Does violin really need playing to open up?

Michele

Want to discuss something on the physical and metaphysical side, perhaps even psychological and emotional, who knows!

Some maintain that violin needs to be played in order to maintain its acoustics properties.  That new violins need to go through some rituals in that regard.

Others, often famous ones holding famous dead ones' violin and claim they feel the previous owner left his sound on the violin.

Love to hear what you feel about it, your experience and if you have, any studies that actually look into this topic.

Personally, I don't know enough to say either way.  I do notice humidity plays a big factor in changing the sound but that is off topic.

ruby

My two violins have different modes of starting up. The Colin-Mezin can be played immediately and has a bright sound and responds easily.  No warm up needed.
The other violin sounds raw for about 10 minutes and needs a lot of rough bowing before it comes to a fully round sound. My routine on the second violin is to play the “Orange Blossom Special”  which loosens it up.
However some of my previous violins depended on the weather conditions. Dry weather seemed the ideal however moist days were the worst and made sound production difficult and response sluggish.