Jan 16, 2012, 9:17 GMT
Washington - Most professional musicians prefer to play high-quality new instruments rather than a violin by Italian masters Antonio Stradivari or Guarneri del Gesu - at least when they don't know which instrument they are playing.
These are the findings of scientific research by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), where 21 experienced violinists were asked to choose their favourite violin after playing the instruments under double-blind conditions in a room with relatively dry acoustics.
Researchers found that the most-preferred violin amongst the musicians was new, while the least-preferred was by Stradivari. There was also little correlation between an instrument's age and price and its perceived quality. Furthermore, the majority of musicians appeared unable to tell whether their most-preferred instrument was old or new.
Stradivari and Guarneri lived in the 18th century and are the most famous masters from the golden age of violin making, which lasted from around 1550 to 1770, according to Claudia Fritz from the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. Since the 19th century, nearly all famous violinists have played a Stradivari or Guarneri violin.
Many musicians claim that they are immediately able to tell whether a violin is new or old by its sound. There are numerous theories about the supposed superior quality of older violins, ranging from the impact of the special paint used to the effect of the mini-Ice Age on the instrument's wood.
Fritz and her colleagues asked the experienced violinists to play six violins in a darkened hotel room while wearing welding goggles over their eyes. Three of the violins ranged from just a few days to a couple of years old, while the violinists were also asked to play two Stradivari and one Guarneri violin.
The musicians were required to rate the violins according to typical standards such as sound and playing quality. They also had to decide which violin they would most like to take home with them as well as rating each violin against each other.
The research showed that the musicians weren't able to differentiate between the old and new violins, with the newer violins actually turning out to be the preferred choice for 13 of the musicians, with just eight plumping for a Stradivari or Guarneri. One of the two Stradivari violins was voted the worst instrument in both tests.
Rather than searching for the 'secret' of Stradivari, future research might best focus on how violinists evaluate instruments, on which specific playing qualities are most important to them, and on how these qualities relate to measurable attributes of the instruments, the researchers wrote.
It seems differences in taste among musicians, along with differences in playing qualities among individual instruments, appear more important than any general differences between new and old violins.
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