The acoustics of the violin is a quintessentially cross-diciplinary subject.

 

Though violin makers can still ask ‘what has science ever done for us?’ However, a growing number of scientifically minded makers are finding benefits from understanding underlying phenomena, and from the use of measurement methods of a variety of types.

 

For example, simple mechanical and acoustical test methods can give a way of making consistency and quality assurance checks when choosing wood to buy. Furthermore, one may set about looking systematically for replacement materials with equivalent or even superior properties for making instruments. And it provides new tools, and exactly what use can be made of those is still being actively explored. Equally, there can be benefits to players and teachers from understanding the underlying science of what they are trying to do.

 

 

For the scientist, the subject is inexhaustibly fascinating. Even within the tighter confines of physical understanding of how the violin works, unsolved problems have been encountered in nonlinear dynamics, constitutive mechanics of rosin, hybrid deterministic/statistical understanding of body vibration and sound radiation, and many other areas.