JAKOB STAINER

Jakob Stainer was a violin maker from the 17th century born in Absam, in the Austrian Tirol. He was the most appreciated violin maker for the next two centuries, until string instruments were transformed to achieve a louder sound. Walter Senn and Karl Roy explain in their book Jakob Stainer (Ed. E. Bochinsky, 1986) that Bach and even Corelli had Stainer instruments. The fact that Corelli had a Stainer and not an Italian instrument is very significant. It would have been easier for him to get an Amati than a Stainer, and still he chose Tirol instead of Cremona. It is not surprising then that Stainer instruments, as Senn and Roy explain, were in that time ten times more expensive than Italian instruments.

Thinking about Stainer's instruments from the point of view of mechanical waves propagation leads to a new explanation of how string instruments work. That physical principle also explains why instruments with lower arching produce a clearer and more direct sound than instruments with high arching.

In the next picture is shown one of the lion heads that Stainer made for some of his violins:

Leopold Mozart wrote in his violin method that compared to the "German" violins (Stainer's), Italian instruments (Stradivari's, Guarneri's, Amati's) were rough instruments, not very refined.

I have found musical and instrumental reasons to prefer Stainer: being myself a viola player, I always found playing chords on a modern instrument most difficult. Since the music of that era is full of chords (think only of Bach's solo violin sonatas and partitas) one wonders whether musicians back then liked to have a difficult life. But when mounting a Stradivari bridge on a modern instrument, it becomes more sensitive and gains in sustain. Mechanical waves propagation shows that the very concept lying on Stradivari bridges is applied by Stainer to his entire instruments. Then the question arises: how much more sensitive were and how much more sustain did Stainer's instruments have before being transformed?
In any case, a sensitive instrument with sustain is exactly what you need to play music rich in chords. Remember that the easier the production of the sound is (in this case the ease to bow), the lighter it becomes to finger the notes, a principle that also applies to wind instruments. So it is not that musicians of that time loved having it very difficult. Instead, it is that the "language" that musical instruments spoke before being transformed in the 19th century is the same language in which those musical texts are written.

Bearing in mind how mechanical waves propagate, one can envision how Jakob Stainer's instruments could have been. From the point of view of this physical principle, the external shape that is still visible in some of his instruments, together with that thick middle part of the blades –as it is said they were– makes a lot of sense. That thickness of wood in the middle of the blades makes the way wider for mechanical waves to propagate and thus reach the ribs of the instrument more directly and strongly.
From the feet of the bridge, mechanical waves produced by the vibration of the strings enter the front of the instrument. From the front they go to the back, first through the sound post, then through the ribs.

As one can see in old paintings, for example this one of the French Nicolas Tournier (1590-1639),

or this other of the Italian Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639)

bridges were often placed in a lower position than they are today. Today bridges are placed between the notches of the middle of the f holes.

Observe these pictures of Stainer's instruments:

Always bearing in mind how mechanical waves propagate, I can find a lower position of the bridge. This lower position of the bridge suits the baroque instrument very well for two reasons. First, because the baroque instruments had shorter necks, a lower position of the bridge maintains the length of the strings. A shorter neck, when playing, solves the problem of going down to the low positions, because with such a neck you can go down to the first one with just one strike of the wrist.
Secondly, with a lower position of the bridge keeps waves from directly reaching the corner blocks on both upper and lower halves of the instrument, because those blocks are then in the shadow of the f holes.

The straight lines running from the feet of the bridge over the end of the f holes and ending past the end of the corner blocks suggests the importance of mechanical waves reaching the ribs of the instrument: through the ribs they reach the back blade. In Leopold Mozart’s violin method we read that at that time it was common knowledge that the blades of a violin had more wood in the middle that in the edges. This suggests that the difference of thickness was more than enough to be seen with the eye, unlike the difference in thickness of the blades of modern instruments.
That thick middle part of the blades provided a wide way for mechanical waves to go from the bridge to the ribs. The f holes prevented mechanical waves from directly reaching the corner blocks.

The question is how thick that middle part of the blades should be and how that thickness should taper down to the edges. Must there indeed be mechanical waves directly reaching the ribs or not? Probably yes, though probably not everywhere along the ribs, and maybe less in violins and more in violas. Maybe. And then, in what amount? Since mechanical waves lose intensity over distance and when encountering surfaces, the further away a point in the edges of the front blade is from the feet of the bridge, the more directly waves need to reach that point in order to arrive to the back blade with enough intensity.

Now let’s turn to the edges of the blades of Stainer's instruments. The edge of the front sends mechanical waves to the back, and the edge of the back receives them.
The edge of the front makes mechanical waves change their direction, sending them to the ribs. The edge of the back makes mechanical waves coming from the ribs rebound so that they enter the back blade.
Unfortunately, those edges have disappeared from some Stainer instruments that have survived until today. Some say that with the years they got worn down. I believe that those edges were intentionally removed when the instruments were transformed.

The next picture is a detail of a violin by P. Rombouts (Amsterdam 1667–1728), said to be "the Dutch Stainer". It shows very sharp blade edges.

Some say that in the 19th century the general taste turned to the sound of Italian instruments, especially those made by Stradivari. Some others say that when in the 19th century instruments were transformed to make them sound louder, Stainer instruments lost much more in the process than the Italian ones. Because Stainer's blades have very high archings. When they were made thinner, they became hollow blades. So the (more) direct way that mechanical waves had from the feet of the bridge to the back blade through the ribs disappeared.

The next picture is a drawing of a flat blade. Notice that in such blades, while only two are marked here, a lot of waves are reaching the ribs of the instrument in an undisturbed straight line from both feet of the bridge. That's why the flatter a blade is, the clearer is the sound it produces. This explains why the front blades of Stainer's violas have a lower arching than his violins: to make his violins sound darker and his violas clearer.

To summarize: the thick middle part of the blades creates for the waves a wide way from the feet of the bridge to the edge of the blades and the sharp edge of the blades facilitates the transit of the waves from the front to the back of the instrument through the ribs, which makes such an instrument quite more sensitive and with more sustain than modern instruments.

The thinner blades of the modern instruments make waves get refracted into the air cavity of the resonance box with much more intensity because of the shorter way between the outer and inner surfaces of the blades and the many reflections and refractions that short way causes. These instruments need a modern bridge, because a baroque bridge is too direct. Therefore they also need a heavier bow. However, the thinner blades make it difficult for those waves to reach the ribs of the instrument.

On the other hand, the thicker blades of the old instruments need a baroque bridge, which is much more sensitive and lets the waves enter the front blade with much more intensity than a modern bridge. The sustain is the product of delayed wood-to-air refractions. The further away waves propagate without encountering wood-air surfaces, the later they reach the air. The later they reach the air, the later we perceive them. Waves reaching the back blade through the front blade and the ribs, will have been traveling much longer before reaching our ears than waves being refracted into the air immediately after having entered the front blade. Waves reaching the back blade through the sound post will still reach the air cavity in the resonance box before waves reaching the back through the ribs.

Also thicker blades call for lighter harmonic (so-called bass) bars.