LUTHIER

Silence,
shaped.

A piece of wood. A world of sound.

Enter the instrument
A monumental amber violin in darkness. The curve of its body, its f-hole and four fine strings are revealed by a moving side light.

Before sound,
a living grain.

Spruce carries.
Maple returns.
Ebony holds.

Figured grain. The back, ribs and neck.

Live grain paths follow each material. Select a wood to change the material study and its description.
A violin with its spruce top gently lifted from maple ribs and back.

Made by hand.
Held by curves.

An arched surface. A hollow body.
A thousand quiet decisions.

  1. Spruce top
  2. Maple ribs
  3. Maple back
Follow the edge. Look between the layers.

A small space.
An enormous voice.

The sound post connects. The bass bar distributes.
The body answers.

A slender connection between top and back.

A pale maple bridge rests on the amber violin top beneath four taut strings.

Hold the almost.

Four strings. Every line waiting for a touch.

G·D·A·E

Then,
contact.

The hair catches.
The string yields.
Motion begins.

An intentionally slow visualization of bow hair contacting and driving a string. Continued friction sustains vibration.

One motion.
A thousand echoes.

From string to bridge.
Through wood. Into air.

A family of moving contours grows from the string into the violin body and surrounding air. These original patterns are an artistic interpretation, not measured acoustic modes.

Sound,
without edges.

The instrument ends.
Its voice continues.

The violin's curves unfold into a full-screen moving sculpture. Change its opening with the slider.

Now,
listen.

The same wood. The same light.
A different silence.

Begin again

Shape the wood. Hold the tension.
Let silence become sound.

LUTHIER

The Anatomy of a Violin

From silence
to sound.

Nine movements.
One continuous instrument.
LUTHIER

The making
of a silence.

The object

An original digital interpretation of an unnamed violin. The photographic imagery was generated for this work; the structural study is an original parametric model.

It is not a photograph, scan or measured reconstruction of a historical instrument.

The movement

One string becomes grain, structure, tension and a field of sound. Time and displacement are deliberately enlarged so the transition can be seen.

The contours are artistic interpretations, not measured acoustic modes. Audio is original synthesized sound, enabled only by you.

The research

The Met — the Gould violinUNSW — violin acousticsUNSW — bows and strings

Type: Cormorant Garamond & DM Sans.
Built with Lenis, GSAP & Three.js.

Sources & notices · Original source license

Shape the wood. Hold the tension. Let silence become sound.