Mari Kimura plays unheard-of low notes on the violin!

Kimura somehow - the explanation is still not clear - coaxes an additional octave of low notes from the G string on the violin, all the way down to G below tenor C, a frequency of 96 hertz. From an article in Science (Vol 313, p. 153, 2006): "No other musical instrument fascinates scientists quite like the violin, Now, physicist Alfred Hanssen of the University of Tromsø, Norway, has set out to determine how reknowned soloist Mari Kimura is able to tickle tones far lower than a violin is designed to make". You can hear her play all the way down to the low G by Clicking Here and then on the first selection, Subharmonic Partita (2005). Playing in E major, she bottoms out with an ornamented arpeggio (from Bach's Partita III for unaccompanied violin, BWV 1006) to E below middle C, then B below tenor C, then G# below tenor C, and finally, briefly on G natural below tenor C, all previously thought to be beyond the range of the violin. Her own web page Click Here - has more information about her, and additional information can be seen by Clicking Here.

Glenn A. Gentry