compared favorably with that of the old ones.”
”There was a great deal of hype involved,” says Norman Pickering, one of the world’s leading experts on the acoustics of the violin. ”There’s no great difference between the quality of Stradivarius violins and those of many of his contemporaries, not to mention those of violin makers before and since. But it’s as if no other violin maker ever existed.”
Old Italian violins are by no means the same nowadays as when they were created. All of them to be playable in contemporary conditions, had to be ‘modernized’ (”made to be as good as new”): rebarred, renecked, restored, repaired and sometimes regraduated. Additionally, all these violins experienced permanent strings tension for hundreds of years and, simply speaking, are old now.
I own a beautiful CD “The Glory of Cremona”. Different pieces, played by famous Italian violinist Ruggiero Ricci on fifteen violins, created by different famous Cremona luthiers are recorded on this CD under strictly controlled conditions. I listen to this CD quite often to catch the differences between particular violins as well as to try to realize, what is so special in the voice of “Italian sound” - what it is an ideal violin sound. All these violins have different voices and their sound is really glorious. Again, I must completely agree with maestro Ricci, who said: “… like wines, each violin has its individual character… It is impossible to find one instrument that is at the same time dark, brilliant, open, nasal, sweet etc. The best a violinist can do is to find an instrument which most nearly suits his individual temperament…”My violin making tutor, world-famous luthier from Krakow, Poland - Jan Pawlikowski once told me: “I worked in a violin workshop in Chicago for seven years. I had repaired 13 Stradivarius - made violins during that time. Half of them had a very good sound while the sound of the other half was rather cheap”.
Almost all publications are heaping praise upon the famous Cremona luthiers and their well-known creations. However, my original tutor was able to confirm from his personal experience as a repairer, the observation of a writer in 1899 that: “…Stradivarius made good and bad violins; all the fine instruments were “accidents”. It is really difficult to agree with these words.
Final conclusion from these and subsequent tests is: “The statement that the art of producing outstanding instruments has been lost with the great Italian classics is false”.
When I entered this so highly exciting area of violin family instruments more than ten years ago, I encountered frustration at the threshold of that giant ‘enigma’. All I knew was lots and lots of unanswered questions and no signposts along that way. And probably the only thought that helped me, was: “Some humans, not gods, managed to craft these so terrifically sounding creations, so why I can not try. Unless I try, I will not find answers”. I was lucky enough not to give up, so slowly, step by step, I could find answers to at least some essential questions, especially to the most important: what it is ideal violin sound?…I arrived at the area of violin family instruments creation from the fields of science (I hold a Ph.D. in physics). Because of this reason I am looking at a violin as a device that works according to some strict physical laws (anyway, acoustics is a field of physics). I heard quite often sayings about some violin maker: “He is very good with violins”. But I also heard: “Some of his violins are fantastic, but others are not…” I really do not want to create bad or average violins and knowing some physical laws etc. helps me significantly.Most researchers agree that audible violin sound is conditioned by forty to fifty resonances. I gathered all available information, made some conclusions, so, creating our instruments, to? achieve optimal violin sound conditions, we - my wife and I, control humidity, manage up to ten resonances (vibration modes) and measure the weight of plates. I use my PC to perform violin spectral analysis.
Additionally, I also always remember: there is no substitution for the best wood and the finest workmanship. Certainly, experience helps to create a violin properly, but, regretfully, timber for the violin is always an ultimate challenge. Remembering these main aspects, we usually can create the best possible violin for a given timbre and, therefore, a violin according to a player’s preferences - we manage to craft an instrument for soloist, orchestra or baroque player, teacher or student - quite easily and reliably.
While performing violin setup, we usually look at two to four essential instrument resonance frequencies. Going that way, we usually achieve desirable results. Regretfully, improvement doesn’t always follow. As a rule, this implies that violin design is improper (mode frequencies are not right), or wood is not suitable, or both, and it is thus completely impossible to ensure good violin sound.
Quite often we are asked: “What does your service offer: ‘Improving voice of a badly sounding instrument’ mean?” That simply means that if a player is not happy with the sound or some other features (playability, projection…) of the violin, we can perform a thorough setup according to his or her preferences. To some extent setup resembles software. Sometimes it has been created in three versions: lite, standard and professional. Therefore, we can give the player (owner): advice only, ‘external’ adjustment or even do a complete setup. Regretfully, we are not always lucky enough to get a desirable result. Again, the main reasons for it are inappropriate timber or design (for example, originally too thin plates).
As I can imagine, every player, searching for a new violin, has lots and lots of questions and reservations. Being to some extent specific, all these questions nicely fall into a rather narrow area. I have just tried to describe answers - ’signposts’, and indicate how to make the search easier.
It is really difficult or even impossible to give simply ‘correct’ advice in such a strictly personal area. Anyway, my permanent idea remains: “Violin is a tool a professional player has to use on a regular basis - for years or tens of years. Therefore, it is wise primarily to not only choose suitably sounding violin, but also ascertain that it can accomplish the job properly. Also, if it is known that some players for several years own violins, made by a given luthier and are happy, it is probably a good sign”.
Again, it is always better to communicate with an experienced and honest maker who can properly clarify visible as well as some ‘invisible’ processes in the violin.
We, living in the violin world, can slowly, small step at a time, move towards an ideal violin sound.
And we do.