Mute violin

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A silent violin is a violin without a sound box . The name comes from the English term "silent violin", which apart from a few exceptions (see below, forerunner, Laurie Anderson) or only later, was largely coined by the manufacturer Yamaha, which is why these silent instruments are almost exclusively used. The Yamaha Corporation introduced the Silent Violin 1997 after the Silent Piano , the Silent Grand Piano and before the Silent Cello , the Silent Guitar and the Silent Viola before. As with an electric violin , the musician can be given the fullness of a conventional violin with the help of a pickup and headphones , as well as reverb effects and concert hall acoustics .

Mute violins became known to the general public through the bond group , which was very successful in the early 2000s thanks to the Yamaha design of these violins and cellos with modernized, fast-paced versions of classical compositions.

These so-called lightweight violins were made in the past and are still produced today in various shapes and with selected materials as prototypes or in small series .

Silent instruments

The silent instruments find their starting point in the classical instruments of serious music , whereby the basic idea and technique of these instruments consists in dampening the originally well audible musical performance, e.g. Partly brought about by structural measures, such as major changes to the sound box up to its complete omission and addition of electro-acoustic pickups. You can feed the generated sounds directly to the player, usually via headphones, and only make them audible. A well-known example is the mute violin, in which the amplifier technology replaces the resonance body. Real instruments that can only be counted in this category have no sound or resonance body. They belong to the group of (partly mechanical) silent exercise instruments.

Silent instruments and electrically amplified musical instruments

In the course of their increased use within popular music , mostly due to their slim and initially somewhat strange but also novel look, they were able to perform instrumental performance in large halls or halls on a par with the electric guitar or the electric guitar - not least thanks to the technology inherent in them E-bass and for the human voice amplified with a microphone .

In addition, classical instruments are used in numerous music contributions (mostly television or live performances), but these were only additionally equipped with amplifier technology (such as the temporary attachment of an electric pickup on an acoustic guitar); The latter are not to be assigned to the silent instruments, since they are intended for the non-electrically amplified music performance and are unsuitable for full sound dampening inherent in the silent instrument. A good example of a musical instrument that embodies both the basic idea and the possibilities of the "Silent" idea is the Silent Piano from Yamaha, which is also suitable for non-electrically amplified (i.e. purely acoustic) performances, as a silent instrument (im Household) and as an instrument for studio recording (because it imitates the sound of a concert grand and simplifies the placement of the microphone much).

precursor

For the silent instruments there are also purely analog forerunners, which either work with means of mechanical damping (e.g. trumpet dampers ( silent brass ), felt dampers built into pianos) or with keyboard instruments with the complete decoupling of the keyboard and the sound-producing mechanics (e.g. B. Virgil Practice Pianos et al.) Also commonly known as silent keyboards .

With her album Home of the Brave, Laurie Anderson first used a neon-glowing bow in 1986 together with an instrument with a slim shape, similar to the Silent Violin , but developed by herself a few years before Yamaha. The slim shape of this instrument was made possible by completely omitting the resonance body or by using a violin neck with violin strings, fingerboard and chin rest, and for playability. Using a guitar pickup, she transformed this instrument into a kind of electric violin, giving her multimedia show of the same name an innovative element at the time.

Individual evidence

  1. http://xound.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=1579  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / xound.com  
  2. http://www.global.yamaha.com/ir/publications/pdf-data/2009/ann/an-2009e-028.pdf
  3. Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / news.thinkns.com
  4. cf. Pictures : File: LA21uitsnede.jpg