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Stradivarius's secret revealed
02/07/2008 21:04 - (SA)
London - Researchers using a medical
scanner have worked out why a Stradivarius violin sounds so good
- it is because of the remarkably even density of the wood.
For the past 300 years, musicians and scientists have been puzzled over the unparalleled quality of classical Cremonese
violins made by Italian masters like Antonio Stradivari and
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu.
Now a Dutch doctor and a violin maker from Arkansas think
they have cracked the mystery after comparing five classical and
eight modern violins in a computed tomography (CT) scanner
normally used to examine patients.
Using an adaptation of a computer programme developed to
calculate lung densities in people with emphysema, they were
able to analyse the physical properties of violins without
risking damage to instruments worth millions of dollars.
They found no significant differences between the median
densities of the modern and the antique violins but did discover
far less variation between wood grains in the old ones.
Climate difference
Since differentials in wood density affect vibration and
therefore sound quality, the discovery may well explain the
superiority of the Cremonese violins, they reported in the
online journal PLoS ONE on Wednesday.
So why is the maple and spruce wood in a Stradivarius so
different?
Part of the reason may be that trees grow slightly
differently today than in the past.
"Climate difference could explain part of it but treatment
of the wood could be another explanation.
"A third answer could
simply be the ageing of the wood over the past 300 years," Dr
Berend Stoel of the Leiden University Medical Centre told
Reuters.
"There is no way of knowing from this data; we've just shown
there are density differences."
Still, Stoel and US violin maker Terry Borman think the
research may help modern instrument makers seeking to replicate
the work of the Italian masters.
- Reuters
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