Institut d'Alembert - LAM, Sorbonne Université / CNRS
Abstract :
While the outline geometry differs slightly between violins,
it can vary considerably
between violas, which are less standardised. During the
2016 Oberlin workshop
(organised by the Violin Society of America), a group of
instrument makers have
collectively designed the so-called ObieAlto outline. 25
violas were then built following this model, but without any
other constraint. They were gathered and mounted with
the same set of strings at the 2017 workshop. Two short
excerpts (respectively in the low and high registers) were
recorded by a professional player in a
recording studio. The recordings
were used in two listening tests, based on a free
categorisation task : participants (20 makers and 10
violists) had to evaluate the similarities and differences
between the instruments. Statistical and linguistic
analyses showed a large variability between
the participants but groups of instruments
sharing relatively consensual features could be identified.
Very few direct relationships between
these perceptual features and physical parameters
(constructional data but as well audio
descriptors calculated on the recordings and vibro-
acoustical measurements) could be observed, showing
that the multiplicity of the parameters available during
the building process allow instrument
makers to obtain a certain set of perceptual properties
with very different strategies.