Posted on 01/22/2009 12:33:27 PM PST by decimon
For centuries, violin makers have tried and failed to reproduce the pristine sound of Stradivarius and Guarneri violins, but after 33 years of work put into the project, a Texas A&M University professor is confident the veil of mystery has now been lifted.
Joseph Nagyvary, a professor emeritus of biochemistry, first theorized in 1976 that chemicals used on the instruments – not merely the wood and the construction – are responsible for the distinctive sound of these violins. His controversial theory has now received definitive experimental support through collaboration with Renald Guillemette, director of the electron microprobe laboratory in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, and Clifford Spiegelman, professor of statistics, both Texas A&M faculty members. Their work has been published in the current issue of the scientific journal Public Library of Science (PloSONE).
“All of my research over the years was based on the assumption that the wood of the great masters underwent an aggressive chemical treatment and this had a direct role in creating the great sound of the Stradivarius and the Guarneri,” Nagyvary explains.
Nagyvary obtained minute wood samples from restorers working on Stradivarius and Guarneri instruments (“no easy trick and it took a lot of begging to get them,” he adds). The results of the preliminary analysis of these samples, published in “Nature” in 2006, suggested that the wood was brutally treated by some unidentified chemicals. For the present study, the researchers burned the wood slivers to ash, the only way to obtain accurate readings for the chemical elements.
They found numerous chemicals in the wood, among them borax, fluorides, chromium and iron salts.
“Borax has a long history as a preservative, going back to the ancient Egyptians, who used it in mummification and later as an insecticide,” Nagyvary adds.
“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.”
Antonio Stradivari (1644 – 1737) made about 1,200 violins in his lifetime and sold them only to the very rich, primarily the royalty. Today, there are about 600 Stradivarius violins remaining and they are valued at up to $5 million each.
A lesser-known contemporary of Stradivari, Guarneri del Gesu, like the painter van Gogh, had trouble selling his work, but his instruments are now considered equal in quality and price by experts to Stradivarius violins.
Nagyvary, a native of Hungary who learned to play the violin by using an instrument that once belonged to Albert Einstein, has wondered for decades how Stradivari, with his rudimentary education and no scientific training, could have produced musical instruments with such an unequaled sound.
“These current research results are highly gratifying for me because they prove what I first proposed 33 years ago, that – contrary to common wisdom – the wood of the great masters was not natural (unadulterated) but chemically treated by certain minerals, some of which I had predicted at the outset. Based on my lifetime experimentations with similar chemicals, we have reason to believe that they could have played a major role in the great tonal refinement of the antique instruments,” Nagyvary says.
“When you use science to prove a point, it often de-mystifies the glory of the legendary masters, and for that reason, there has been some reluctance to get to the truth. To have undeniable scientific proof that supports my work is very satisfying, to say the least.”
Nagyvary said he believes the current findings will be of great interest to art historians and musical instrument makers around the world and could change the process of how fine violins are made.
For more about his work, go to www.nagyvaryviolins.com.
Contact: Joseph Nagyvary at Nagyvary@nagyvaryviolins.com or (979) 690-6440, Cliff Spiegelman at cliff@stat.tamu.edu or (979) 845-3141, Renald Guillemette at guillemette@geo.tamu.edu or (979) 845-6301 or Keith Randall at keith-randall@tamu.edu or (979) 845-4644.
Texas A&M University, among the world’s leading research institutions, is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge, including that of science and technology. Research conducted at Texas A&M represents an annual investment of more than $540 million and underwrites approximately 3,500 sponsored projects. That research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state, nation and world.
Funny how the instruments come to resemble the owners.
I woodn’t fret over this.
I bow to your wit.
Just stringin’ ya along.
Fiddlin' with me, huh?
Dang it, another one?
This must be the 283,103rd authoritative explanation!
*yawn*
Itzhakly right.
When they speak of consistency in sound, don’t they mean though each octave of the instrument? or is it quality from instrument to instrument? or both?
I meant the latter. I'm just some guy with a keyboard.
To: SandWMan
An interesting overview on wood finish can be found in first link, thanks for mentioning water glass.
Water Glass may be (is term used in Britain) an archival or restoration fill/seal process and I wonder who would be using it but instrument repair (ers)?
“POTASSIUM SILICATE WATER GLASS”
“Potassium silicate water glass is better suited to instrument making than the more common sodium silicate water glass because it does not form the opaque patches that sometimes occur on a sodium silicate water glass surface while drying (caused by interaction with carbon dioxide in the air). It can be applied neat or diluted with some water.”
“The adhesion of varnish to water glass is excellent once both are thoroughly dry. But this adhesion can take many weeks to develop. Though the water glass appears dry in a matter of hours, residual moisture and the alkalinity it carries can affect drying of a varnish coat on top. It helps if one lets the water glass dry in a low-moisture atmosphere for several days before putting varnish on. We also recommend a thin layer of protein (eg. egg white or casein or glue) between the water glass and the varnish. This avoids unusually slow drying of the first varnish coat, and improves the initially poor adhesion that makes the varnish chippy for some time after application.”
http://www.nrinstruments.demon.co.uk/Varn.html
Here endeth water glass for instruments portion...
Then there is the present day usage of the term in and around diverse trades such as auto and ship repair..
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-water-glass.htm
“Also known as sodium silicate, water glass is a solution that may appear as a barely solid agent or a thick liquid. There are a number of different uses for water glass, with many of them related to the manufacture of products that encompass such areas as building materials, textiles, and fire safety. When combined with magnesium silicate, water glass can also be helpful in such tasks as repairing mufflers on automobiles.”
Personally, it's probably "All of the Above". A confluence of events, materials and processes etc., all coming into place in time for Stradivarius to make his masterpieces.
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He offered no reason for the correlation or why the chemicals discovered changed sound emanating from the instrument
Been hittin’ the blue grass.
He did actually. His claim is that the various nanoparticles in the varnish and embeded in the wood dampen high frequency noise which brightens the sound. Since these kinds of materials properties are not normally the subject of the kind of analysis that physicists analyze for in modeling the acoustic modes of the string and sound box, they would not have been discussed before.
What is unique in his analysis is the coupling of new results from chemical analysis to the accoustic properties of the instrument.
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