Shaping and understanding sound: Violin makers, musicians and scientists from Renaissance to Romantism

Abstract

The training of instrument-makers in Renaissance Italy is linked to a rediscovery of theoretical works on physics and sound as well as to some new tools and skills. Then, the development of physics in the seventeenth and eighteenth century lead the establishment of acoustic as a modern science, with the distinction of partials from harmonics. The ''western world'' has given explanations on vibrations, modes and then elasticity theories, some of which have been included into general knowledge. By times, links between scientists and makers have developed and have participated to the development of musical instruments. Traditional violin makers are craftspeople, and they construct instruments by choosing step by step between many possibilities from the drawing of the model and the choice of materials, to the cutting out of the shapes to create air volumes and vibrating facings. Their parameters are the dimensions, shapes, weight, elasticity, quality and duration of sounds and notes. The test for judging the results is the playing of the instrument by a very competent musician. We will explore, with a point of view of the historian of techniques how the meeting of different cultures and knowledge have transformed the instruments from the Renaissance to the beginning of the 19th century.