Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 27 Musicall Grammarian, written in 1728, he notes that the most important aspect of tuning an ensemble is “sounding all the notes under the touch, and none with the strings open; for those are a harder sound than when stopped, and not always in tune.”14 North concludes that it is best for violinists to adjust their intonation with their fingers rather than allow their intonation to vary among their open strings. He suggests that it is best to avoid overuse of open strings, which may be true for some ensembles extending beyond North’s era. There are other historical instances of a violinists using their fingers to make intonation adjustments. In Georg Muffat’s Second Florilegium, published in 1698, Muffat states that “the majority who play falsely come from playing the two tones that make the semitone.”15 Muffat’s mention of a semitone is the distance between the scale degrees such as mi and fa or ti and do. Violinists must be aware of matching intonation of these problem pitches with other violinists during performance. When playing a scale degree, violinists should listen intently and ensure that they are indeed playing in tune with one another (modifying their note if necessary) to emphasize the direction of a leading tone. In addition to a violinist tuning the pitches with his or her fingers down to others in an ensemble, the open string tuning of the ensemble with each other is of significance. The violin resonating during performance is not due to the strings alone. There is another process violinists must execute in order to achieve proper intonation. This procedure is called plate tuning. Before the body of the violin is assembled, luthiers take the wooden plates of the violin and form their ideal violin sound. The wood is carved to various thicknesses at different points of the front and back body plates which shapes them to have a certain sound. This process is difficult and is unique to each instrument, especially considering that no two pieces of wood are the same. Every grain and miniscule knot in the wood has an effect on the sound, and how the violin’s sound holes are shaped during plate curving also has a distinct effect on the sound of a violin. This is a complex process, there is not a singular method in which to correctly perform plate tuning.16 Luthiers who rose to the top in prominence during the violin's beginnings were Andrea Amati, Antonio Stradivari, Giuseppe Guarneri, and Jacob Stainer. These creators did not perform plate tuning with uniformity, but their varying instruments are each still considered as successes. The way these instruments sound and their 14 North, Musicall Grammarian, 289. 15 Muffat, 648. 16 Johnson, 153–159.
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