First violins imitate the human voice
Music historians have long suspected that inventors of the violin sought to achieve the imitation of the human voice with their instruments. How this was achieved by Italian masters of the 16-18 centuries tells the scientific research held by the National Taiwan University.
During the experiment, the researchers asked a professional violinist to play fifteen antique instruments, including the violin of Andrea Amati, dating back to 1570.
By the way, this Italian master from Cremona is considered to be the founder of the classical four-string violin and the founder of the school of violin makers. The first records of the ancient family of Amati in the archival chronicles of the city of Cremona date back to 1097.
Another violin is owned by another Italian maker of musical instruments of Gasparo da Salò, who once claimed along with Amati for the title of the first master of violins of modern design.
All other violins used in the experiment were produced by the Italian Stradivari family.
Antonio Stradivari was a student of Nicolo Amati - the grandson of the legendary Andrea. Stradivari made his contribution to the formation of a beautiful stringed instrument and improved the design, which was followed by Amati.
So, scientists recorded scaled performed on all fifteen of antique violins. Then, the voices of eight men and eight women between the ages of 16 and 30 who sang the vowel sounds of the English language were recorded.
Thorough acoustic analysis showed that the violin of Amati dating to 1570 and the violin of Gasparo da Salò dating to 1560 imitate the bass and baritones of male performers. Scientists came to the conclusion - the masters of the violins of that period, tried to give their string "instruments" male voices.
But the singing of Stradivari violins, on the contrary, distinguished by elevated formants, which brings them closer to the sound of a female altos or a high male singing voice of tenor. These properties explain the characteristic purity and splendor of the violins of this master.
