Is it unusual that HN discusses violins so often? Seems like this comes up a lot. One common theme is that extremely expensive old violins aren't better than

Is it unusual that HN discusses violins so often? Seems like this comes up a lot. One common theme is that extremely expensive old violins aren't better than modern, well crafted violins (these new violins are still expensive, but measured in the tens of thousands, not millions). While this doesn't surprise me, I do wonder if it misses (to some extent) the point. My guess is that a mass produced, relatively inexpensive violin could very well be as "good" as a more expensive, unique one. But one thing we know about artisanal work is that it's expensive because it's unique and can't be produced through mass production, not because it is strictly better. I like violins, and play them, mainly early jazz, Irish, bluegrass. It's clear to me that different people are looking for different things in a violin, and that you may not get this from a mass produced instrument. It's not that the more expensive one is better in a blind test, it's that it produces a tone that is hard to find in most instruments, and because it's fairly unique, you'll only find it in an older instrument or a hand crafted one. This article is interesting, in the idea that some violins are altos and some are baritones. This ins't surprising, we know that violins (and other musical instruments) excel in different registers, and that there are often trade offs (volume, tone, brightness, richness). Part of the problem, for me, is that I just don't get to play very many violins. I don't feel ok about going to a high end violin store and playing their instruments all afternoon. But personally, I am on the lookout for something. One thing I really like about Irish music is the airs - slower pieces with long, often open notes, that often aren't played with vibrato (sometimes they can't be directly played with vibrato, since there is extensive use of open strings). I don't want to get into a big debate about whether vibrato "should" be used in Irish airs on fiddle, cause my opinion is go ahead, if you like it. But to me, there's something about the way a note can ring, almost like a bell, that you can achieve when you draw the bow properly across the string at a particular harmonic, but don't add any additional vibrato. This article has me thinking there's probably an analogy to the human voice here as well. Baritones, Altos, but there's definitely a style of singing (common in cathedral choirs) that relies on a pinpoint "ring" rather than an operatic vibrato. This article makes me thing there probably are some styles of violin that would excel at producing these notes. Downside, I don't have $10,000+ to spend, and I doubt a high end shop would enjoy me running this experiment on their inventory.