Science and music / [by Sir James Jeans].

  • Jeans, James, 1877-1946.
Date:
1947
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Science and music / [by Sir James Jeans]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    dimensions, and this explains why a low note on the violin sounds quite different from the same note on the viola— the body of the violin reinforces a group of quite high harmonics, while the body of the viola reinforces a group of much lower harmonics. It is less easy to explain why a note played on a good violin sounds different from the same note played on a bad violin. But it emerges from much discussion that, here also, a large part of the difference can be traced to a difference of frequencies in the formant. Backhaus has examined the frequencies of the body vibrations of a first-class Stradi- varius, and finds that the majority are fairly evenly distri¬ buted between 3200 and 5200. In other violins the frequencies are usually lower and also less evenly distri¬ buted. A good modern violin shewed a distribution which approached that of the Stradivarius in uniformity, but the frequencies themselves were about 500 cycles lower. In a poor modern violin, the frequencies were not only less well distributed, but were also about 1000 cycles lower. In brief, the bad violin picks out certain rather low harmonics in an arbitrary way, and reinforces these unduly, while the good violin picks out a wide band of high harmonics, and reinforces these fairly impartially. It used to be conjectured that the varnish on old violins might contribute in some special way to producing a rich even tone, but recent scientific investigations have given no support to this theory. It is the wood, rather than the varnish, which is found to be important. Lark-Horovitz and Caldwell have examined by X-rays the bodies of a number of old violins by Stradivarius, Amati and others, and find that in the best violins the front of the belly is