Instruments: The Little Wooden Song Box

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The lordly violin and its less illustrious relatives in the string family are in trouble. As today's concert halls grow more cavernous, it becomes increasingly difficult for a solo violinist to project his sound above a thundering orchestra and out to the most distant seats. And even if he does, many stereo hi-fi addicts contend that the sound is only a pale echo of the "electronically enhanced" concertos that they can conjure up in their living rooms.

Troubled by such problems, Cellist Janos Starker recently hit on a solution that is "so simple as to be almost silly." Working with a Chicago violinmaker and a specially designed drill, he bored small, cone-shaped holes in the undersides of the bridges of several string instruments; these holes, says Starker, act like tiny megaphones and "dramatically" amplify the quantity and quality of the tone. So far, he has applied his treatment to 50 string instruments, including the Stradivari played by Chicago Symphony Associate Concertmaster Victor Aitay, who says it has made a "tremendous difference." Starker has applied for a patent for his technique, plans to market the Starker Bridge in six weeks for about $25.

Baked & Boiled. If the new bridge lives up to expectations, it will be one of the most significant tonal innovations in string instruments in 300 years. This, however, is not likely to cut much ice with many performers, if only because musicians have a habit of disagreeing on almost every notion concerning their instruments, especially violins. Fiddle players agree on one important fact, however: the finest violins are the Cremona instruments made by Joseph Guarneri del Gesù (1698-1744) and Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737). There are only about 150 Guarneri and 550 Strads still in existence, and they sell today for $30,000 to $100,000. Most violinists cannot afford that kind of money.

But can't modern technology provide an equally good wooden song box? A few violinists say yes, most say no. In recent years, scientists have studied the art of violinmaking in minute detail; scores of fiddles have been scraped, Xrayed, dismembered, chemically treated, dehumidified, baked, boiled, bombarded with sound waves, measured by oscilloscopes and spectrum recorders — all to little avail. Though Strads have been copied to within one-thousandth of an inch of the original, the sound never measures up. The reasons for this, as diverse and elusive as music itself, constitute a mystery and mystique that is unmatched in the art.

Polo Balls. To begin with, even the foremost violinists are out of tune. Jascha Heifetz, Leonid Kogan and Isaac Stern like the dark, virile tone of the Guarneri; Zino Francescatti, Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh prefer the lighter, silvery tone of the Stradivari. The Guarneri has the breadth and projection of a contralto, says one camp. Ah, yes, but the Strad has the clarity and finesse of a soprano, counters the other. That Stradivari enjoys a more illustrious reputation, says Heifetz, is because "he had a better pressagent." Actually, claims Jascha, "the Guarneri is a joyous woman, richly experienced in life; the Stradivari is a young, unsophisticated girl."