Baroque Violas with Reduced Soundboxes: An Evaluation Method

This article investigates Baroque instruments of the violin family whose bodies have been reduced. The morphology of this family of instruments before 1750 remains surprisingly little known, as does their timbre and the sound balance between the different family members. Historical sources document two ways of reducing the body of a violin: in length, or in width. We have developed a technique for the large-scale analysis of these reductions, applicable on 3D models generated either by CT-scans or 3D models generated by photogrammetry. This investigation method has been applied to two instruments kept in the Brussels Musical Instruments Museum: an undated viola, heavily reduced, attributed to the Antwerp violin maker Matthijs Hofmans (1622–1672), and a viola dated 1761, for which visual examination does not reveal the slightest trace of reduction: a viola by Johannes Theodorus Cuypers (1719–1806), a violin maker active in The Hague.