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.
String theory ping.
bmflr
One of the old stains used on Maple is nitric acid, it carbonizes the sugar in the wood and brings out the grain. It was, and is, used on rifle stocks, no reason it wasn’t used on violins.
Reminds me of a classic Texas A&M "Aggie" joke.
A farmer had chickens that were dying of a mysterious ailment. They would get noticeably sick, then die in about 3 days.
He decided to get a chicken in the early stages of the disease and send it to Texas A&M for a diagnosis. He found such a chicken, broke it's neck, and shipped it to the veterinary dept. at A&M with a note asking "What it killing my chickens?"
After several weeks, he received his response: "Your chicken died of a broken neck."
If I remember correctly, some thought that wonderful tone of the instruments was due in part to the fact that the wood, after being felled, had lay in spring fed rivers and large bodies of water for extended periods of time, due to the fact that it was easier to store the lumber there than on land where insects were more of a problem. That time in the possibly “polluted waters” may be the source of some of the chemicals found in the wood.
Hey, don’t I know you? The Nitric acid/iron stain has to be heated to turn color. As far as I know, violins were not treated this way. Generally, color comes from colored varnish. The wood would be treated with any number of different substances to seal it. One of which is “water glass”. There were other things used as well, often in several layers. Once the grain was filled and the surface smooth, a colored varnish would be applied to the surface. To the best I have been able to ascertain, this was the general method used...I can easily be wrong.
Stophel
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bump
I remember speculations about the varnish. From this article it sounds like he took existing processes and went some step further. If it’s so that the violins were consistent in sound then it sounds like some standard process was employed.
Give me Alison Krauss on any make of Violin.
I'm not an aficionado of the violin but when I heard Dylan Jenson I liked what I heard.
I also tell her that the more beer I consume the better the wood will be.
You may know me if you're in Florida and shot in NMLRA events back in the 70s. I was the guy who always shot a flintlock in the line of caplock shooters, it drove them crazy! I usually had an empty lane to my right!
Maybe this sort of research will have some impact on the guitar industry, which is suffering from the extinction of Brazilian rosewood.
And I tell Mrs. Jazzy that the more beer I drink, the better lover I become!
Funny, but Mrs. Jazzy questions my scientific evidence on that claim.
And we should never forget the true master of the violin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmPgNzHZUpY
No mention of the Maunder Minimum & it’s supposed affect on wood grain? Hmmm?
I’m Stophel or Fatdutchman on some of the ML boards.
Alison rocks!
Fat Dutchman....that is the best viral video every. And I don’t know why.
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