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Were Checking Plate Resonances. with Help Mezzos, Four Altos, One Tenor

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THE CATGUT ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Number 13, published semiannually May 1,1970 As these pages go to press (April 22), the Acoustical Society of America is meeting in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Papers by several of our members are on the agenda, two of them by John Schelleng and by Richard Menzel and Carleen Hutchins "being presented in this Newsletter. Various other recent events are as follows. During December the tenor violin and the contrabass violin were used by Frank Lewin in music which he composed for the motion picture "Angel Levine", produced by Belafonte Enterprises and which will be released shortly. Charles McCracken played the tenor and Alvin Brehm the contrabass. The tenor can be heard as a solo voice in many parts of the music with its clear carrying tone quality, while the contra- bass blends its full rich low tones with those of the bass clarinet throughout. Again Mr. Lewin has composed for these instruments with a sensitive awareness of their distinctive tone colors and capabilities. True Sackrison, who has played her vertical viola extensively in concert throughout the Washington (state) area, has now moved to Lynd, Minnesota, where she is working with a friend to start the string department at a new college. Her first eight weeks there were spent in getting acquainted, playing cello, vertical viola, conventional violin, and her experimental vertical violin to about 45,000 students. You may remember that in 1965 Mrs. Sackrison played the "Suite for Viola and Piano" with the composer Robert Whitcomb at the piano. This is probably the first piece of music composed with this particular instrument in mind. Since then Mrs. Sackrison, a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, and Mr. Whitcomb, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, have concertized widely using this Suite as well as other music for vertical viola and piano. Patsy Rogers reports that her Concerto for Tenor and Symphony Orchestra is nearly finished and will be ready soon for trial perfor- mance. Hammond Ashley of Seattle, Washington has undertaken to produce some of the new instruments of the violin family. About a year ago, he and his wife visited Carleen Hutchins to get patterns, information, and test equipment for checking plate resonances. With help from Arthur Ross of Moscow, Idaho, two mezzos, four altos, one tenor, one baritone, and one 3/4 size bass (5 strings including a high C) have already been finished. Several of these have already been sold. In addition, work has started on a large and a small bass, although suitable material for backs is difficult to find. Louis Dunham of Maplewood,N. J. and Donald Mugridge of Mirror Lake, N.H. both continue to make parts for the new violin family instruments. Their skilled work will soon be augmented hy the addition of -.Thomas Knatt of West Concord, Mass, to the group working for the Society. Mr. Enatt will work on the testing and construction of the tenor and alto violins. Furtherance of this work is being made possible by the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music. 2 We are pleased to report that we have a new Executive Secretary, Mrs. Elizabeth CATGUT ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY McGilvray, of Montclair, N.J. who will take President over much of the detailed work of running Arthur Benade the Society at 112 Essex Avenue. 3126 Woodbury Road l UUI2O Since the last Newsletter, Carleen Hutchins Cleveland, Ohio has given lecture demonstrations on the Vice President physics of violins and the development of Virginia Apgar the new violin family to: 30 Engle Street U.S. Coast Guard Academy, New London, Conn. Tenafly,N.J. o767o Montclair Women's Club Secretary College Women's Club,Montclair State Coll. Carleen Hutchins Music Conservatory and Physics Department, 112 Essex Avenue Oberlin College,Oherlin, Ohio Montclair,N .J . orJok20 rJ0k2 Kalamazoo College,Kalamazoo, Michigan At the Montclair Women's Club, Louis Zerbe Treasurer with the help of his graduate assistants Warren Creel and Ferrara Street Carl Sala, John Furia, Lawrence 1+56 Hamilton gave an excellent and most interesting Albany ,N.Y.l22o3 demonstration of the new violin family. Editor So much interest was generated by the new Robert Fryxell at that a vertical viola Drake Road instruments Oberlin 7355 and a mezzo violin will stay there on an Cincinnati Ohio 1+52^3 experimental basis for the rest of the term. Arthur Montzka, formerly of West Orange, N.J. not only arranged for a group of students to play the new instruments in ensemble, but took some excellent photographs of them. This year the New Jersey Symphony "Annual Arts Award" made to a resident of the State of New Jersey who has made a significant contri- bution to the arts was given to Carleen Hutchins. The presentation was at the Annual Dinner-Ball at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, N, J. Dr.P.E.Pashler spoke on "The Secret of Stradivarius" on April 2 to the Hudson-Mohawk Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in Schenectady,N.Y. He has spoken on violin physics on previous occasions and is our spokesman in the Schenectady area. Our President, Arthur Benade, has recently made great strides in under- standing and improving wind instruments, and he has presented his findings to a number of interested audiences during the past year. Hopefully, pertinent parts of this research will be reported in future issues of this Newsletter. It is with great regret that we report the death of Robert Wallace of Miami, Arizona, who for many years has been the Editor of the "International Violin, Guitar Makers and Musicians Journal", a prime force in the Violin and Guitar Makers Association of Arizona. Through the pages of the monthly journal, Bob Wallace has created an exchange of information that has served not only to increase understanding of the highest traditions of violin and guitar making throughout the world, but also to encourage many amateur violin makers to develop the skills of good craftsmanship into the art of fine violin making. Bob Wallace has truly devoted years of his life to encouraging and developing the art of violin making. On October 15,1969, the Finance Committee of the Catgut Acoustical Society held its first meeting. The following attended: Chairman Timothy Arbuckle, Warren Creel, Donald Engle, John Huber, Carleen Hutchins, Earle Kent. Winifred Flatt served as secretary. The principal topic under discussion was the idea of starting an institute for the study of violin acoustics. All present agreed to the desirability of such a program. The committee decided to seek a university affiliation for three reasons. First, such an association would make available equip- ment, facilities and brain power not otherwise available- Second it would facilitate the procurement of funds necessary to support the project. Third it could provide a formalized program of study for graduate students interested in this field. Robert Scanlan and Carleen Hutchins have volunteered to establish contact with friends at MIT and broach the idea to them. Timothy Arbuckle and Warren Creel offered to compose a memorandum describing the activities of the proposed institute and soliciting financial support for it. The administrative structure of the institute and its relationship to the Catgut Acoustical Society came under discussion, but the meeting did not resolve these questions. Someone suggested that we name the institute after Professor A majority of the committee concurred in this. The question of raising the membership dues from $s*oo to $10.00 per year arose. The committee, however, decided not to increase dues at present since voluntary contributions had brought In sufficient funds to cover expenses. The final order of business was a tasty meal prepared by Carleen Hutchins- TREASURERS REPORT: Balance, October 1,1969 $2747*48 Income $1294.04 Dues $550,00 Contributions 653.50 Sales 43*00 Performance 200.00 Refund 67.54 Expenditures $3039.01 Insurance $24U00 Reprints 36.00 Postage 284.63 Printing & Stat. 122-32 Office secretary 272-87 Newsletter, publ, 145*33 Telephone 212-93 Labor 815.24 Performers 75*00 Materials 404.04 Equipment 12.75 Meeting expenses 273*25 Music & Composition 41*55 Executive, secy. 100.00 Bank charges 2.10 Balance, April 1,1970 $1002.51 Respectfully submitted, Warren Creel, Treasurer 3 Saunders, 4 Recent publications by members or about their activities are: (1) "Science and New Instruments for the String Family", Marjorie Bram, Amer. String Teacher, Winter, l97o (2) "Gary Karr - Genius with Bass Motives", Ishaq Arazi, Amer-String Teacher, Winter, l97o (3) "The Suzuki Method, Child Development and Transitional Tunes", Marjorie McDonald, Amer. String Teacher, Winter, l97o t (4) "The Tenor Violin - Past, Present, and Future", Hans Bender, Amer, String Teacher, Fa11,1969 (5) "A Comparison of Acoustical Measurements and Hologram Interferometry Measurements of the Vibrations of a Guitar Top Plate"', Erik Jansson, Speech Transmission Laboratory, Stockholm, Report No,STL- QPSR 2*5/1969 (6) "Importance of the Strings and Resonance Box for theTimber of the Violin", Erik Jansson, Slfljd och Ton* No. 1,1970. The first install- ment of a serial article- (7) "The Irondequoit Violin Sleuth", Margaret Converse, appearing in Upstate New York newspapers, Jan.25,1970. A story about Louis Condax. (8) "Shaping Sound in Wood", Bill Wingell, National Observer, Jan-5,1970- A story of the Martin Guitar Company and their Research Director, John Huber. * A bimonthly Swedish journal devoted to stringed instruments, in its 40th year of publication. Its editor, Ingvar Mflckle, is one of our members. **********#*********■****** TENOR DRAWING TO BE AVAILABLE In response to the many requests for a set of drawings and directions for making the tenor violin we are presently working to make these available strange - The lack of a true tenor instrument in the present day violin family has been lamented by many musicians and scholars.
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