Mystery of the Stradivarius

ⓒWikimedia commons

The “Stradivarius” is a violin that every violinist dreams of. Stradivarius refers to the violin made by the Italian violin master Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737) and his family in the 18th century. Currently, there are about 700 Stradivarius left around the world. Stradivarius violins, which are well preserved, are sold at over billions of dollar, and at Christie’s auction in 2006, a Stradivarius was traded for $3.54 million. 

Sometimes stradivarius is called Strad or Stradi.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, there were many famous violin masters such as Guarnerius, Amati, and Guadagnini in addition to Stradivarius. Specially, Guarnerius and Stradivarius are considered to be synonyms of luxury musical instruments. In the case of Guarnerius, famous for making a masculine and volume sound, the best quality instrument is called 'Guarneri del Jesu' with 'Del Jesu', which means 'Jesus'. Stradivarius, on the other hand, is said to have a feminine and delicate sound compared to Guarnerius. Although different from violinist to violinist, it is sometimes played as Stradivarius and then changed to Guarnerius (for example, Heifetz and Kyung wha Chung), and vice versa.

                                              Menuhin is known as a violinist who showed the essence of Stradivarius.

Why can’t modern high-tech violins follow the tone of homemade violins 300 years ago?

This is a question that has been constantly challenged by scientists as well as instrument makers. This is Mystery of the Stradivarius! So there were a number of scientific studies. For example, scholars at the University of Tennessee in the United States argued that the climate at the time of Stradivarius was the key to the birth of this masterpiece. In other words, due to the unusually cold weather of the 18th century, the tree ring used for musical instrument production was dense and the density of the grain increased and It is that a spectra of sound is uniform and a spectra with little change in pitch is produced.

Professor Joseph Nagyvary, a biochemist at the University of Texas A&M, is also excited. Stradivari and his disciples applied a kind of chemical paint over the violin to protect the violin from worms that are widely inhabited in the forests of Northern Italy. Professor Joseph Nagyvary argue that the paints used at this time had the effect of eliminating noise and created Stradivarius' unique tone. Professor Negyvary published a paper in Nature magazine in 2006 that raised the topic. His team collected three luxury instruments (1717 Stradivarius violin, 1731 Stradivarius cello, 1741 Guarneri del Jesu violin), 1840 Grand & Bernardel violin, and 1769 Henry viola. They also collected samples from the maple trees of Bosnia and Central Europe, which are used for musical instrument production recently. These samples were analyzed precisely by solid nuclear magnetic resonance device (13C Solid-state NMR) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Through this comparative study, the team concluded that the chemicals used in the chemical treatment of the instrument, that is, oxidation and hydrolysis, changed the nature of the tree.

                                                                    ⓒWikipedia / Antonio Stradivarius(1644 ? - 18, December, 1737)



In fact, it has been argued several times that the paint used in Stradivarius was the key to the secret. However, it is the first time that Nagyvary's team has systematically studied the properties of paints and published them in prominent journals. Interestingly, while the chemical community has generally responded positively to Professor Nagyvary's work, the instrument makers do not seem to believe it. The “heavenly tone” that only Stradivarius can produce is not made for one or two reasons, but is the result of a combination of dozens or hundreds of elements. 

"Science can answer some questions, but Science and art can't always come to the same conclusion,"

The fact that Professor Nagyvary is a scientist and runs a violin production company directly has also raised suspicions that his research will have a business motive. Indeed, Nagyvary claims that the violin produced by his company is toned like Stradivarius or Guarneri. I do not think that all the secrets of Stradivarius have been revealed, too. I think Stradivarius is a genius, and I think his mystery should remain a mystery.

Because If you find his mystery, his violin is no longer mysterious.