The sound of the violin or the choice of the violin when buying according to acoustic criteria.

  Why does the sound of a great violin played by a gifted artist have so much influence over the human soul? My mother often explained that the sound of the violin is more similar to the human voice than is the sound of any other instrument.    For variety alone it would seem that this comparison must hold true; what other instrument is capable of producing such a variety of sounds and of expressing through music the full range of human emotions?

   The sound of a violin has been known literally to draw tears, to inspire awe, to enthrall, to express fiery emotions, to whisper, to soothe…to express that which words cannot.

   Yet what is this nebulous thing, sound? Many musicians seem to struggle to describe just what kind of sound they are looking for. What, then, distinguishes good sound from great sound from magic sound? The following ideas are entirely my own and are not based on any research, empirical or otherwise. I hope this descriptive material will prove helpful to two groups of people: the uninitiated who are just beginning to learn about the differences in the sound of master violins, and the experienced who nonetheless would like to find a more effective or informative vocabulary for describing and comparing the sound of different violins.

   When I mentioned to a few people that I was planning to try to discuss the sound of the instruments of the violin family in this edition of the newsletter, the reactions ranged from “good luck” to “impossible” to “if you’re prepared to write a book” to “nobody agrees….” The comment which I found most apropos was “there is no language poetic enough.” While there is truth in all these comments, it is also true that many people have described to me enough aspects of the sound they were looking for that I have been able in turn to help them find an instrument with that sound. It is also true that while there is a great deal of disagreement about the sound of many violins, there tends to be a great deal of agreement about the greatest instruments. Who ever has been heard to comment that the instruments played on by Oistrakh, Heifitz, Primrose, or Jacqueline Du Pré didn’t sound good?

   My premise, then, is that it is the lesser instruments upon which there is the greater disagreement. The potential limitations of lesser instruments prevent the artist from fully expressing, in one parameter or another, some aspect of the music in question. Therefore, the dispute may often be about which of the shortcomings should be given precedence over the others. Rather than presume to pass judgment on any of this, I will attempt briefly to describe the ten parameters I consider when evaluating an instrument’s sound.

I believe that distinctions between student-quality violins, professional-quality violins, and those truly worldclass instruments heretofore described as “magic” are readily apparent, at least to the musician, if not to the audience, as well. Here I would like to explore briefly some of the differences by drawing upon some of the aforementioned imaginative vocabulary. Simply put, even an inexpensive student instrument (€800–€1,800) can sound quite good if it is professionally set-up and adjusted and played well. Inevitably, however, these instruments are extremely limited in several, if not most, of the parameters of sound. Such instruments usually sound good in only one range of volume and rarely, if ever, are capable of the volume needed to be heard over an orchestra; they rarely produce a beautiful sound (as compared to much better instruments) when played at extremely low volume levels, yet many sound quite nice at medium levels. They seldom possess the projection required to be appreciated in a large hall, although in a small room they may sound very nice indeed. They usually produce only one tone quality or color rather than a palette of tone colors, and thus they are limited or much less versatile than better or more professional instruments. Therefore, as a student advances and is capable of doing more, he or she requires an instrument with increasing possibilites. 

   Let us try to imagine now an ice cream sundae or some other delicious food with many layers of increasingly rich and perfectly blended flavors. The deeper one reaches with the spoon, and the harder one works, the richer the flavor of the next layer and the more perfect the blend. Assume the spoon is a flavored, edible spoon that becomes a part of the perfect gourmet recipe, and the analogy is complete. Such a spoon would be like the bow, which is indeed a critical part of the violin’s tonal production. A dessert composed of one layer of ice cream would be akin to the student violin, and so on.

   But I have digressed. The student-quality violin may respond well and easily to the player in the lower positions but rarely responds easily and resonates freely when played at the highest position. The student instrument may have a soft or mellow texture, or a harder, more aggressive one, but rarely will it be capable of achieving both. And the story goes on.

   Obviously I have used three distinct categories for the sake of simplicity, whereas in actuality there exists a continuum of sorts from the simplest of instruments to the rarest and finest. While beautiful sounds can be made on even the simplest violins, it is the vast range of possibilites available to the musician on only the finest instruments that makes these so sought after.