A more “quantitative” than “qualitative” analysis.
A few days ago I read an article that rekindled my interest in the eternal debate between supporters of the antique and modern violin. As a luthier of modern instruments I too have often wondered about the issue, but without having clear ideas on what the differences in timbre between the two really are.
In the article in question Norman Pickering asserts that the best antique instruments have a fairly sharp cutoff above approximately 5000Hz. Something that modern instruments don’t have! It seemed so valuable to him that he tried to recreate it on the modern instrument. This statement triggered a series of reflections in me and led me to delve deeper into the topic.
At the same time I was completing a violin and was doing adjustment tests with the help of a spectrum analyzer and I noticed that my violin reached over 20,000 Hz.
In the following reflections I try to analyze whether I, personally, want to pursue the sound of the antique violin as my ideal sound and whether the cut-off above 5000 Hz should be considered an “advantage” of antigue instruments.
I was reminded of a little book that my teacher Giorgio Cè gave me when I was at school and which had a certain effect on me: “The antique violin, an untouchable fetish?” by Giorgio Finale Montalbano, to whom he contributed with a writing and photos of his violins. The book tells of several great violinists who, unbeknownst to the public, played modern instruments while in the booklet they named important instruments such as Stradivari etc. Henryk Szeryng is also mentioned as having at least 7 antique instruments of great value, but in concert he preferred to play one of his modern instruments. A fact that not even the critics or the expert audience noticed.
In the past, many “blind” listening tests have also been carried out, which demonstrate that an audience of expert musicians and luthiers was not only unable to distinguish them, but that they often preferred the modern violin to the antique one. Many people probably know the tests carried out between 2012 and 2014 by Claudia Fritz and Joseph Curtin(*) which received wide media coverage. However, few will know that similar tests had already been carried out by Konrad Leonhardt at the violin making school in Mittenwald in 1966 and with the same results!(**)
But let’s now see how to evaluate the acoustic performance of a violin in its maximum use, that is, as a solo violin accompanied by an orchestra.
Surely you have noticed that the sound of a whole string section has a very different sound from that of a single violin. The sound of many violins together is denser but less defined, more widespread and smoothed, never as sharp as a single violin. Finding a scientific explanation for this phenomenon is not easy, but it seems to be a complex interaction of different effects due to slight differences in pitch and phase or due to the “acoustic masking” effect. The result is a notable decrease in high harmonics.
To be heard clearly, the melodic solo line must occupy precisely this “space” of the spectrum left free by the strings. In fact, singers train themselves to emphasize certain harmonics of their voice which allow it to emerge. Bow maker Giovanni Lucchi had developed a real-time spectrum analyzer for this purpose together with the Lichtenberger Institut. As with singers, violins that want to emerge from the orchestra must also produce these high harmonics, particularly in the areas around 3000, 5000 and 8000 Hz.
The path described so far led me to delve deeper into the topic:
Is it true that antique violins cut after 5000 Hz?
And what is the harmonic content of a symphony orchestra?
In an interesting article from 2014 Eva and Heinz Dimigen(***) describe their research on wood aging. The results demonstrate that over time the modulus of elasticity of the material increases but that, at the same time, the damping in the material also increases, with doubling times of around 150 years! Here damping is to be understood precisely as a “mute effect”.
In the following image I have overlaid the spectra of my latest violin (black), that of a symphony recording (green) (the average of about 3 minutes of recording) and that of Guarneri del Gesù’s “Plowden” violin (purple).
Looking in particular at the area of frequencies above 3000 Hz we see how the graph of the antique violin is almost completely covered by that of the orchestra while the modern violin manages to emerge more easily.
The action of time on the material, as described in the Dimigen studies, increased the damping in antique violins, erasing much of the high harmonics.
These observations coincide perfectly with the results of the listening tests carried out by Fritz in 2017(****) where the projection power was evaluated and where high-quality antique instruments were less appreciated than modern instruments.
Both Fritz and Montalbano agree that perhaps antique instruments are generally overestimated and driven more by speculative interests than objective evaluations. Unfortunately, the myth of the antique violin lasts to this day and is something that the modern luthier is forced to deal with almost daily given that many musicians still chase this chimera. It is certainly true that it is very unlikely to see a soloist performing with a brand new looking violin but this seems to be a purely aesthetic issue! A new violin simply “doesn’t look good” in the hands of a soloist! The aesthetic question, however, seems to have been resolved with the advent of the “fashion” of antiqued instruments or copies.
In conclusion, I can confidently say that I am a “modern luthier” who seeks a contemporary sound. Rather than focus on creating instruments with a “particular voice”, I aim to offer a rich and complete tone, a broad palette of colors from which the player can draw at will.
(*)https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1114999109
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1323367111
(**)”Geigenbau und Klangfrage”, Verlag “Das Musikinstrument”, 1969
(***)FAMA Seminar Musikalische Akustik zwischen Empirie und Theorie, Hamburg 2014
