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Stradivarius violins are renowned for their supposedly superior sound when compared to other instruments. This has resulted in numerous studies hunting for a scientific reason for why Strads sound so good. A number of these studies have focused on the chemical composition of the wood in violins made in Cremona by Antonio Stradivari in the 17th and 18th centuries. Others have considered the violins made by Stradivari's contemporary, Joseph Guarneri del Gesu, whose violins are widely considered to be just as good.
Research often looks at how the materials used in the construction of the instrument define its superior quality. For example, one study argued that a "little ice age" which affected Europe from 1645 to 1715, was responsible for the slow-growth wood used in the construction of the violins that gives them a particular quality. This type of wood would have been available to all violin makers in Europe so other work has looked at the particular varnish applied to Strads. But the most recent study on this showed that Stradivari finishes were also commonly used by other craftsmen and artists and were not particularly special.
Now a team of scientists from National Taiwan University have tried to uncover the secret of Stradivarius violins by analysing the chemistry of the wood they're made from. The researchers found that the aged and treated maple wood had very different properties from that used to make modern instruments. But is there really a secret to be found in the Stradivarius?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by RS3 on Thursday December 22 2016, @01:18AM
These discussions amuse me- people dissecting, re-hashing, speculating, theorizing, analyzing, ...
Anyway, I'm not a violinist but I am an occasional audio engineer and have had the great privilege of working with (running sound for) David Kim https://www.philorch.org/about/musicians/david-kim [philorch.org] a few times. Each time was in an auditorium holding around 800, and he was accompanied by a master pianist on a 9' Steinway. I did a very slight bit of amplification, and did multi-track recording.
At one of the concerts Mr. Kim was loaned a Stradivarius and he was like a kid in a toy store. I was expecting the Strad to have a big, deep, rich, warm tone almost like a viola, but it was pretty punchy and bright. He commented that it was like playing an electric guitar, that the notes jump off the strings with little effort. Being an electric guitar hacker, I could relate. It was loud, and so are the other violins he plays.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday December 22 2016, @06:37PM
Thanks for your story. It's great to hear from someone experienced who worked with recording such an instrument.
I was expecting the Strad to have a big, deep, rich, warm tone almost like a viola, but it was pretty punchy and bright.
A lot of them sound like that now. The original unmodified 18th-century violins did generally have a softer but richer tone, but almost all known Stradivarius violins were rebuilt, often in the 19th century by skilled builders in Italy or France, making them conform to larger concert hall tastes and new desires for tone. (Soloists want a sound that stands out.) I'm not a violinist either, but I know quite a bit more about the detailed types of modifications that were made -- but basically the net effect was an instrument that was significantly louder and "brighter" in tone than the original 18th-century ones.
If Stradivarius violins ARE superior today in some ways compared to other older instruments, it's likely because the "improvements" on them over the years were always done by the masters of each era. Other violins by "lesser" makers likely never received such continuous attention.
(Score: 1) by RS3 on Thursday December 22 2016, @07:54PM
Thank YOU! I did not know any of that history. Do you know if any unmodified Strads exist? Now I want to hear one!
What really stands out to me: the hotrodding of Strads kind of invalidates all these studies, unless _all_ Strads are sampled and played. I can argue that if they sound different to the player, he or she will play it differently, so we'd need a violin-playing robot to play the notes to compare the instruments. But then, as David Kim's experience with the Strad, the instrument's response inspires his playing, etc., so the end result may be intensified. I'm an EG hacker but I'm very connected with the sound I hear. IE, I'm not really a machine (sometimes you have to be), but much of what I do, esp. improv, is inspired by and dependent on what I hear- effects/amp tones, etc.
Far too often I get these random sound gigs with little or no preliminary information, for instance I knew David Kim was playing, but nothing else, including the Strad. Someone else (house employee) had put up a less than optimal mic. By the time I got there the musicians were rehearsing and although I'm the first guy to get in the middle of a band and fix things (I've done it live if needed), I work with classical musicians enough to know they can be very high-strung and often don't like tech, even when it makes them sound better, or just helps people in the back row to hear them. You can argue they want people to pay for the front-row seats. That's a different discussion! Anyway, I wish I had changed that bright and harsh Chinese mic, and really I would have put up many mics if I had it to do over. Also, I would have touched the Strad, just to say I did.