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This book addresses core questions about the role of materials in general and of wood in particular in the construction of string instruments used in the modern symphony orchestra - violins, violas, cellos and basses.Further attention is given to materials for classical guitars, harps, harpsichords and pianos.

Mary Cyr addresses the needs of researchers, performers, and informed listeners who wish to apply knowledge about historically informed performance to specific pieces. Special emphasis is placed upon the period 1680 to 1760, when the viol, violin, and violoncello grew to prominence as solo instruments in France. Part I deals with the historical background to the debate between the French and Italian styles and the features that defined French style. Part II summarizes the present state of research on bowed string instruments (violin, viola, cello, contrebasse, pardessus de viole, and viol) in France, including such topics as the size and distribution of parts in ensembles and the role of the contrebasse. Part III addresses issues and conventions of interpretation such as articulation, tempo and character, inequality, ornamentation, the basse continue, pitch, temperament, and &dquotespecial effects&dquote such as tremolo and harmonics. Part IV introduces four composer profiles that examine performance issues in the music of Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, Marin Marais, Jean-Baptiste Barrière, and the Forquerays (father and son). The diversity of compositional styles among this group of composers, and the virtuosity they incorporated in their music, generate a broad field for discussing issues of performance practice and offer opportunities to explore controversial themes within the context of specific pieces.

In The String Instrument Owner's Guide, Michael Pagliaro surveys the complete \"ownership life cycle\" of bowed string instruments.A touchstone work for uninitiated and advanced players, The String Instrument Owner's Guide provides a roadmap for every step of the owning process, from selecting and buying (or renting ) to maintaining, repairing.

String players face a bewildering array of terms related to their instruments.Because string playing is a living art form, passed directly from master to student, the words used to convey complex concepts such as bow techniques and fingering systems have developed into an extensive vocabulary that can be complicated, vague, and even contradictory.

The richness of the sound emanating from a stringed musical instrument can be improved by the making it linger for longer. This has traditionally been performed in sitar and sarod by modification of boundary conditions while introducing a jawari. We try to understand the effect of the jawari by assuming periodic modulation of boundary conditions of the string in a sonometer and find that the lobe-like effect can indeed be observed as an interference between the frequency-modulated sideband of one mode with the next higher-order mode. The contributions from different modes can be added up. The size of the beat signal increases while increasing the depth of modulation.

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' practices and beliefs related to the teaching of stringed instrument tuning in elementary and middle school group classes. The aspects examined included the following: (a) teachers' beliefs about teaching tuning in their string classes, (b) activities teachers used when teaching tuning in string classes, (c) methods for assessing students' tuning skills, (d) the grade level that tuning instruction begins, (e) the amount of instructional time used for teaching tuning, (f) teachers' goals for students' tuning independence, and (g) teacher, program, or school characteristics that affect how and when tuning is taught. Participants (N = 139) reported that the average time required to develop tuning independence is 4.5 years. The amount of instructional time available and the level of students' aural skills were the greatest perceived obstacles to developing tuning independence. Significant differences were found in tuning activities, beliefs about students' tuning abilities, and assessment procedures and were based on participants' age, teaching experience, and grade levels taught. The findings indicate a need for further development of tuning pedagogy and greater use of formal assessment to determine if students have developed the prerequisite skills for tuning.

Numerous experimental and theoretical methods have focused on the bow–string interaction in bowed string instruments, including several artificial bowing setups. The current research aims to present an experimental approach to reproduce bowing techniques using a robotic arm. First, optical motion capture is used to track the 3D kinematics of the bow. The cello bow and corpus are equipped with reflective markers. The cello is mounted on a playing platform. The recorded 3D trajectories of the bow markers are used to control the motion of the robotic arm. This process requires converting the 3D data between the coordinate frames of the two systems. This conversion is described in detail in this paper. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed method, an experienced cellist was asked to play an adapted piece on the cello, which was then repeated using the robotic arm. The robotic arm is capable of accurately reproducing the bow velocity, but even minimal variations in position can compromise proper bow–string contact. To illustrate this, the study compares two similar robotic situations and discusses the challenges of adapting the robot’s coordinates as a function of a given playing parameter or the sound produced.

This paper explores the use of heterophonic tunings, the gradual substitution of pitches from one harmonic series to another resulting in the simultaneous sounding of different and sometimes contrasting intonations, in the music of the American composer Larry Polansky. The discussion is contextualised by an exploration of the innovations in tuning practice in the work of an earlier generation of American composers. The ramifications of Polansky's compositional ideas in terms of notation and performability are examined with reference to several key works, notably for jim, ben and lou; freeHorn; and ii-v-i.

The wood used to make musical instruments needs to have particular properties. Depending on its function, such as a soundboard for string instruments or the body of a wind instrument, different properties are desirable to obtain the best musical quality. Several different classification schemes exist that correlate physical and mechanical properties of wood to define desirable ranges for tonewoods, and to allow suitable wood species to be chosen. The physical and mechanical properties of various wood species indigenous to southern Africa were characterised and then assessed in terms of their suitability for violin construction using these classification schemes. The results of this analysis show that the most suitable of the wood species assessed are yellowwood and sapele. These were subsequently used by a professional luthier to build an 'African' violin. The sound quality of this instrument was determined subjectively through performances to an audience and more objectively via spectral analysis of audio recordings. This analysis shows clear differences in the relative magnitude of the harmonics between the violin made from indigenous wood and an instrument made with conventional wood species. Despite the differences, yellowwood and sapele were found to be suitable tonewoods, resulting in an instrument with a unique sound.Significance: • Good quality violins are always made from spruce and maple wood, which have to be imported to South Africa – often at high cost. However, the growth conditions of most southern African wood species should make them suitable tonewoods. We showed that several species are suitable to be used as tonewoods and that the sound produced with such a violin is – although somewhat different – of high quality. 

For centuries the harp played an integral part in Gaelic culture and yet, remarkably little is known of this iconic instrument and its tradition. The Trinity College harp is the oldest surviving harp in Ireland. Having suffered considerable damage over the years the harp has been repaired and reconstructed many times. Its present form is based on that of the Scottish Queen Mary harp. This reconstruction, however, is marginally incorrect and this, coupled with errors and inconsistencies in measurements previously available, has led to difficulties in stringing and tuning modern reproductions of this harp. If a credible replica is ever to be built, the lengths of the strings as intended by the maker must be known. This article explores the issues regarding the restoration of the harp to its original form, concentrating particularly on the string layout. In turn the possibilities offered in terms of tuning, string diameters and alloy composition, are investigated. The analysis reveals that this harp was engineered with great precision and that its design operates on clearly defined mathematical principles, with the original string layout optimized for a particular range of notes and more than likely for strings made of a single copper alloy.