violins and age

[Antares]

Susan Kline wrote:

>It might be hard to prove in any objective way, but I have experienced the
>same thing. Instruments that have not been played for awhile give me the
>feeling of having a tone that is stodgy, tight, and thin. I don't think that
>it takes as long to get back the responsiveness as Don describes. Big, open,
>free playing brings it back pretty quickly (a few hours), is my experience.
>Do any other string players have observations about this?

Antares answers:

Susan and List,
I too have played a string instrument for quite a long time, I played the bass and the cello.
I have heard this story many and many times, and I have always wondered about the credibility and the facts.
I am sure that something happens to wood when it is being forced to vibrate seriously, but for some reason I can not truly believe that the instrument will sound better because of it.
Instead, I tend to believe that, as the player again starts to play his instrument after having neglected it for some time, he or she will feel more familiar with it after some time of practice.
It *might* be, that therefore, the instrument will sound better because its' player becomes "better".

>Now, do pianos exhibit the same trait? I recently (last year) replaced parts
>on a 1941 Steinway A that had sat unplayed for a long time. It was in a
>private home, and was seized with verdigris, then got donated to the Arts
>Center. I noticed a big change when, months after I got it playing, it was
>_finally_ given some good, loud (even _very_ loud) use by some composers
>during a symposium. I suspect it had never been played so much and so hard
>in its whole life as it was that week. The tone opened out a lot, especially
>in the "trouble" octave.

So, in this case, again it *might* be that because the instrument had been used for a considerable time, the centerpins and all the other "friction points" had become more "loose", resulting in a more dynamic action, resulting in a more dynamic tone.

As a matter of fact, I dearly wish that it were true about wood becoming more "rich and open" after use, but maybe the "spherical shaped object" (sso) wobbling on the cylindrical shaped object (cso) called "the neck",  is too dense for this subtle way of thinking. And... maybe I should be glad that I have given up playing the bass and the cello...
I was playing out of tune all the time anyway!

Friendly greetings from :
          
CONCERT PIANO SERVICE
André Oorebeek
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
       
‰  where MUSIC is no harm can be  ‰