How Low Can the Violin Go?
SEP 01, 1995
A ccomplished violinists can generate anomalous low frequencies on their instruments. These unusual tones can be understood in terms of multiple reflections of a single wave at the bow. In effect the reflections prolong the sound‐producing cycle first analyzed by Helmholtz.
DOI: 10.1063/1.2808155
Almost all beginning violinists generate the sound of a small woodshop when practicing low notes. Almost no professional musicians cultivate that scratchy rumble to produce definite tones of lower frequency than the violin is normally capable of. Yet such tones can be generated, and several investigators are trying to make sense of them.
© 1995. American Institute of Physics
