Influence of the weight of mutes on tones of a violin family

Abstract

The phrase ‘‘con sordino’’ is used for the score of a violin family to indicate the use of a mute. The mute is used to reduce the volume of the violin tones and change their tone quality. This paper examines the influence of the weight of mutes on tones of a violin using the spectral envelopes of the violin tones. Violins with and without mutes were played by a skilled player in an anechoic chamber to produce tone samples which were then recorded on a DAT recorder. Using the tone samples, the time variances of the fundamentals and spectral envelopes obtained by FFT analyses were examined. The force transfer function of a cello bridge with mutes installed, which is used for convenience, was measured. From these examinations and analyses, we made the following observations: (1) the higher the order of harmonics, the lower their relative sound pressure levels compared with that of the fundamental and (2) the level differences between the peaks and dips of the spectral envelopes are reduced as the weight of a mute is increased.