[thechat] politics, guitars, etc...

Luther, Ron Ron.Luther at hp.com
Wed Jun 26 16:32:00 CDT 2002


Oddly enough ... yeah, I do kinda remember somebody with a theory that soaking the wood in saltwater and redrying it did 'something' to the grain patterns or whathaveyou that affected the tone and they thought it was a 'key' to reproducing the sounds from the great luthiers.

The one link I found was kinda goofy - so I cut this out from it:

RonL.

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WHAT MAKES A GREAT VIOLIN

The historic violins most sought after by today's players and collectors were crafted hundreds of years ago in Cremona, Italy, by three famous makers: Andrea Amati, Giuseppe Guarneri, and Antonio Stradivari. Performers like Marylou Speaker Churchill of the Boston Symphony Orchestra say the best Cremona violins have "a tone quality that grabs you and you can't put it down."

For centuries, the secrets of their magnificent tone have been a sort of Holy Grail for makers, scientists, and cranks. Just what mixture of four-centuries-old alchemy, art, and skill produced the Stradivarius and its kin? Some believe Cremonese violin makers used very dense wood from old trees, floated down river from the Alps to Venice's saltwater lagoons, where mold attacked the wood and opened microscopic holes. That may have made the wood less dense and more resonant. Some modern makers have tried various methods of reproducing this special property; they have baked wood to reduce its density, buried it in the sand, and even simulated salt exposure by saturating wood in a solution made by boiling shrimp shells in potassium hydroxide.

Then there's the centuries-old hunt for the "lost Cremona varnish." Joseph Nagyvary, a Texas A&M University biochemistry professor and violin maker, has removed minute samples of varnish from several Cremona instruments and studied them under a scanning electron microscope. The varnish, he claims, contains minerals, such as quartz, calcite, and gypsum, which may account for the surface luster of Strads--and, more important, may have penetrated the wood's surface, enhancing and amplifying sound.

Devotees see the best Cremona violins as an unattainable standard. Yet some players, makers, and scientists insist that the mystique of ancient violins is mostly in our heads. Carleen Hutchins, who has been making and researching violins for 50 years, believes time will prove some of today's instruments are as good as any Stradivarius. "We can do everything except [give them] 100 years of playing," she says. The skeptics say even trained listeners can't reliably tell an old violin from a new one on the concert stage.

There is no doubt that the Cremona makers were highly skilled craftsmen. But the debunkers say that searching for lost secrets is nonsense. Your local True Value Hardware store has better varnish than Stradivari used, for one thing. "No one can tell the sound of a varnished from an unvarnished instrument," adds James Beament, author of The Violin Explained, "for varnish, like beauty, is only skin deep."

Hutchins, who says "old-time violin makers hate my guts," says the best modern makers have not only the skill but also the science to help them accomplish what Stradivari had to do by ear--and trial and error. One key, she believes, is carefully adjusting the wooden top and back plates of the instrument so that they vibrate in patterns that reinforce certain tones. Unlike the simple, regular vibration patterns of string, plates vibrate in a series of complex and difficult- to-predict modes. And shaving off a fraction of a millimeter of wood from one spot can dramatically alter the relative loudness of a note' s overtones, or harmonics, which are what determine the timbre of a sound. Different patterns of overtones are why a violin and a flute- -or a good and a not-so-good violin--can sound so different, even when playing the same note.

Hutchins analyzes the vibration modes of a violin plate by covering it with a powder of aluminum flakes, then placing the plate atop a loudspeaker emitting a single tone. She then progressively raises the tone's pitch until the wood begins to vibrate. The glitter jumps into a pattern revealing how different areas of the plate vibrate up and down. Hutchins believes there are three modes in a plate that are most important to violin tone.

One reason comparisons between old and new violins are so difficult- -and potentially misleading--is that the sound ultimately depends on the skilled hands of a player. Expectations on the part of both performers and listeners color a performance and how it is perceived, notes Gary Sturm of the Smithsonian Institution's musical instrument collection.

Violinists, says the Boston Symphony's Churchill, who owns a 1691 Stradivarius, have a unique bond to their old instruments. "We are in awe of its age, we are in awe of its price, but we're also in awe of the potential of such an instrument in our hands," she says. Perhaps that's what most makes a Strad a Strad.


-----Original Message-----
From: jcanfield at magisnetworks.com [mailto:jcanfield at magisnetworks.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 3:56 PM
To: thechat at lists.evolt.org
Subject: RE: [thechat] politics, guitars, etc...


Cool! I want some.

Ever hear about the discoveries re: Stradivarius and how floating the lumber
down the coastline infused saltwater into the wood, augmenting the efforts
of the great luthiers of Cremona? No linkage at the moment; sorry.




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