The electric violin and cello
The disappearing body — the resonance box dismantled piece by piece, the sound handed to electricity
Related
⭐⭐ The main line: the disappearing body
「the system captured only a narrow slice of the spectrum – roughly 100–2,500Hz — so much of the violin's overtone richness never reached the groove; what shimmered in a hall could become thin and ghostly on disc」.
⭐⭐ The electric violin's history is the resonance box being dismantled piece by piece:
| Era | Form | What was removed |
|---|---|---|
| 1899 | Stroh: membrane + horn | the wooden body's function, keeping its shape |
| 1927–30 | pickups on wood / skeleton / bodiless | the need to 「sound by itself」 |
| 1935 | Rickenbacker's bakelite 「stick」 | the body's shape |
| 1958 | Fender: hollow body + armature pickup | a famous house's solitary attempt |
| 1990s– | piezo · MIDI · silent | the need to sound at all |
⭐⭐ In the end the instrument can be a stick, a board, a frame — the disappearing body is not the instrument's death; it is an instrument turning from 「a thing」 into 「an interface」.
| HS class | Assignment |
|---|---|
| HS class | electrophone chordophones (string vibration → magnetic/piezo transduction → amplification; the body degrades from resonator to fitting) — the Stroh line is mechanical amplification (membrane + horn), strictly the eve of the electric era |
| Origin | ⭐⭐ the motive lay in studios and stadiums: wax cylinders lost the overtones (a 100–2,500Hz slice), arenas couldn't hear acoustics — an instrument's electrification is rarely motivated by the concert hall |
| Bayin note | Outside the bayin — the violin belongs to silk, the electric violin to 「silk × electricity」: one string, two ways of living (against the auto-tune entry's de-bodiment) |
⭐⭐ The motive: the sound that couldn't be recorded
⭐⭐ The electric violin was not about being louder — it was about surviving — first recording (the wax cylinder's narrow band), then touring (「hearing acoustic instruments in stadiums was impossible」).
⭐⭐ Stroh 1899: a watchmaker built a violin for the recording horn — 「trained as a watchmaker in Frankfurt before settling in London, where he pivoted to electrical engineering」; 「the sound was concentrated into the recording horn in a way that a carved wooden body could not」; nine guineas in 1911 (a decent factory violin: two); Julio de Caro played it in Buenos Aires, where locals called it violín-corneta (cornet violin).
⭐⭐ Against Roland's watchmaker origin (Kakehashi): two clockmakers rewrote the destinies of two instrument families — the rhythm machine and the violin. And the Stroh violin lived about thirty years, then was retired by the electric microphone era it had helped open.
⭐⭐ The birth certificate is a pile of patents
| Year | Who | What |
|---|---|---|
| 1874 | Elisha Gray | a metal plate on a violin — but the violin was the amplifier (the Musical Telegraph, the world's first electric instrument) |
| 1927 | R.F. Starzl | a pickup at the f-hole — one of the earliest known electric-acoustic violins |
| 1928 | Victor Pfeil | a skeleton-frame violin, electromagnetic pickup concealed under the bridge |
| 1930 | Ivan Makhonine | a French paper shows Cecilia Hansen playing a violin with no resonating body, cabled to an amplifier |
| 1935 | George Beauchamp | the Rickenbacker bakelite 「stick」 — form's first freedom |
| 1936 | John Dopyera | National Vio-Electric — jazz violinist 「Stuff」 Smith |
⭐⭐ 「the majority of information regarding the origins of the electric violin can now be found in patents」 — a technology's childhood is often witnessed only by legal documents. (Against the site's name-vs-reality lineage: the talk box has three claimants; the electric violin's inventors are scattered across a stack of patents.)
⭐⭐ Fender 1958: a famous instrument that barely existed
「Leo Fender was thinking about creating an electric violin as early as 1948 — he planned to complete a set of electric stringed instruments」; 「the pickup was Fender's own invention: the bridge rocks → a metal pad (armature) vibrates → disturbs the magnetic field of a single-coil pickup — like a spark plug in a car engine」.
⭐⭐ Applied June 1958, debuted at Nashville's WSM show that October (sunburst · hollow maple body); yet 「as recently as May 2005, one of the world's leading specialists in vintage electric instruments had only ever seen two examples in over 40 years; Sotheby's, Christie's and Bonhams had never had one pass through their sales」 — ⭐⭐ a famous house, a famous instrument, almost nobody has seen it: the electric violin's 「ghost instrument」. (Against the site's warehouse-of-failures lineage — this one didn't fail; it was forgotten.)
⭐⭐ The electric cello, and the endpoint: silence
⭐⭐ Pfeil also envisioned a cello with a magnetic pickup; Stroh extended the design to viola, cello and even double bass — collectively the Stroviols. ⭐⭐ The modern echo: 「the similarity between the 1930 Makhonine electric violin and the Yamaha Silent Violin」 — sixty years apart, the same answer twice: take the body away, and the sound has freedom.
⭐⭐ One endpoint of electrification is 「silence」 — the silent violin: all the sound in the headphones, silence in the room (against the electric-drums entry: 「acoustic feel without the acoustic noise」 — the electric violin said it eighty years earlier). MIDI violins turn bow speed and pressure into MIDI; five-, six- and seven-string models widen the range — the electric violin's end is 「anything goes」: no standard form, because the body is gone.
⭐ A pair of de-bodiments
⭐⭐ Against the auto-tune entry — two de-bodiment routes completed in the same era: Auto-Tune removes the singer's body (pitch moved directly), the electric violin removes the instrument's body (resonance handed to pickup and speaker) — one lets 「singing」 need no throat, the other lets 「the violin」 need no body. (And the talk box's mouth filter is the reverse direction: putting the body back.)
The player lineage: Jean-Luc Ponty (fusion violin) · Mahavishnu Orchestra's Jerry Goodman · Tom Waits · They Might Be Giants (recorded 「I Can Hear You」 on a wax cylinder at the Edison Laboratory with a Stroh violin) · Shakira's tours.
The electric violin/cello is an electrophone chordophone: string vibration is transduced by magnetic or piezo pickups into an electrical signal, and the body degrades from resonator to fitting (the Stroh line is mechanical amplification — membrane + horn — strictly the eve of the electric era). The range spans the family: electric cello roughly C2–C5, electric violin roughly C3–C7 (five- and seven-string models extend further). Silent violins (the Yamaha Silent Violin line) return the sound to headphones — 「silence in the room, all the sound in the headphones」. MIDI violins (Zeta and others) also convert bow speed and pressure into MIDI control.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- ⭐⭐ 主线：琴身的消失（本页最该记住的一条） —— 电小提琴的历史是「共鸣箱被一块块拆掉」的历史：木琴身 → 金属膜 + 喇叭（Stroh 1899）→ 拾音器贴在木琴身上（Starzl 1927 · Stuff Smith）→ 骨架琴 / 无琴身棍（Pfeil 1928 · Makhonine 1930 · Rickenbacker 1935）→ 空心身 + 独特拾音（Fender 1958）→ 压电与 MIDI → 静音；⭐⭐ 每一次拆掉一块木头，「提琴」的定义就宽一分——到最后，琴可以只是一根棍、一块板、甚至一个可以戴在身上的框架。琴身的消失不是乐器的死亡，是乐器从「一件东西」变成「一个界面」
- ⭐⭐ 动机：录不下的声音 —— 「从 1877 年声学时代黎明开始，录音会议要求乐手把声音灌进一只喇叭——系统只捕捉频谱的窄窄一条，大约 100–2,500Hz——小提琴的大量泛音 richness 从未到达沟槽」；「大厅里 shimmer 的，到唱片上变得又薄又幽灵」；⭐⭐ 电小提琴不是为了让提琴更响，是为了让提琴「留得下」——先是录音，后是球场与巡演（「在 stadium 里听原声乐器已无可能」）——一件乐器的电声化，动机往往不在音乐厅，在录音棚和体育场
- ⭐⭐ Stroh 1899：钟表匠 + 喇叭（对照 Kakehashi） —— 「Johannes Matthias Augustus Stroh 在 Frankfurt 受钟表匠训练，后定居伦敦转攻电气工程；1899 年他专利了一只机械放大提琴，用膜片 + 金属号筒」；「声音被集中进录音 horn 的方式，是雕花的木身体做不到的」；「1911 年伦敦 Barnes & Mullins 卖九畿尼——当时一把像样的工厂琴两畿尼」；「1920 年代布宜诺斯艾利斯的 Julio de Caro 用它，当地人叫它 violín-corneta（短号提琴）」；「1920 年代后半唱片公司转向电麦克风录音后，Stroh 提琴变得稀少」；⭐⭐ 一位钟表匠造了「给录音喇叭的提琴」（对照 Roland 的钟表出身 Kakehashi）——而它活了三十年，然后被自己开启的时代淘汰
- ⭐⭐ 电小提琴的出生证明是一堆专利 —— 「Elisha Gray 1874 年实验『提琴的电气化』——在小提琴上装金属板接收并放大电振荡——但在他的实验里，提琴扮演的是放大器（ Musical Telegraph 是世界第一件电乐器）」；「R.F. Starzl 1927：拾音器贴在 f 孔——已知最早的 electric-acoustic 提琴之一」；「Victor Pfeil 1928：骨架琴，电磁拾音器藏在琴马正下方」；「Ivan Makhonine 1930：法国《L'Illustration》报道 Cecilia Hansen 拉一把没有共鸣体、用电缆接放大器的琴」；「Rickenbacker Electro Violin 1935：George Beauchamp 设计，电木（后铝/木）『棍子』——极简设计证明了传统乐器形态改变的可能性」；「National Vio-Electric 1936：John Dopyera 开发，爵士小提琴家『Stuff』Smith 演奏——拾音器由两枚小磁线圈组成」；⭐⭐ 「多数关于电小提琴起源的信息现在只能在专利里找到」——一项技术的童年，常常只有法律文书作证
- ⭐⭐ Fender 1958：一件几乎不存在的名器 —— 「Leo Fender 早在 1948 年就在想电小提琴——计划完成电弦乐全套（吉他、贝斯、曼陀林、提琴）」；「1958 年 6 月 2 日申请『electric violin and electromagnetic pickup therefor』；1958 年 10 月纳什维尔 WSM 展首发（sunburst 漆 · 空心枫木身 · bolt-on 琴颈 · Kluson 齿轮弦轴）」；「拾音器是 Fender 自己的发明：琴马 rocking → 金属 pad（armature）振动 → 扰动单线圈拾音器的磁场——像汽车引擎的火星塞；调节间隙 profoundly 影响输出（『大于 1/32 英寸，最好约 1/64 英寸』）」；「2005 年时，一位世界领先的 vintage 电乐器专家 40 年里只见过两把；苏富比/佳士得/邦瀚斯从未上拍过一把」；⭐⭐ 名门 + 名器 + 几乎无人见过——电小提琴史上的「幽灵名器」（对照全站「失败品仓库」谱系：这一件不是失败，是被忘记）
- ⭐⭐ 电大提琴与现代 —— 「Pfeil 也构想了几件电弦乐器，包括一把 cello，用磁拾音」；「Stroh 把设计扩展到 viola、cello 甚至 double bass，统称 Stroviols」；⭐⭐ 现代对照：「Yamaha Silent Violin 与 1930 年 Makhonine 的无琴身提琴的相似」——六十年，同一个答案被两次给出：把琴身拿掉，声音就有了自由；MIDI 小提琴（Zeta 等）把弓速/压力变成 MIDI；五弦、六弦、七弦扩展音域——⭐⭐ 电提琴的尽头是「什么都行」：没有标准形制，因为琴身已经不在
- ⭐⭐ 对照全站「去身体化」谱系（auto-tune 条） —— Auto-Tune 去掉了歌者的身体（音高被直接挪位），电小提琴去掉了琴的身体（共鸣被交给拾音器与音箱）——⭐⭐ 两条去身体化的路线在同一时代完成：一个让「唱」不再需要嗓子，一个让「提琴」不再需要琴身。而 talk box 条的口腔滤波提醒我们：也有反方向的——把身体接回去
- ⭐ 用户谱系 —— Jean-Luc Ponty（fusion 小提琴）· Mahavishnu Orchestra 的 Jerry Goodman · Tom Waits · They Might Be Giants（《I Can Hear You》——在爱迪生实验室的蜡筒上录，用 Stroh 提琴）· Shakira 巡演（Una Palliser）
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.