Invitation to the BILBAO PROJECT_Psychoacoustic test
We want to invite you to the Psicoacoustic Test of the Bilbao Project. This test has two parts, the Free Categorization Test and the Listening Test. You can take part on one or both tests.
The Bilbao Project is an experiment developed in BELE, the Basque violin Making school in the J.C.Arriaga Bilbao Conservatory, along with the Cabridge and Sorbona Universities and some international violin makers. We have built in BELE six violins, identical all of them except only one controlled parameter which is different for each and the international violin makers have built their instruments following our instructions. More info here
Now we have to test these instruments and if you are a violinist, we would like you to help us. For this task, Claudia Fritz and her team have developed the Free Categorization Test:
The musician will have to play 12-14 violins and group them acording to the likeness or similitudes between them-
The player could do as many groups as she or he deems necesary. Once finished we will ask the player to explain the reasons of such grouping.
It will be a blind test, to let aside any esthetical criteria which could bias the players sensibility. Only the sound of the instruments will be categorized in this test.
For this test, the player can use her/his own bow and can even bring his own instrument to use it as a reference.
This test will happen from the 3rd to the 14th of December . The 3rd, 4th, 5 th, 10 th, 11 th, 12 th, 13 th and 14 th you can test them during the morning, from 9:00 to 15:00 and the 7th, 8 th and 9 th whole day, from 9:00 to 19:00.
If you would like to take part in the Free Categorization Test you can sign down here
or you can write us to the following address: lutheria@conservatoriobilbao.com
The Listening Test will be held the 15th of December in the auditory hall at the JC Arriaga Conservatoire. There will be a player on stage testing all the instruments and the audience will be the one judgeing the violins. Here, too, you can take attend and listen and judge the instruments in a concert hall. Instructions on how to judge the instruments will be given before the test beguins. Anyone can take part in this test.
All these tests will be conducted by Claudia Fritz and her team. She is a researcher in acoustics from the Sorbona university and member of the French National Scientific Research Center. In the past years she has done also similar tests, the ones known as the Indianápolis Test and the Paris Test. on those they compared classical italian violins (Stradivari and Guarneri) against modern ones. These tests showed that the musician, free of external influences , was unable to clearly tell and old violin from a modern one. You can watch more about this team:
2012 – The Paris Double-Blind Violin Experiment
Please feel free to tell anyone you know to take part in any of these two tests.
Hoping that you will be part of this tests we would like to thank your attention,
BILBAO PROJECT
