A , and its Guarneri rivals, are credited with a rare power to fill a hall, and their prices are set on it. To test that, soloists played old and new instruments from behind a screen while hundreds of listeners rated what they heard, not knowing which was which. What did they choose?
Curiosity counts. Here is the answer.
No, and the precise wording matters. Two blind concerts ran, in Paris and New York, and the audience could not distinguish three old Italian violins from three new ones. On average they even preferred the new ones for carrying power. Six instruments is a small test, so this does not prove all violins sound alike; it shows the famous difference is not apparent when nobody knows what is playing.
Listeners could not say which violin was old and which was new. The instruments they judged to carry best through the hall were more often the new ones. The same group had already run the test on soloists themselves, in a dark room wearing welding goggles, and they did no better.
The story of the lost secret of Cremona has run for two hundred years, and many explanations have been offered along the way. The varnish. A chemical treatment of the wood. The unusual density of trees grown through a cold spell in Europe. What almost nobody did was the simple test of whether anyone hears the difference when they do not know what is playing.
The researchers staged two , in Paris and New York, where soloists played three old Italian violins and three new ones from behind a screen. Hundreds of listeners rated and quality. They could not say which instrument was old, and the ones they heard as carrying best were more often the new ones.
An earlier experiment by the same group tested the other side, the players. Experienced soloists in a darkened room wearing welding goggles also failed to identify what they were holding, and many picked a new instrument as the one they would take on tour.
The caveat matters and is not always quoted. Six instruments in two halls is a , too small to settle whether violins differ. What the experiment shows is narrower and still sharp: the difference the reputation promises is not apparent to a listener who does not know what is in front of them.
wat. When an audience hears a three-hundred-year-old violin without being told that it is one, it stops sounding special.
wat wat
Three centuries of reputation and a price in the millions do not necessarily reach the ear as anything. Remove the knowing, and only the comparison is left.
How do we know?
Two blind concerts, in Paris and New York, where soloists played three old Italian violins and three new ones. The audience rated loudness and quality without knowing or seeing which instrument was in play.
What is still unknown
Six instruments in two halls is a small sample, and it does not establish that violins are all alike. It shows that the difference is not apparent to a listener who does not know what is in front of them.
Learn something?
Where to next
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