Posted on October 25, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part One: Mold and Template Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part One: Mold and Template by Robert J. Spear Originally published in American Lutherie #93, 2008 see also, Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Two: f-holes by Robert J. Spear Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Three: The Scroll by Robert J. Spear I have little doubt that artists, artisans, and architects of the Renaissance and Baroque used some system of guidance for their drawings that was based on the knowledge of geometry and the use of straightedge and divider. I began my drawing adventure almost five years ago by following the guidelines for the geometric design of the Model G in Sacconi’s book and soon discovered errors. Even so, I was convinced that it would be worthwhile to use a classical Cremonese approach based on geometry because I wanted to see if I could integrate it with Hutchins and Schelleng’s scaling theories used for the New Violin Family. While the acoustical aspects of the exercise are not germane here, I worked to realize a design system that would essentially produce a second generation of octet instruments close to a classical Cremonese violin in the style of the Model G Stradivari. My goal was to impart a greater uniformity to the octet family’s models, but to keep this article within bounds I have confined my remarks to the violin. There are those who question whether geometric design really played an important role in violin design and suggest that the model outline could be designed freehand. Others allow that some sort of geometrical or proportion scheme was used, but that it was not based on the golden section. A few ask why one can’t just get a good photo of a good model and enlarge or reduce it at the local copy center. You can (and I did at first), but because strange things start to happen in the larger and smaller instruments during the scaling process, straight scaling does not hold up. Still others, including Sacconi, stress that the eye was the final arbiter of any design, no matter how it was derived. I will attempt to address all of these points in this series of articles. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on October 25, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Two: f-Holes Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Two: f-Holes with Robert J. Spear Originally published in American Lutherie #94, 2008 see also, Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part One: Mold and Template by Robert J. Spear Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Three: The Scroll by Robert J. Spear The Cremonese design for the f-holes of a violin, at first glance, would appear to be based on the same design philosophy as the body and to make extensive use of the golden section. A. Thomas King, in his article “The Cremonese System for Positioning the f-Holes” in The Strad, shows rather convincingly that golden-section divisions based on the distance between the pins on the body was employed to fix the location of the f-hole eyes, which further reinforces this idea. However, when it comes to f-holes, I would like to suggest that there are a couple of additional jokers in the deck. First, the late Cremonese f-hole is derived from an earlier system of design, and some of the important parts of the predecessor system remain in use; second, an entirely different modulus is used for the f-holes than for the body; and, third, little is based on the golden section. The Forma G violin, upon which my model is based, is not quite the longest violin Stradivari ever made, but it is the widest. The most notable increase in width is in the center bout, which has another direct impact on the design of the f-hole and its placement. King notes that there is a general method for most Cremonese violins and a specialized adaptation for Stradivari violins. King explained the rather unintuitive step of taking the golden section of the distance between the locating pins in the top as the modulus for positioning the f-holes. I have used his approach here because it has many good points of correlation, and because I found an additional correlation that has convinced me even further that his hypothesis is correct. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on October 25, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Three: The Scroll Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Three: The Scroll with Robert J. Spear Originally published in American Lutherie #95, 2008 see also, Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part One: Mold and Template by Robert J. Spear Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Two: f-holes by Robert J. Spear Scrolls are all about spirals, and in mathematics only two kinds of spirals exist: the Archimedean and the logarithmic. The Archimedean is considered a special case because it is the only spiral where the expansion of each complete turn is identical in dimension to the one before or after it. A commonly used example is that of a tightly coiled garden hose laid on a flat surface. All other spirals, including golden-section spirals, are logarithmic. Although the actual distance between turns of log spirals is not uniform, the rate of expansion remains constant. To the Renaissance geometer and artisan, spirals were a natural form of great beauty and inspiration. A spiral played with the viewer’s visual senses, leading his eye on a merry chase and fooling it with the subtle shifting of its expansion. In modern times, the execution of the scroll is considered one of the few remaining places on the violin where the craftsman can display individuality, originality, and skill — and sometimes even all of these together! Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on June 26, 2019March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips The Catgut Acoustical Society and the New Violin Family Association The Catgut Acoustical Society and the New Violin Family Association by Robert J. Spear previously published in American Lutherie #86, 2006 See also, Meet the Maker: Carleen Hutchins by Alan Carruth The New Violin Family by Alan Carruth The Catgut Acoustical Society (CAS) had been known for nearly fifty years for the creation of the violin octet, mainly through the research and development of Carleen Hutchins (with the assistance of over a hundred society members), but the society also undertook a number of acoustically related projects during this same period. As the 20th century ended, some members wanted to focus more on these areas. There was also a growing feeling among the octet developers that this magnificent set of instruments needed to leave the world of science and enter the world’s concert stages. At the end of 1999, the society split into two groups, with one retaining the original CAS name and research focus. The other, the New Violin Family Association (NVFA), was formed to take on the challenge of promoting the Violin Octet. The division produced advantages and disadvantages for all concerned. The CAS and NVFA were now free to focus more directly on their respective areas of interest. But both were considerably smaller and financially weaker after the membership divided, and each soon had to redefine itself. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 11, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: New Violin Family Octet Letter: New Violin Family Octet by Robert J. Spear, Editor, New Violin Family Association Newsletter Originally published in American Lutherie #81, 2005 Dear GAL — The concept of making seven or eight instruments in a balanced consort was described by Michael Praetorius in Syntagma Musicum in 1619, but it never developed enough musically to compete with the 17th-century advancement of the violin. That changed in the 20th century when a combination of acoustical research and master violin making created the Violin Octet of today. In 1957, composer Henry Brant was searching for a luthier adventurous enough to implement his idea “to create seven instruments, one at each half octave, that would produce violin-quality sound over the entire written range of music.” He approached Carleen Hutchins with his proposal at a time when she already had been working for a decade on the relation of violin air and wood resonances with Prof. Frederick A. Saunders of Harvard, who had pioneered violin research in the USA. It took Carleen only thirty minutes to agree to Henry’s idea, but it took her another ten years to finish the first Octet! Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
