Most violinists believe that instruments by Stradivari and Guarneri "del Gesu" are tonally superior to other violins-and to new violins in particular. Many mechanical and acoustical factors have been proposed to account for this superiority; however, the fundamental premise of tonal superiority has not yet been properly investigated. Player's judgments about a Stradivari's sound may be biased by the violin's extraordinary monetary value and historical importance, but no studies designed to preclude such biasing factors have yet been published. We asked 21 experienced violinists to compare violins by Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu with high-quality new instruments. The resulting preferences were based on the violinists' individual experiences of playing the instruments under double-blind conditions in a room with relatively dry acoustics. We found that (i) the most-preferred violin was new; (ii) the least-preferred was by Stradivari; (iii) there was scant correlation between an instrument's age and monetary value and its perceived quality; and (iv) most players seemed unable to tell whether their most-preferred instrument was new or old. These results present a striking challenge to conventional wisdom. Differences in taste among individual players, along with differences in playing qualities among individual instruments, appear more important than any general differences between new and old violins. Rather than searching for the "secret" of Stradivari, future research might best focused on how violinists evaluate instruments, on which specific playing qualities are most important to them, and on how these qualities relate to measurable attributes of the instruments, whether old or new.tone quality | old Italian sound | subjective evaluation | music | perception

Many researchers have sought explanations for the purported tonal superiority of Old Italian violins by investigating varnish and wood properties, plate tuning systems, and the spectral balance of the radiated sound. Nevertheless, the fundamental premise of tonal superiority has been investigated scientifically only once very recently, and results showed a general preference for new violins and that players were unable to reliably distinguish new violins from old. The study was, however, relatively small in terms of the number of violins tested (six), the time allotted to each player (an hour), and the size of the test space (a hotel room). In this study, 10 renowned soloists each blind-tested six Old Italian violins (including five by Stradivari) and six new during two 75-min sessions-the first in a rehearsal room, the second in a 300-seat concert hall. When asked to choose a violin to replace their own for a hypothetical concert tour, 6 of the 10 soloists chose a new instrument. A single new violin was easily the most-preferred of the 12. On average, soloists rated their favorite new violins more highly than their favorite old for playability, articulation, and projection, and at least equal to old in terms of timbre. Soloists failed to distinguish new from old at better than chance levels. These results confirm and extend those of the earlier study and present a striking challenge to near-canonical beliefs about Old Italian violins.subjective evaluation | music | perception T he violins of Stradivari, Guarneri "del Gesu," and other Italian makers of the 17th and 18th centuries are widely believed to possess playing qualities that are both immediately discernable to experienced players and not found in new instruments. Over the past two centuries, numerous playing and listening tests have challenged this belief by pitting new violins against old (1-3). Although results often favored new instruments, the tests typically lacked sufficient rigor for the results to stand as scientific evidence.It is only recently that well-controlled studies of player preference have appeared in the literature (4-6). In a 2010 doubleblind test held in a hotel room at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (4), 21 experienced violinists compared three new violins with two by Stradivari and one by Guarneri del Gesu. Results showed that the most-preferred violin was new, the least-preferred was by Stradivari, and players seemed unable to tell whether their most-preferred instrument was new or old. However, the small number of violins and brief evaluation periods (less than an hour for each player) left many questions unanswered, the most obvious being whether results would hold with a larger set of test violins, a different group of players, longer evaluation periods, and more true-to-life test conditions.Although the Indianapolis study focused on player preferences, violin quality can be judged from several other relevant points of view-including those of listeners, colleagues in an ensemble, recording engineers, and o...

Old Italian violins are routinely credited with playing qualities supposedly unobtainable in new instruments. These qualities include the ability to project their sound more effectively in a concert hall-despite seeming relatively quiet under the ear of the playercompared with new violins. Although researchers have long tried to explain the "mystery" of Stradivari's sound, it is only recently that studies have addressed the fundamental assumption of tonal superiority. Results from two studies show that, under blind conditions, experienced violinists tend to prefer playing new violins over Old Italians. Moreover, they are unable to tell new from old at better than chance levels. This study explores the relative merits of Stradivari and new violins from the perspective of listeners in a hall. Projection and preference are taken as the two broadest criteria by which listeners might meaningfully compare violins. Which violins are heard better, and which are preferred? In two separate experiments, three new violins were compared with three by Stradivari. Projection was tested both with and without orchestral accompaniment. Projection and preference were judged simultaneously by dividing listeners into two groups. Results are unambiguous. The new violins projected better than the Stradivaris whether tested with orchestra or without, the new violins were generally preferred by the listeners, and the listeners could not reliably distinguish new from old. The single best-projecting violin was considered the loudest under the ear by players, and on average, violins that were quieter under the ear were found to project less well.iolinists generally agree that individual violins vary considerably in their ability to project-projection referring to how well an instrument can be heard at a distance, especially over a background of competing musical sound. The paradigmatic test for projection is the violin concerto, where a soloist is expected to carry over a full orchestra, often in a very large hall. Old Italian instruments are commonly believed to have the advantage over new ones in this regard. "What made the old instruments great was their power in a hall," wrote the distinguished violinist Earl Carlyss (1) in response to a 2010 blind study (2). Somewhat paradoxically, Old Italian violins are also commonly described as being relatively quiet under the ear of the player compared with new instruments. According to concertmaster Frank Almond (who plays a Stradivarius), "a peculiar (and sublime) aspect of great old Italian instruments is that the sound somehow expands and gains more complexity from a distance, especially in a concert hall." He contrasts this with many modern instruments, which seem to have a large sound under the ear but may not "carry past the sixth row" (www.insidethearts.com/nondivisi/they-blinded-mewith-science/, accessed April 10, 2017). Similarly, renowned cellist Steven Isserlis (who plays a Stradivarius cello) wrote "[a] famous (and curious) feature of Stradivarius instruments is that their tone seems...

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The violin is a highly evolved instrument which has long resisted significant changes to its design and construction. Still, acoustical research over the past several decades has shed sufficient light on the workings of the violin that makers can now consider non-traditional approaches to their craft in order to optimize the sound, playability, and consistency of their instruments. The work of researchers such as Duennwald, Haines, Hutchins, and Weinreich will be considered in terms of its usefulness as a guide to building better violins.

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