Chemicals, not climate led to superior Stradivari violins

Some of the greatest instruments are said to have been made by Antonio Stradivari, who worked in northern Italy during the late 1600s and early 1700s. Many believe that the climate produced dense, even wood during this period, but a new paper suggests that chemicals added to the wood are the real reason.

Those even passingly familiar with music will recognize the name of Stradivarius, which is attached to some of the best violins ever made. While Stradivarius is a family name, it is often used to refer to a single luthier, Antonio Stradivari, as well as the high quality violins he made. There are only about 700 genuine Stradivarius instruments known to exist today, and they fetch a high price--models made between 1690 and 1720 can sell for anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars to a couple of million dollars.

While blind tests by experts have found that they are equal in quality to other extremely well made violins, people still argue that they produce sound like no other instrument. They also continue to argue about what imbues these pieces of wood, metal, and string with the ability to produce such high-quality tones. Stradivarius_violin_front.jpgThe leading theory is that the wood used by Stradivari was of an unusually high quality. During the time he was producing his masterpieces, much of northern Europe was enveloped in what climatologists refer to as the Little Ice Age. Researchers have argued that this cool period led to consistent growth of trees in both the summer and winter, which in turn led to denser, more uniform wood. Not all who study these instruments agree with this hypothesis.

Professor Joseph Nagyvary of Texas A&M University first proposed an alternate explanation in 1976; he postulated that the difference wasn't the wood itself, but rather the chemicals used to treat the wood. Through a good deal of haggling and begging, Nagyvary was able to receive a few minute samples of wood from Stradivarius and Guarneri violins. With these, he was able to test his hypothesis. His early findings were published in Nature three years ago and they suggested that the wood was treated with a variety of chemicals that couldn't be identified at the time.

In a continuation of the study, the researchers burned these bits of wood to ash to obtain a detailed chemical analysis, which they have published in the open access journal PLoS ONE. Using a variety of imaging and spectroscopic techniques, they identified the presence of borax, fluoride, chromium, and iron salts--all chemicals that would not be native to the wood itself.

As for a reason these chemicals may have been applied, Prof. Nagyvary states that "the presence of these chemicals all points to collaboration between the violin makers and the local drugstore and druggist at the time. Their probable intent was to treat the wood for preservation purposes. Both Stradivari and Guarneri would have wanted to treat their violins to prevent worms from eating away the wood because worm infestations were very widespread at that time." An interesting bit of biochemical research that could offer modern day luthiers new methods for producing fine violins and other instruments.

More...

Complete Original Article