Violin makers routinely end up their instruments with a buddy-buddy coat of varnish , the practiced to protect and preserve the wood . Now Swiss scientist take that this varnish also play a role in the overall sound calibre of the instrument .
As describedin a new paperin Applied Physics A , Marjan Gilani and her colleagues at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology ( EMPA ) studiedhow a varnish ’s chemical substance composition , thickness , and degree of insight into the wood affected the acoustic of the instrument .
They used sample of Norway spruce tone wood cutting from the same Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and coat the samples with unlike sort of varnish : two of their own making , and two used by German schoolmaster violin makers . Then they carry on vibration mental test of the sample over clip , using hug drug - ray tomography to measure the issue .
The researcher found that all the varnish increased the wood ’s dampening power — that is , how well it absorbs and stops vibrations . That extra damping , compared to unvarnished wood , leads to a warm , mellower , and esthetically pleasing sound . The varnish favored by German luthiers performed slenderly better in that esteem , and also made for good effectual irradiation ( louder tones ) .
This is n’t the first time varnish has been cited as a factor in the strait of a fiddle — specifically , the violins built by Antonio Stradivariin the recent 17th / early 18th century , renowned for their superior sound . Back in 2006 , a draw back professor of biochemistry , Joseph Nagyvary , claim it was the chemical used to handle the wood in Stradivarius violins that made them so special : a cocktail of dearest , egg whites , and gum tree arabic , along with salts of copper , branding iron , and chromium . All are first-class Sir Henry Wood preservers , butNagyvary argued(convincingly ) that they also altered the acoustical place of the wood .
Theories aboutStradivari ’s “ secret”abound , and many of the surviving instrument have been subjected toCT scanning , infrared and nuclear magnetized sonorousness spectroscopic analysis , computer modeling , andacoustic vibrational studies — all in a quest to embolden the wizard ofthat classifiable speech sound . Some have claimed the Alpine spruce the master luthier used was unique due to a period of uncommonly cold weather in that epoch . A2008 studyfound that the wood density of Stradivari violins was markedly different from more advanced instruments .
Looking more to the future than the past , theStrad3D Projecthas grow eye - protrude 3 - dimensional vitality of a violin ’s vibrations—“what a Strad does , not only what it looks like,”per the task ’s Website .
Back in 2007,I had the prospect to speakwith Strad3D ’s acoustic research director , George Bissinger , who had his own hypothesis about the secret behind the Stradivari strait , based on 35 + year of research : psycho - acoustics . That is , merely uttering the name Stradivari creates a sense of fear in the listener , and this course influences how we evaluate what we hear .
“ The adult secret about Stradivari is that there is no one secret , ” Bissinger told me . “ The trueness is , there are many very ok world - category cat’s-paw shaper today , producing violinsthat can hold their ownagainst the Strads , but their names do n’t kindle the same awestricken reverence , and thus the sensing is that they are not as good . ”
So there is no sorcerous rule that will make it possible to regurgitate that starring sound quality over and over on a massive plate . Frankly , the whole notion of mass production is antithetical to the luthier ’s employment , which is as much art as science .
But the correct choice of varnish probably ca n’t hurt .
[ Applied Physics AviaEurekalert ]
scientific discipline
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