Sound ideas

Violinists and brothers Arne and Jens Rossbach share their experiments in sound and timbre, as well as their playing experience, to help violin makers fine-tune their set-ups

Points of interest to violin and bow makers

The set-up is designed to support the violin’s agility and power

MARTIN HORVAT

Isn’t it strange how many of our colleagues are never really satisfied with their instruments? Since we were not prepared to accept this fate, we tried to help ourselves and ultimately our colleagues by adjusting the sound. It seems to make the most sense to start with a kind of standard set-up in order to gradually adapt the instrument to the individual player’s wishes later on. However, the wishes expressed are not individual at all: everyone wants volume, timbre, carrying capacity, both brightness and depth and warmth, and easy response. In short, we all want a balanced mix that works.

So the general advice musicians receive is to find the middle of all qualities. Apparently, individual taste is expressed much more strongly in the choice of instruments than in the way they are set up. Are we satisfied with that now? Unfortunately not. There are complaints about homogeneity among the registers or strings, of clanging, wolf tones or poor separation of finger stops. Apart from the fact that it would be a mistake to be able to treat these faults in isolation, there is generally great disappointment because one’s beloved instrument remains below its true potential. It lacks the sensitivity to subtle changes in bowing, and cannot be raised to a real fortissimo. The result is the feeling of having, on the one hand, to struggle and overexert oneself and, on the other, to act in an extremely sparing and controlled manner. If we nevertheless try to remain relaxed and keep to natural movements, everything becomes flat: the sound, the articulation and the phrase. Balance is certainly desirable but we have ignored something crucial: timbre and brilliance are not static qualities, but dynamic!

TIMBRE AND BRILLIANCE ARE NOT STATIC, BUT DYNAMIC

An increase in volume is always accompanied by a change in timbre. Especially with instruments of the violin family, a rousing performance comes from an instrument’s volume and timbre together bringing an intensification of expression. Only within narrow limits can something like a ‘quiet fortissimo’ or a ‘loud pianissimo’ be produced. But what characterises a ‘real’ pianissimo or a ‘real’ fortissimo? The extremes that different instruments have to offer are very different in character and expression. The question of what constitutes the quality of a sound setting and to what extent this has to do with balance is something we are now answering differently.

The best sound setting is the one in which the instrument is supported in its sound characteristics over the entire dynamic range. The player can then easily produce a balanced, round sound in the ‘comfort zone’, i.e. in the middle dynamic range. In the listener’s perception, ‘roundness’ comes from the contrasting character of the extremes.

Every instrument is unique. Nevertheless, through a systematic series of experiments we have developed a categorisation that gives us some orientation. As a model, it is a simplification that comprises a selfcontained system of six types. The questions that serve the categorisation are: Does more energy in sound production make the sound more brilliant? Does it also become more focused or broader? Or does it become richer but always remain bright? Then, do I achieve this most clearly through higher bow speed, i.e. horizontal deflection? Or through deeper sinking into the string, i.e. vertical deflection or torsion of the string?

TABLE 1 An overview of the six instrument categories

DIAGRAMS ARNE ROSSBACH/ANGELA LYONS

FIGURE 1 This dial distinguishes four main directions in which the sound of a stringed instrument changes when played intensely

Both types of bowing can be used on any instrument, and both are important! However, one type of increase in oscillation is mainly responsible for larger volume while maintaining a relaxed character, the other for intensifying the timbre. The technique that can change the sound character in the direction of the complementary opposite should be decisive. And it is also through this technique that the greatest radiance can be achieved.

The typical violin for vertical energy transmission has a dark basic sound that can be increased to the highest, exuberant brilliance. In figure 1 this is represented by the needle pointing directly upwards. The sound pressure seems to come from within the instrument. If such an instrument were played with a lot of horizontal energy instead, a voluminous yet dark sound would be produced.

The typical violin for horizontal energy transmission (represented by the needle pointing to the left) has a light, slender sound that can be increased to the densest complexity. The sound pressure seems to come directly from the table. On the other hand, it responds to more weighty bowing with a stronger, but still slender, sound.

Instruments that develop towards focus as the brilliance increases exist in both response types. This means that for some of those instruments the intensity of the sound quality is mainly due to a vertical acceleration of the string. For others it is due to a horizontal acceleration. The same is true for instruments whose lucidity and suppleness increase with brilliance; they exist in both types.

There is no ranking among these types: for each of the six, we can find both cheap beginner instruments and those played by renowned soloists as examples.

Astroke of luck brought us together with master luthier Martin Horvat, who had arrived at very similar insights by other means. He likes to compare the transformability of the sound and these fine transitions with natural phenomena, using water as a metaphor for sound. Sometimes it is the wind that swirls the snowflakes, sometimes it is a fountain on whose water jet the droplets spray or a dew drop that reflects and breaks light in rainbow colours. For some years now, together with Jens Rossbach, he has been offering sound adjustments of stringed instruments in Vienna, under the motto ‘Take your violin to its own nature’. But what is the ‘true nature’ of your violin? Finding this out is an extremely exciting process and the path is not always straightforward. Rather, it is important to accompany each small individual step by listening and analysing. In the process, a single change can also initially bring about a deterioration, although it might be helpful in combination with another measure. But it can also mean that our previous assignment was not appropriate.

When everything meshes, it’s a wonderful feeling. The naturalness with which the sound nuances accompany the performance is delightful. The potential that the owner had always sensed is openly available and feels familiar. For some musicians, this marks the beginning of the real journey of discovery with their beloved instrument. Others, however, can finally break away from their previous instrument and conclude a phase of development with gratitude: what else is there to discover, and with which instrument can I resonate so much that it becomes my own voice?