{"id":466,"date":"2014-09-17T13:49:44","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T20:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gots2know.com\/?p=466"},"modified":"2014-09-20T10:18:11","modified_gmt":"2014-09-20T17:18:11","slug":"new-vs-old-string-instrument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gots2know.com\/?p=466","title":{"rendered":"New vs. Old Instrument"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does a New or Old instrument sound better?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Boesendorfer<\/a>

Boesendorfer Piano<\/p><\/div>\n

I believe it\u2019s every musician\u2019s dream to own an astonishingly great crafted instrument such as a B\u00f6sendorfer, Steinway, Stradivari, Bergonzi, or Gadliano. And as a violinist myself, I can only dream to be able to feel the body of an Italian handmade Stradivari violin and maybe, just maybe, to gently pluck one of its strings to enjoy the legendary father of perfection and that astounding sound.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/a>

Red “Mendelssohn” Violin by Antonio Stradivari
My favorite<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was educated that an older string instrument was much better than a new one because the wood needs the vibration coming from the string to break it in.\u00a0\u00a0On the contrary, it\u2019s brand new instruments when it comes piano, and it needs to be black, 6\u2019 or 7\u2019 foot grand piano.\u00a0\u00a0Restored Steinway piano has never been on my purchase list.\u00a0J<\/p>\n

I was ecstatic when this research article was released. The researcher’s finding definitely gives younger generation players a hope and great encouragement to carry on with their passion about music knowing that they can make great sound whether they play on a $2M of Stradivari violin or a $1000 student violin.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The study was led by Dr. Fritz, a flautist and a musical acoustics researcher and his research team at Piere and Marie Curie University in Paris. The concept was not to deny the work and sound of the maestros Stradivari or Guarneri del Gesu, or many other great instruments makers nor to promo new modern instruments as\u00a0better than the older ones. It just simply wanted to show all the soloists that everyone can generate\u00a0an astounding sound regardless of the value or the age of the violin. The research procedures were to\u00a0ask 21 players at the International Competition, Indiana 2010, to\u00a0blindfold their eyes and play 3 old instruments and 3 new instruments and record the observation. The results were \u201cThirteen chose a new violin as their favorite; the least favorite of the six was a Stradivarius, researchers reported.\u201d And the newest study had 10 professional violin soloists with 75 minutes in a\u00a0rehearsal room, and 75 minutes in\u00a0a 300 seat Concert Hall, using their own favorite bow. The result was astounding: 6 soloists choose newer violins in the concert hall because of the loud, assertive sound that projected over the orchestra.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/04\/08\/science\/a-strad-violinists-cant-tell.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A18%22%7D&_r=0<\/a><\/p>\n

By PAM BELLUCKAPRIL 7, 2014<\/p>\n

\"Paganini<\/a>

Paganini Quartet by Antonio Stradivari<\/p><\/div>\n

I wouldn\u2019t be surprised and agree with\u00a0the research speculation as to\u00a0why a soloist would give\u00a0a higher rating to\u00a0new instruments. When you play as a soloist with an orchestra, you do want your violin to be able to project sound over the orchestra, and a\u00a0new instrument is usually easier to do so than an\u00a0older instrument.<\/p>\n

In truth, there are many elements involved in\u00a0constructing an astounding, vibrant sound. First, what kind of SOUND do you enjoy from a string instruement, the type of string used, the bow, the hair on the bow, varnish, rosin, and the most important part \u201cthe technique of bowing\u201d.<\/p>\n

I remember a few years back, my husband decided to ditch his violin and turn into a cellist, and he is big fan of new instruments. I didn\u2019t find his new cello\u2019s sound \"Paul's<\/a>fascinating, in fact, I was wondering how he can practice with an\u00a0instrument that sounded so rustic, crispy, loud, no color in the tone. But, the exact same cello with student grade bow sounded like a centuries old Strad cello when his cello teacher played it. Up until\u00a0today, the sound from the Bach suite played on the same cello still lives in my memory, ringing in my ear.<\/p>\n

As a violinist myself, we have 3 violins in the household. One is a 100+ years old German handmade Stradivari style, one is a 15-20 years old by Sigrun Seifert, a top American Violin maker, and the third is a $100 fitting T.G. Pfretzschner German made student violin. Each of them has a different brand and type of string, different quality of pegs, sound bridge, varnish, and of course with different bows on each violin; in addition, each using different grade rosin\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n

After I read the articles, I went back to dig out my $100 student violin, and I played on it with my current bow, it sounded different than I remember (15-20 year ago was the last time I played on it), and I sort of like it, not yet falling in love, it\u2019s loud, crispy but it has the rich, deep sound hidden in the back waiting for discovery. \u00a0Perhaps, my son will able to bring out its true beautiful sound once he is ready for a\u00a0full size violin. \u263a<\/p>\n

I will reveal what I did with my other two violins to transform the sound into the sound that my ears enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"Student<\/a>

Student Violin by T.G. Pfretzschner<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I believe it\u2019s every musician\u2019s dream to own an astonishingly great crafted instrument such as a B\u00f6sendorfer, Steinway, Stradivari, Bergonzi, or Gadliano. And as a violinist myself, I can only dream to be able to feel the body of an Italian handmade Stradivari violin and maybe, just maybe, to gently pluck one of its strings to enjoy the legendary father of perfection and that astounding sound.<\/p>\n

I was educated that an older string instrument is much better than a new one because…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,60],"tags":[61,62],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gots2know.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gots2know.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gots2know.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gots2know.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gots2know.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/gots2know.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"https:\/\/gots2know.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gots2know.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gots2know.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gots2know.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}