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Posted on 12/28/2006 6:43:37 AM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
STRADIVARI'S SECRET
Attuned to chemistry of a genius
Some doubt his technique, but scientist says he's found key to legendary sound
A starter violin costs about $200. A finely crafted modern instrument can run as much as $20,000. But even that's loose change when compared with a violin made three centuries ago by Antonio Stradivari. His 600 or so surviving violins can cost upward of $3.5 million. For more than a century, artists, craftsmen and scientists have sought the secret to the prized instruments' distinct sound. Dozens have claimed to have solved the mystery, but none has been proved right. Now, a Texas biochemist, Joseph Nagyvary, says he has scientific proof the long-sought secret is chemistry, not craftsmanship. Specifically, he says, Stradivari treated his violins with chemicals to protect them from wood-eating worms common in northern Italy. Unknowingly, Nagyvary says, the master craftsman gave his violins a chemical noise filter that provided a unique, pleasing sound.
"We now have the solution beyond a doubt," Nagyvary said. "The wood was chemically treated, brutally so. An unintended consequence from these chemicals was a sound like no other." Nagyvary, a professor emeritus at Texas A&M University, has pursued an answer to the Stradivarius mystery for more than 30 years. He is no stranger to controversy: Many violin makers question his conclusions, which were published last month in Nature, a prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journal. "I consider this to be an important discovery," said Attila Pavlath, a past president of the American Chemical Society and a chemist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "From a scientific standpoint, his research methods and results are sound."
Some nonscientists remain unconvinced, however. Violin makers generally take a dim view of those who claim to have discovered Stradivari's secret, said Christopher Germain, president of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers. That's because there's not one single secret behind a Stradivari violin, Germain says, but hundreds. Consider, he says, the scientist who discovers the exact chemical formulation of the paints used by Michelangelo. Does that mean, therefore, that the scientist now can re-create the Sistine Chapel? "The reason that Stradivari's violins are so revered is that he was a genius," says Germain, a Philadelphia-based violin maker. "Science can help us with some questions, but science and art do not always overlap." Another violin maker, Joseph Regh of Wappingers Falls, N.Y., was more blunt in his assessment of Nagyvary. "He's a self-appointed entrepreneur who uses headlines to his own personal advantage," said Regh, vice president of the Violin Society of America. "He just doesn't have a very good reputation in the circles of violin makers. I would say that the probability he is right is about 1 percent." Regh said Nagyvary stands to profit by promoting his science. In his retirement the biochemist also runs a business that manufactures violins that he says produce Stradivarius-like sound.
Nagyvary acknowledges the controversy between himself and some violin makers, but said his molecular research has allowed him to craft instruments that equal the sound quality of Stradivarius violins. In August, 2003, a German company making a documentary on Antonio Stradivari, MiraMedia, organized a concert at which 600 people judged one of Nagyvary's violins against that of a 1725 Stradivarius nicknamed "Da Vinci." Navygary's violin edged the Stradivarius in the minds and votes of the audience members. Born in Hungary, Nagyvary says he was exposed to violin music often as a child because "every restaurant had a Gypsy band playing." Nagyvary escaped communism in his homeland in 1956, finishing school as a refugee in Switzerland and boarding with well-to-do families and professors. A life-long fascination with the stringed instrument was ignited when he learned to play the violin in one of these homes using an instrument that once belonged to Albert Einstein. Most theories about the Stradivarius secret have focused on the wood. Nagyvary, who arrived in 1968 at Texas A&M as an associate professor, brought a chemist's eye to the question. He first theorized that chemical treatment might be involved more than three decades ago, experimenting with different brines, chemicals and varnishes in an attempt to reproduce the distinct sound of a Stradivarius. Only recently, he says, did he obtain the means to scientifically test his theories using rigorous scientific tools to probe the organic material in wood shavings from the special violins.
After receiving many rejections, he finally procured two wood samples from different Stradivarius violins and one from Guarneri, a lesser-known contemporary of Stradivari whose violins also are highly valued by experts. To perform the analysis, he collaborated with Joseph DiVerdi at Colorado State University and Noel Owen at Brigham Young University. Though the wood samples were small, each weighing about three-thousandths of an ounce, they contained enough material to perform an analysis using a technique called solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, which found the chemicals used to prevent wood worm infestations. It proved to be the first hard evidence of special chemical treatment to protect the wood. The treatment, Nagyvary says, acts as a sort of noise filter. The combination of these chemicals with a unique varnish used by Stradivari, which guarantees a stiff material and a brilliant sound, explain the instrument's unique sound, Nagyvary said. Pavlath, the chemist familiar with Nagyvary's work, thinks he knows why violin makers refuse to accept the scientist's results. "It's simply business," Pavlath says. "They don't like someone coming in saying, 'Hey, what you're making can never be like a real Stradivarius, and here's why.' "
What an asinine question!
Soaked in human tears?
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The theory that I heard was that the wood used on the violins had a much tighter grain due to the colder winters in the years 20-50 years before harvesting those trees. Little Ice Age, I think.
Bose speakers?
I'm thinking he made a deal with the devil. (Just kidding)
And the tone deaf say, EH!
Love this story. At first, I thought "I hope he's really found one of the reasons." Now I've decided that it would ruin the mystique. Great read, though.
The Devil's produced it's unique timbre by being made of gold, I believe. However it's price was deemed excessive.
Take my violin............please.........
Audio anachronism alert! I haven't heard references made to Ohm's Walsh drivers in a long time. I listened to these extensively about 25 years ago. They were truly a unique pioneering design with their own set of unique flaws, but the "Cool" factor was off the charts.
Ha ha ha.
Best wood comes attached to a pre-64 Model 70 Winchester.
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