|
The Catgut Acoustical Society Library |
| File #: | S2571 |
| Name: | Saunders Research Group |
| Dates: | 1959 - 1965 |
| See also: | S2570 - FAS; S3225 - JCS |
| General Information: |
| This group evolved slowly. After CMH had finished her first viola in 1949 (the only one she planned to |
| make) Louise Rood (Professor of viola at Smith College who played chamber music with FAS) and |
| Helen Rice (of Amateur Chamber Music Players fame) introduced her and the viola to Saunders. He |
| looked the instrument all over, tapped it, blew in the f-holes and said "Young lady I shall be interested in |
| your next one." He gave CMH several reprints which indicated that he had never made any drastic |
| changes to the violins he studied. So CMH offered to make one that he could cut up. This worked so |
| well, she made several more. Saunders did over 300 tests on these using mainly his "loudness test" (see |
| Notebooks). Shipping instruments back and forth from Montclair to South Hadley with suggestions for |
| experiments gradually developed into quite a program over the next ten years, with CMH adding her |
| ideas for tests and changes. The violas in the experiments and the regular ones she was making during |
| this time were checked twice a year with Helen Rice's musical friends who met in Stockbridge, MA or |
| in NYC. R E Fryxell, a chemist, who was the cellist in the Stockbridge gatherings, became very much |
| interested in the experimental instruments and visited Saunders several times. From these discussions |
| Fryxell started doing some research on properties of wood for violins. After J C Schelleng's retirement |
| from Bell Labs he contacted Saunders on the acoustics of the cello, and was subsequently introduced to |
| CMH who lived near him. This started a long and fruitful interchange between Saunders, Schelleng, |
| Fryxell and CMH on violin research. The early correspondance was not kept, but the lively interchange |
| between Schelleng, Fryxell, Saunders and Hutchins from 1961 through 1965 is in Files 101 and 102. It |
| was during this time that the Catgut Acoustical Society (a name jokingly suggested by Schelleng) was |
| formally started just a few days before Saunders died on June 9, 1963. |
| File Contents: |
| S2571 | -- | 101 |
| Tech correspondence: (Part 1: 1959-1963). Corresp and tech writings, graphs, charts and diagrams |
| for and by FAS, JCS, CMH, Fryxell and Scanlon. These years led up to the forming of the CAS. |
| Much but not all tech work herein was ultimately published. |
| Key Words: |
| S2571 | -- | 102 |
| Tech correspondence: (Part2: 1964-1965) Content is as in file 101 but spans the two years after |
| Saunders' death. |
| Key Words: |