The Physics of the Violin

This major work covers almost all that has been learned about the acoustics ofstringed instruments from Helmholtz’s 19th-century theoretical elaborations to recentelectroacoustic and holographic measurements.Many of the results presented here were uncovered bythe author himself (and by his associates and students) over a 20-year period of research on thephysics of instruments in the violin family. Lothar Cremer is one of the world’s most respectedauthorities on architectural acoustics and, not incidentally, an avid avocational violinist andviolist.The book – which was published in German in 1981 – first of all meets the rigorous technicalstandards of specialists in musical acoustics. But it also serves the needs and interests of twobroader makers and players of stringed instruments are expressly addressed, since theimplications of the mathematical formulations are fully outlined and explained; and acousticians ingeneral will find that the work represents a textbook illustration of the application of fundamentalprinciples and up-to-date techniques to a specific problem.The first – and longest – of the book’sthree parts investigates the oscillatory responses of bowed (and plucked) strings. The naturalnonlinearities that derive from considerations of string torsion and bending stiffness are deftlyhandled and concisely modeled.The second part deals with the body of the instrument. Specialattention is given to the bridge, which transmits the oscillations of the strings to the wooden bodyand its air cavity. In this case, linear modeling proves serviceable for the most part – asimplification that would not be possible with lute – like instruments such as the guitar.Theradiation of sound from the body into the listener’s space, which is treated as an extension of theinstrument itself, is the subject of the book’s final part.Lothar Cremer is Professor Emeritus atthe Technical University of Berlin, where he served as director of the Institute for AcousticalEngineering.