Statistical correlations between construction parameters and radiated sound in a set of professional-level violins

Violin making is perhaps one of the most mysterious crafts in the western tradition of instrument making. The current approach to crafting musical instruments relies heavily on intuition and accumulated knowledge, transmitted through generations in a traditional master-apprentice format. The extended time required for both instrument creation and the development of the skills and intuition essential for this craft makes the learning process highly time-consuming. The fundamental question in violin making is how construction and material parameters influence the acoustic response of the instrument. By analyzing data recorded for over 20 years of career, we are able to obtain strong correlations between material, design and acoustic characteristics for a set of instruments by the same maker. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the most complete dataset in the world. Applying least square fitting to the power emitted by the violins in different bands, we are able, for the first time, to find statistically significant correlations between construction parameters and acoustic response in a set of professional-level instruments.