Founding a Family of Fiddles
Who's Who in Catgut Acoustics

Without cross fertilization of ideas from experts in many related disciplines our new fiddle family could not have evolved in the short period of nine or ten years. No lising of names and activities can do justice to each one whose thinking and skills have been challenged and who has given time, energy and money. Their only reward is sharing in the project.

The spirit of the group has been likened to the informal cooperation that flourished among scientists in the 18th century. In addition many of the active experimenters are themselves enthusiastic string players so that a technical session is likely to end with chamber-music playing.

In the following list I try to include all those who have helped along the way, listing those who have been most active first even though they are not all members of CAS. Some of the numerous musicians are not actually familiar with the new instruments, but their comments on earlier experimental models of conventional violins, violas and cellos have provided musical insights and information necessary to the new instruments.

Physicists.

Basic research and scaling for the new instruments: Frederick A. Saunders, John C. Schelleng and myself.
Theory of vibrations, elasticity, shear and damping in the instruments and their parts: Arthur H. Benade, Frieder Eggers, Roger Kerlin, Max V. Mathews, Bernard W. Robinson, Robert H. Scanlan, John C. Schelleng, Eugen J. Skudrzyk, Thomas W. W. Stewart, Sam Zaslavski.

Chemists.

Effects of varnish and humidity on the instruments; varnish research: Robert E. Fryxell, Morton A. Hutchins, Louis M. Condax.

Architect.

Basic design and development of patterns for the new violin family, and maker of bows for them: Maxwell Kimball.

Electronic engineers.

Norman Dooley, Francis L. Fielding. Sterling W. Gorrill, A. Stuart Hegeman, Alvin S. Hopping.

Translators.

Mildred Allen, Edith L. R. Corliss, Donald Fletcher.

Editors.

Harriet M. Bartlett, Dennis Flanagan, Robert E. Fryxell, Mary L. Harbold, Martha Taylor, Alice Torrey, Howard Van Sickle.

Photographers.

Louis M. Condax, Russell B. Kingman, Douglas Ogawa, Peter N. Pruyn, J. Kellum Smith.

Artist.

Irving Geis.

Lawyers.

Harvey W. Mortimer, J. Kellum Smith, Robert M. Vorsanger.

General consultants.

Alice T. Baker, Donald Engle, Cushman Haagensen, Mary W. Hinckley, Ellis Kellert, Henry Allen Moe, Ethel and William R. Scott.

Secretaries.

Lorraine Elliott, Belle Magram.

Violin experts and makers.

Karl A. Berger, Rene Morel, Simone F. Sacconi, Rembert Wurlitzer, myself - and Virginia Apgar, Armand Bartos, William W. Bishop, Donald L. Blatter, William Carboni, Louis M. Condax, Fred Dautrich, Jean L. Dautrich, Louis Dunham, Jay C. Freeman, Louis Grand, Jerry Juzek, Otto Kaplan, Gordon McDonaId, William E. Slaby.

Violinists.

Charles F. Aue, Broadus Erle, William Kroll, Sonya Monosoff, Helen Rice, Louis E. Zerb - and Samuel Applebaum, Catherine Drinker Bowen, Marjorie Bram, Ernestine Briemeister, Alan Branigan, Nicos Cambourakis, Roy B. Chamberlin Jr., Frank Clough, Louis M. Condax, Yoko Matsuda Erle, Sterling Gorrill, Walter Grueninger, Ann Haworth, H. T. E. Hertzberg, Carol Lieberman, Max Mandel, Max V. Mathews, David Montagu, Max Pollikoff, Bernard W. Robinson, Booker Rowe, Frances Rowell, Robert Rudie, Florence DuVal Smith, Jay C. Rosenfeld.

Violists.

Robert Courte, Lilla Kalman, Maxwell Kimball, David Mankovitz, Louise Rood, Frederick A. Saunders - and John A. Abbott, Alice Schradieck Aue, Virginia Apgar, Emil Bloch, Harold Coletta, Helene Dautrich, John D'Janni, Lillian Fuchs, Raphael Hillyer, Henry James, Boris Kroyt, Eugene Lehner, Rustin Mcintosh, John Montgomery, Elizabeth Payne, Werner Rose, David Schwartz, Emanuel Vardi, Eunice Wheeler, Bernard Zaslav, Sam Zaslavski, myself.

Cellists.

Robert Fryxell, John C. Schelleng, India Zerbe - and Charles F. Aue, Joan Brockway, Roy B. Chamberlin, Frank Church, Elwood Culbreath, Oliver Edel, Maurice Eisenberg, George Finckel, Marie Goldman, Barbara Hendrian, Arnold Kvam, Russell B. Kingman, Charles McCracken, Stephen McGee, George Ricci, Peter Rosenfeld, Mary Lou Rylands, True Sackrison, Mischa Schneider, Sanford Schwartz, Joseph Stein, Mischa Slatkin, Joseph Tekula.

Bassists.

Julius Levine, Alan Moore, Ronald Naspo, David Walter - and Alvin Brehm, John Castronovo, Gary Karr, Stuart Sankey, Charles Traeger, Howard Van Sickle, Ellery Lewis Wilson.

Composers and conductors.

Henry Brant - and Marjorie Bram, Justin Connolly, Herbert Haslam, Frank Lewin, Marc Mostovoy, Harold Oliver, Quincy Porter, Cornelia P. Rogers, Leopold Stokowski, Arnold M. Walter.

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