Old Y. New

Every violinist knows what a Stradivarius or a Guarnerius is, knows that these famed fiddles made in Cremona more than 200 years ago are considered the best in the world. Supposedly unrecapturable is the secret of the Cremona makers--whether it was construction, shape, wood or varnish. Professor Frederick Albert Saunders, Harvard physicist, has long been making a scientific analysis of the tone quality and playing performance of Stradivarius and Guarnerius violins in comparison with the best modern instruments. Last week, in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, he published his findings.

With a harmonic analyzer Dr. Saunders dissected the tones of old and new violins, plotted their ups & downs on a graph. These indicated that there was practically no difference between the tone quality of a Strad or Guarnerius and of a fine new instrument. The scientist then had a violinist play a Strad and two new violins behind a screen, asking an audience--many of whom were musically erudite--to tell which was which. Only about a third guessed right, and this number would be expected to guess correctly oft the basis of pure chance.

But Dr. Saunders found a good reason why violinists prefer to play the old instruments. The reason: they are easier to play. Through some mysterious process inherent in aging, the violin becomes mechanically more responsive--it begins to "speak" a fraction of a second sooner when force is applied to the strings. Dr. Saunders experimented with a motor-operated machine which bowed the violins by elastic celluloid disks in such a way that the force required to produce a singing tone could be measured. In the old violins the force required was slightly less.

Logical conclusion: two centuries from now, the violins of the most skilled modern makers will be just as good as the Cremona violins are today.

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