piano/violin

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Nereson" <dnereson@dimensional.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: June 10, 2001 2:36 AM
Subject: piano/violin


> --- Delwin D Fandrich <pianobuilders@olynet.com
> > wrote:

> > Second, piano soundboards should not resonate.
> > They do, of course, but it would be best if they did not. And, while I
don't
> > know anything about violin design I rather suspect that violin
soundboards
> > shouldn't resonate either.
>
>      Of course it should resonate! (vibrate sympathetically with the
source
> of sound, i.e. the vibrating string.  How else does it transfer its
> vibrations to the air?  The word resonate (precise definitions of
electrical
> & physical resonance notwithstanding)  means 'to resound, to vibrate
> sympathetically with some source of sound', which string instrument tops &
> backs, bottom drumheads,  piano soundboards, and duplex scales do, and
also
> window panes when jets or loud trucks go by.

Let's not confuse 'resonate' with 'vibrate.' Soundboards should vibrate in
response to the signals sent to them from the strings. Resonances within the
soundboard assembly, if they are strong enoug, show up as voicing problems
at the frequency of resonance.



> Another difference between fiddles and pianners is that the violin also
> has a back and the whole assembly creates an oddly-shaped "box", or
> resonating chamber, with the top and bottom connected by a soundpost.  The
> box is a place for the sound to resonate.  If you took the back off, it
> would sound quite different indeed.  I didn't say the whole body of the
> violin is always "in resonance" with whatever note is being played, but
the
> soundwaves in the air inside the violin might be.   Vertical pianos, with
> their lower cavity behind the bottom panel, have something of a
"resonating
> chamber", it seems to me -- if you yell or drop a heavy tool into them,
they
> echo, like a cave.  Grands don't do this as much, unless the lid is
closed.
> What this all means, I don't know -- my main point is that the string
> instruments and pianos do have SOME similarities, and that resonance,
> or resonating, depending on your definitions, is definitely involved.

Like I said, piano soundboards do resonate. It would just be best if we
could figure out how to make one that didn't.

-- ddf