Science｜Scientific Violin Pronunciation

-

01

-

Overtone

We all know that frequency is pitch.

In fact, principle of pitch in almost most musical instruments has to do with overtones. Overtones mean that when an object receives energy, there will be different vibrations that go beyond overall vibration.

When jumping two octaves, sound is clear, like a flute, so delicate that people have a feeling of unsteady balance. Except that lowest sound produced by overall vibration of sounding body is pitch, and pitch is used as a reference, and other 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 and other parts also vibrate at same time. The combination of overtones determines specific timbre and allows you to clearly feel volume of fundamental tone. All sounds in musical instruments and in nature have overtones.

The overtone range of stringed instruments is much higher than real tone, for example, violin is in third position, and artificial overtone on real tone a2 is an a4 that has reached highest pitch of solo. Similar tables can be found in textbooks on string instruments, but here violin and viola are listed together.

All strings, like guitars and violins, use overtones to produce a unique tone, because pitch is made up of many small notes, not just one frequency, so vibration waveform is usually erratic, not as perfect as sine waves that we have drawn. in math class.

-

02

-

Resonance

Then just talking about overtone is a one-string problem, and it has nothing to do with violin body at all?

Then let's talk about resonance of piano cavity. The law of physics is that while energy is being transferred, it only needs to receive a frequency similar to its own, such as a violin.

A violin's resonator responds differently to different frequencies of vibratory resonance.

The resonance of musical instruments is carefully designed, and resonance frequency is almost completely covered. The figure above shows loudness characteristic Qin Opera can give as a function of frequency. We can clearly see that some notes are clearly lower than others, which seems very weak.

This is a very clever design that intentionally cuts off some of resonance, as all of violin's strings are in fifth power of ratio, which is more than necessary. The strings will also generate some resonance for many tones in relaxed state. If AND, since this kind of resonance is enhanced by amplifying resonator, almost every note will have lowest note of violin.

We can see that in general, closer to bass, greater tendency to general vibration and greater amplitude of lower piano board.

It should be said that lower bass, lower spatial position of resonant part, but more it gravitates towards vibration of piano as a whole. And front volume is always higher than rear.

But we all know that sound spreads very widely and volume of musical instrument is so low. If it's only because of the sound of different parts, then it should not be possible to judge which positions are higher and which are lower, but this is a sense of spatial change exists.

-

03

-

Sound transmission

The two sound holes of violin are on front side, and naturally front side is also most durable for sound transmission.

According to scientists, this seems to be due to principle of diffraction and interference of sound waves. The IQ of an art student means poor understanding. But my understanding is the following.

In any case, if there are multiple holes, it will go in same direction. But if we observe carefully, we will find that first-class performers sway their bodies from time to time while playing. In addition to their great devotion to game, they also change direction of sound transmission through this rocking. viola and cello don't swing as well Handy, but reliable and obvious, this is a very useful technique for discerning classical musician.

Although musicians accustomed to playing electric guitars or electric violins often shake their heads very strongly, range of motion that closely monitors whether rocking of instrument changes for audience is often very small. I think there should be a lot of people who know at least a little about violin, and they will scold me when they see this, which is simply unreasonable! ! This swing is because it is more convenient to adapt to fingering.

It is true that fingering has a certain effect on posture, but we compare different parts of music and analyze effect of these movements on entire performance when listening to a scene. understand effect on sound.

First-class violinists will definitely use "piano surface shaking" technique when working with long notes, especially in scale movement, this kind of wobble is especially obvious, why?

As mentioned in second paragraph, traditional violin does not have same volume for every sound. To balance this change, gamma will not become less streamlined due to characteristics of instrument. In addition to power control, master will tune front of piano up when pitch is strong and weakly resonant part of piano will face audience. Years of practice and performance experience have made them subconsciously understand this.

This oscillation changes direction and position of sound from upward to downward.

-

04

-

Sound Positioning

There is also problem of human ear recognition, why can we distinguish direction of sound? The more common answer is that depending on time and volume difference of seat receiving sound!

Positioning is simply understood as ability of people to judge position of a sound in space. We know that human ears are actually relatively sensitive. They can not only determine direction of sound source, but also determine distance to it. sound source. The reason we can judge direction of a sound is because time it takes sound to reach each ear is slightly different. The human brain uses this difference and some other information to construct a virtual 3D space to find and identify source of sound. .

When human ear locates source of a sound, it needs to provide information to center of auditory nerve for evaluation. The evaluation information comes from difference in time and difference in sound pressure levels between sound waves emitted by a sound source and transmitted to human ears.

How do you rate difference between left and right ear? The two ears can only provide parameters of two points, which are obviously limited by position of plane, so how do sounds from above and below come from, respectively?

Normally, if a person's head is completely fixed and his eyes are blindfolded, he cannot distinguish between ascending and descending sounds. Yes, human head can move, plus factors of memory and instinct, when listening to music, human head will naturally move, even if it is slightly tilted, turned and tilted, it is not only for listening.

Through these actions, human brain can work with ears to sense and distinguish between different positions throughout space.

For example, we use a good sound image positioning system, so when listening to a symphony, we will find that voice of main violinist is in front, and voice of woodwind instrument is behind string instrument and wind instrument. Further behind woodwinds from last row, a percussion sound is played, which is similar to a live listening.

This is actually due to sound field effect: reverb in concert hall surrounded all instruments, and listening room was removed and replaced with a concert hall! The sound we hear is no longer emitted on a plane, but is emitted in three-dimensional space.

Additional Content

David Gerrett plays Schubert Serenade

Green Island Serenade with violin score by Chen Ronghui

Is Vibrato Right: The Most Detailed Violin Lesson

Beautiful and healing music for violin: "Sweets" by Miyamoto Sakiri with scorefor violin

"Reunion Someday" with violin interlude from "Doctor Zhivago" by Chai Liang

Ayako Ishikawa plays "Let It Go" on violin

Catalogue of teaching aids for playing violin "Kaisai 36 violin studies"

Catalogue "Wolfart Violin Etude 60"

Interview between Perlman and renowned violin teacher Lin Yaoji. Same question, two answers

Violin solo "Swan Goose" with violin score - Folk Songs of Inner Mongolia