A team of scientists, including a pair from Utah, has weighed in on the long-running debate over how the Strad sound is achieved. The answer may lie with chemical treatments to preserve the maple wood used to make the instruments.
Antonio Stradivari, the Italian violin maker who worked in the 1700s, may not have realized how the treated wood affected the sound, according to Joseph Nagyvary, a retired Texas A&M University biochemist.
The maple may have been the same type of wood used by furniture makers in the area. Any chemical treatments likely targeted worms that could turn the wood into Swiss cheese.
"The wood was drastically and brutally treated," said Nagyvary, lead author in a study appearing in the journal Nature, "not just a little bit."
For years, some in the violin field suggested what Nagyvary refers to as the "magic potion" theory about how the sound was achieved. But most experts scoffed at the notion that Stradivari would have chemically altered the wood.
Nagyvary, who makes violins, had his suspicions and turned to science to investigate. He managed to obtain shavings from Strads and other violins from that era that had been brought in for repairs over the years. Violins from another noted Italian master from that era in Italy, Joseph Guarneri, were also examined via slivers.
The tiny sample sizes were more than enough for Brigham Young University researchers.
"Nobody is going to cut up a Strad and give you a sample," said Noel Owen, a BYU professor of chemistry and biochemistry, involved in the study.
Owen examined the violin bits using infrared techniques. At the smallest levels, even the molecules of inanimate objects vibrate, or move, at different frequencies. The signature produced by such movements can be measured using a device called a infrared spectrometer.
Testing the various slivers, Owen found subtle differences between the Stradivari- and Guarneri-produced violins compared to those of similar age made elsewhere in Europe. A BYU statistician, Dennis Tolley, analyzed the numbers, finding the differences were statistically significant.
Colorado State University Chemist Joseph DiVerdi conducted nuclear magnetic resonance tests on the slivers and also found differences. Owen said the results explored in the Nature paper point to chemical treatment of the wood.
"Whatever you do to the wood can affect the sound tremendously," he said.
Nagyvary said he hopes to obtain larger samples to determine what chemicals may have been used, but the evidence for such treatments seems clear.
"I think we provided a positive answer to the centuries-old question," Nagyvary said.
But not everyone is convinced there is a single physical factor that influences the Strad sound.
David Park, assistant concert master for the Utah Symphony, said he believes the skills of the artisan play a key role in determining sound. Stradivari had an eye for picking out the best wood for each instrument.
Park, who has played the violin for 30 years, said the biggest mystery may lie with the varnish used to finish the violin. Whatever ingredients went into the varnish can impact a violin's sound.
"I think all these are factors that went into his artistry of making the violin," said Park, who recently had a chance to play a Stradivarius, as well as a Guarneri violin, in concert.
glavine@sltrib.com
