The Fibonaccie Series - the "golden" series is ascribed to have regulated the whole exterior shape of the violin prior to the use of molds. For generations, violins created by the master luthier Stradivarius are known for their tone quality and their aesthetic form. Below left is a design of a scroll with the elegant curve of the series. The Golden Ratio \phi = \frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2} = 1.61803 can be found throughout the violin by dividing lengths of specific parts of the violin:

The Origins of Violin - Usually constructed on a mould (cut to the interior shape of the instrument, which decides it's shape and dimensions), the ancient instrument makers used geometrical claculations to design their models. The shape was worked out by a calculation probably the result of mathematical speculations on music - according to the harmonic divisions of the sonometer. It can be reconstructed by a series of connected arcs of a circle. Mathematicians in Northern Italy applied mathematics to several inventions and it maybe be presumed that the instrument makers had a common tradition. Dozens of versions claim to have perfected this hundreds of years old shape but the violin appears to resist all modifications because it has reached a optimal system of dimensions.

(http://www.miwc.org).  MIWC works in over twenty countries establishing schools of music in locations where a music education is otherwise inaccessible to most children; but the Golden Music instruments will mostly likely go to Eastern Europe or other former Soviet states

World renowned Music Advocacy expert, John Benham, founded the non-profit, now administered by his son Stephen Benham, in 1989.  Golden Music Owner, Mary Qualtire and John Benham have worked together in various capacities in the past for music advocacy efforts in Colorado.  Through this relationship, Qualtire learned of Benham’s non-profit and his need for instruments in his work with children and adults around the world.   The Music in World Cultures staff has found that a team of skillful vocalists and instrumentalists are greeted graciously in foreign cultures.  At Music in World Cultures, their mission is to equip, educate, engage and envision.

Glden Music also gave $16,000 dollars of instruments in December 2015, band and string to several local charities including the Anchor Center for the Blind (violins for the children), Judi’s House (a place of refuge for grieving children), and to Cameron Powers of Musical Missions of Peace, an organization that local professional clarinetist, Meg York is affiliated with.  She recently traveled to Turkey with the Golden Music instruments to teach and provide the instruments to the Turkish people.

Music and Its Effect on Body, Brain/Mind, and Spirit
A brief look at history
• Some archaeologists believe that music and dancing preceded language.
• Since the days of the Greeks and Romans, music has had a profound effect on the body and the mind.
• Healing and sound were considered sacred science. 
• Healing and music diverged in the 18th century, music was for entertainment, healing was practiced through science and medicine.
• Since World War II, the health benefits of music have become more recognized in mainstream medicine.
• Today, no human culture is known that does not have music. 

Music affects the body and the brain
Music for Mind and Body (article) http://valleymusictherapy.com/research.html
Tuning the Brain for Music (article)  http://www.braintuning.fi/research.html
Music and the Human Brain (article)  http://www.silcom.com/~aludwig/Brain.htm
Music for Pain (Article and Video)  http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392834
The Healing Power of Music (article) http://www.myoptumhealth.com/portal/Information/item/
Music+Therapy%3A+Benefits+and+Uses?archiveChannel=Home%2FArticle&clicked=true
Can Music Therapy Affect your Health? (article)
http://www.scientificblogging.com/erin039s_spin/can_music_therapy_affect_your_health 
“Music medicine” has only begun to receive serious scientific consideration, with rigorous medical research beginning to build up in the late 1980s.
“Music Neuroscience, Physiology and Medicine.” Fall 1997. Musica(IV)2. (article) http://www.musica.uci.edu/mrn/V4I2F97.html#neuroscience
Music as Medicine (article) http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2002286998_healthmusic25.html

Music Medicine
Physical effects of music
• Changes in blood flow
• Speed of muscle reaction
• Lower blood pressure
• Lower heart rate
• Changes in cell structure
• Stimulation of chemicals in the brain

Music and its Effect on the Brain (links and websites) http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=music+and+its+eff
ects+on+the+brain&start=10&sa=N 

Music and its Impact on the Human Brain (article)
http://stanford.wellsphere.com/general-medicinearticle/doctor-blog-music-and-it-s-impact-on-the-humanbrain/18975

Music and the brain
Psychological effects of music
• Calms the body and the mind
• Facilitates visualization
• Diverts attention away from unpleasant situations.
• Entrainment enables individuals to experience commonality with feelings conveyed in music.

Music’s effect on the brain
• The cerebellum is connected to the ears. Music produces emotional responses and positively impacts movement.
• Watching musicians perform affects brain chemistry differently than listening to a recording.
• Music triggers reward centers in the brain, the same neural clusters that process pleasure also fire up for music.
• Brain neurons are hard-wired for music.
• Processing music is complex and not limited to the right hemisphere only.
• There is a strong connection between memory centers of the brain and those that process music

• Music is transported via the auditory nerve to the auditory cortex.

• The right side of the cortex perceives pitch, melody, harmony, and timbre.
• The left side of the cortex processes changes in frequency and intensity.
• Both sides are needed for rhythm, as in differentiating time signatures.
• The hippocampus differentiates between styles of music.
• Frontal cortex perceives other aspects of melody and rhythm; patterns of neural activity are seen that are affected by music.
• Research has shown that activity in regions of the brain, in addition to the cerebral cortex, are heightened while listening to music.
• The limbic system of the brain evokes a feeling from a certain piece of music .
• The rhythm of a song makes people want to tap out a rhythm, or dance, which is controlled by the brain’s motor functions.  
• The experience of a live music performance is perceived and responded to by the brain even more strongly than recorded music.

Music’s effect on the brain
Psychoacoustics is:
• The study of how humans perceive sound.

How we listen
Psychological responses to music
Physiological impacts on human nervous system
• In the spectrum of sound, there is a chain of vibration.
All atomic matter vibrates.
 Frequency is the speed at which matter vibrates.
The frequency of vibration creates sound (sometimes inaudible to
human ears).
Sounds can be molded into music.

Psychoacoustics
http://www.sound-remedies.com/psyc.html

Spiritual effects of music
• Music creates a point of focus for the mind.
• Music aligns energy fields, when coupled with intention,
vibration and resonance flow.
• Music allows access to inner resources:
• Renewed vitality
• Balance
• Clarity
• Inspiration
• Relaxation
• Creativity
• Transformation
In conclusion
• The brain is the CPU for all human thoughts and actions;
only now are we beginning to understand how it
orchestrates the symphony of music and its effects.
• The brain synthesizes music unlike any other “input” and
uses all of its parts to create pleasure or pain from the
sounds and frequencies we hear.
• From cancer to Alzheimer’s, to mentally handicapped, to
spiritually broken, as well as many other conditions, music
flows into the brain and aids in the healing of body, mind
and soul.
References
•
“The Importance of Music and Brain Research.”
http://www.centerformusicmedicine.org/pdfs-music-andbrain/THE_IMPORTANCE_OF_MUSIC_AND_BRAIN_RES
EARCH.pdf
• “The Role of Music and Sound in Healing from Cancer:
Developing Your Own Sound Healing Practice.”
www.healingmusic.org
• Sancar, Feyza “Music and the Brain: Processing and
Responding.”
http://www.centerformusicmedicine.org/pdfs-music-andbrain/Music_and_Brain-Sancar.pdf

This article is from:  http://www.musicforhealthservices.com/Music_as_therapy/Pages/Module%2007_Creative_Applications_of_Music_and%20_Sound/7.2_Music_and_its_effect_on_Body_Brain_and_spirit.pdf

Golden Music gives five clarinets to Meg York to take to Turkey.

Musical Mission of Peace champions a non-violent way to peace worldwide through the power of music.   They believe:

1) People who have learned and sung each others' popular love songs together are less likely to war with one another than those who have not.
2) Music fosters sincere, heart-to-heart communication which goes beyond treaties or political agreements.
3) Musicians make ideal international diplomats and ambassadors because they know how to work together in unifying and intuitive ways.
4) International cross-cultural sharing of popular songs easily dissolves fear-based perceptions.
5) Musical sharing promotes a healthy spiritual life, replaces materialistic orientations and is available to all, including children.
6) Musical proficiency opens the door to creating deep and trustworthy friendships across language and cultural boundaries and can heal the wounds of war.

We will all welcome the luthiers from the Golden location that are preparing their work space now at the Lakewood facility.  We are putting the flooring now and beautiful new benches are on their way.  We can't wait to have the wonderful smells of the oil finishes and fresh wood smells wafting through the store, and your company again, not to mention having all the string luthier services at ours and our customers' fingertips.  

The instrument was first called the bass violin then violoncello which literally means “big little violin” in Italian; the name was eventually shortened to cello. The first known maker (but not the first actual maker) was Andrea Amati who built cellos for Charles IX King of France.

As early as the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, artists began to depict the violin in paintings, giving testimony to its presence in the music world. The cello, however, or 'bass violin' did not come into existence until the fifteenth century. The reason for the late appearance of the deeper voiced member of the violin family was, at least in part, the evolution of the sound ideal in Western European music. Due to the long-held dominance of vocal music over the musical scene, it was natural that this ideal would be determined by the trends of singers of the time. Performance practice in vocal music, until the fifteenth century, demanded a tone which was high-pitched and nasal, producing a sound we would more closely associate with Eastern music nowadays. This changed with the compositions of the Flemish school, led by Johannes Ockeghem, himself a bass singer. The vocal range was expanded on the lower end, eventually reaching low C. At the same time, the sound ideal shifted to the more open-throated tone that we know today.

Early Cellist
It was under these circumstances that the 'bass violin' began to make its place in the musical world. Over time, the name violoncello developed, from 'violone,' a large viola, and 'cello' an Italian word meaning small. This it was a little large viola, showing that the people of the time did not really know what to call this new member of the violin family. The instrument evolved completely separately from the viol da gamba, having no frets and a dramatically different shape.

The role of the violoncello was very diverse in its first two hundred years, usually participating in the accompaniment and bass line of various forms of music. In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, the members of the violin family were considered particularly appropriate for sacred music. However, the instruments were not used exclusively in these roles, and artistic depictions indicate that they were used for all kinds of events, from weddings to the raucous music making in the village taverns.

Edmund van der Straeten, in his History of the violoncello, the viola da Gamba, their precursors and Collateral Instruments, states frequently that the level of technical achievement on the cello was extremely backward, and could in no way compare with that of the violin, or the viola da gamba. At times, however, he points to evidence, which is quite to the contrary. One example is his description of the virtuoso duel between the cellist Tonelli and the violinist D'Ambreville in the early eighteenth century, which was apparently so spectacular that the audience 'broke out in rapturous applause at the end.') If there did exist full-blown virtuoso cellists, it is strange, the utter lack of solo repertoire that existed up through the middle of the seventeenth century. Nona Pyron, in her supplement to William Pleeth's book, Cello, offers one possible explanation for this fact:     from AndrewDunnCello.com

WHITE BROS PREMIER VIOLIN

The White Brothers, Ira Johnson and Asa Warren, are described* as "the first Boston master makers of violins".  Both Whites are reported to have been fine woodworkers who taught themselves the craft of violin making by studying instruments from the European masters. Asa and Ira J. were in business together as music dealers, publishers and instrument makers under the name I. J. & A. W. White from 1849 to 1852 at 52 Court Street, and as White Brothers from 1853 until 1863 at 86 Tremont Street.  After 1863, Ira went out on his own relocating just north of the city first in Malden, Massachusetts and then later in Melrose.

Asa Warren White was born in Barre, Massachusetts in 1826. He worked in his young days for Henry Prentiss [dealer and publisher], with a violin maker named Giradol, a quick workman, who worked on all forms of stringed instruments. In 1849 Ira J. and A. W. White formed a partnership and worked together repairing and making different instruments. Asa Warren made his instruments after the Stradiuarius and Guarnerius models. After Ira J. withdrew from the firm Asa W. White was in business alone; he turned out several hundred violins "and about ten 'Cellos, several violas, three viol da gambas, and two viol d'Amors. A. W. White received a gold medal from the Massachusetts Mechanics' Fair." His shop in Boston was a training school for some of the later violin makers. He died in 1893.   Ira Johnson White died in December of 1895 at the age of 82. 

We have two White Brothers violins, the Allegro and the Premier.  

Link to our web page:  http://goldenmusic.co/products/4673

                                     http://goldenmusic.co/products/43099

WHITE BROS ALLEGRO VIOLIN

*from Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston, 1640-1936