<p>I heard a story yesterday that a new technique for treating wood has produced Violins that in blind listening tests by musicians is out scoring Strad violins nearly 3 to 1.</p>
<p>It could mean getting world class violins without the million dollar price tags. </p>
<p>Maybe a chance for great sounding instruments to end up in the hands of younger players.</p>
<p>where did you hear this? I did a quick search for it and came up empty</p>
<p>[The</a> Great Beyond: Fungal violin defeats Strad](<a href=“http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/09/sweet_sounds_of_science_biotec.html]The”>http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/09/sweet_sounds_of_science_biotec.html)</p>
<p>Sci<em>ent</em>ist Fran<em>cis Schwar</em>ze of EMPA, the Swiss Fed<em>er</em>al Lab<em>o</em>r<em>a</em>to<em>ries for Ma</em>te<em>ri</em>als Test<em>ing and Re</em>search, de<em>vel</em>oped the new vi<em>o</em>lin by treat<em>ing it with spe</em>cially se<em>lected fun</em>gus, which he says im<em>proves the sound qual</em>ity by mak<em>ing the wood light</em>er and more un*iform.</p>
<p>In the test, the Brit<em>ish star vi</em>o<em>linist Mat</em>thew Trus<em>ler played five dif</em>fer<em>ent in</em>stru<em>ments be</em>hind a cur<em>tain, so that the au</em>di<em>ence did</em>n’t know which was be<em>ing played. One of the vi</em>o<em>lins Trusler played was his own “Strad,” or in</em>stru<em>ment made by the most sto</em>ried vi<em>o</em>lin mak<em>er of his</em>to<em>ry, An</em>to<em>nio Strad</em>i<em>var</em>i<em>us, in Ita</em>ly in the 18th cen*tury.</p>
<p>The oth<em>er four were all made by Swiss vi</em>o<em>lin mak</em>er Mi<em>chael Rhon</em>heim<em>er—two with Schwar</em>ze’s fun<em>gally-treated wood, the oth</em>er two with un*treated wood.</p>
<p>A ju<em>ry of ex</em>perts, to<em>geth</em>er with the con<em>fer</em>ence par<em>ti</em>ci<em>pants, judged the tone qual</em>ity of the vi<em>o</em>lins. Of the more than 180 at<em>ten</em>dees, al<em>most half, or 90, felt the tone of a fun</em>gally treated vi<em>o</em>lin dubbed “Opus 58” the best. The Strad reached sec<em>ond place with 39 votes, but 113 mem</em>bers of the au<em>di</em>ence thought that “Opus 58” was ac<em>tu</em>ally the strad. </p>
<p>“O<em>pus 58” was the one made from wood that had been treated with fun</em>gus for the longest time, nine months, Schwar*ze said.</p>
<p>Strad<em>i</em>var<em>i</em>us vi<em>o</em>lins are re<em>garded as be</em>ing of un<em>par</em>al<em>leled qual</em>ity even to<em>day, com</em>mand<em>ing prices in the mil</em>lions. Strad<em>i</em>var<em>i</em>us him<em>self knew lit</em>tle of wood-at<em>tacking fun</em>gi, but Schwar<em>ze claims the mas</em>ter re<em>ceived in</em>ad<em>vert</em>ent help from a “Lit<em>tle Ice Age” which oc</em>curred from 1645 to 1715. Dur<em>ing this pe</em>ri<em>od Cen</em>tral Eu<em>rope suf</em>fered long win<em>ters and cool sum</em>mers which caused trees to grow slowly and un<em>iformly – cre</em>at<em>ing ide</em>al con<em>di</em>tions for the fun<em>gus to at</em>tack.</p>
<p>For the new vi<em>o</em>lins, Schwar<em>ze uses Nor</em>we<em>gian spruce wood treated with the fun</em>gus Physi<em>por</em>i<em>nus vit</em>rius and syc<em>a</em>more treated with Xy<em>laria lon</em>gipes.</p>
<p>The re<em>sult means that “in the fu</em>ture even tal<em>ent</em>ed young mu<em>si</em>cians will be able to af<em>ford a vi</em>o<em>lin with the same ton</em>al qual<em>ity as an im</em>pos<em>sibly ex</em>pen<em>sive Strad</em>i<em>var</em>i<em>us,” said Horst Heger of the Os</em>na<em>brück City Con</em>serv<em>a</em>tory. Schwarze said the new in<em>stru</em>ments would probably run about $25,000.</p>
<p>“Com<em>pared to a con</em>ven<em>tion</em>al in<em>stru</em>ment, a vi<em>o</em>lin made of wood treated with the fun<em>gus has a warm</em>er, more round*ed sound,” he added.</p>
<p>weird? what is with the * </p>
<p>here is the link maybe easier to read </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090915_violin.htm[/url]”>http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090915_violin.htm</a></p>
<p>Fungivarius Beats $2 Million Stradivarius ViolinComments:195
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 16, @12:30PM
from the dinner-and-a-song dept.
Fluffeh writes “Violins made by the Italian master Antonio Giacomo Stradivarius are regarded as being of unparalleled quality even today, with enthusiasts being prepared to pay millions for a single example. Stradivarius himself knew nothing of fungi which attack wood, but he received inadvertent help from the Little Ice Age which occurred from 1645 to 1715. During this period Central Europe suffered long winters and cool summers which caused trees to grow slowly and uniformly ideal conditions in fact for producing wood with excellent acoustic qualities. Now scientists are turning to fungi to recreate some of these amazing sounding instruments.”</p>
<p>Biotech-Enhanced Violins via ScienceDaily
Violins made by the Italian master craftsman Antonio Stradivarius are worth millions of dollars for their unparalleled sound. And that’s great, for the handful of musicians who can afford these centuries-old instruments. This month, a new violin made from wood treated with a fungus actually trumped a Stradivarius in a blind listening test, offering hope for violinists who want high tonal quality at an affordable price. </p>
<p>The test was conducted at the 27th “Osnabrücker Baumpflegetagen,” one of Germany’s most important annual conferences focusing on all aspects of forest husbandry. It featured acclaimed British violinist Matthew Trussler, playing his own Stradivarius, a $2 million instrument, as well as four other violins made by Michael Rhonheimer, a Swiss violin maker. Two of these new violins were made from wood that had been treated with a specially selected fungus by Francis Schwarze, a scientist at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research. </p>
<p>A jury of experts, as well as the conference attendees, judged the tone quality of the violins, and the ultimate winner was “Opus 58” – one of the fungus-infected violins. 90 of the 180 attendees voted for it, with the Stradivarius coming in second with 39 votes. 113 members guessed that “Opus 58” was actually the Strad. </p>
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<p>Tags
SciTech, audio, biotech, fungal infections, fungus, music, musical instruments, violinsThe wood in “Opus 58” was treated with a fungus for the longest time: 9 months. Fungal infections are generally thought to damage wood, but results published by Francis Schwarze last year suggested that some types of soft rot fungi reduced the density of the wood, making it lighter and improving its tonal quality, without impairing its firmness. Fungi may thus help artificially replicate the unusually low density of wood that is thought to have occurred in Stradivarius’ time. The “Little Ice Age” that occurred at this time brought about long winters and cool summers in Central Europe, causing trees to grow slowly and uniformly and creating wood with great tonal qualities.</p>
<p>Of course, blind listening tests are extremely subjective – a BBC test conducted in 1974 saw experts identify a modern instrument as a Stradivarius, and fail to identify 2 of 4 instruments played. But wood is the most important factor in determining how a violin sounds, and future fungal violins may provide aspiring musicians with a million-dollar sound at a reasonable price.</p>
<p>[ScienceDaily]</p>
<p>Multi million dollar Strad quality for a few thousand does seem a great breakthrough for young players.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how the violin world responds.</p>
<p>Various studies have been done over the years trying to define and potentially replicate some of Stradivarius’ (and other old makers’) genius. It’s the luthier’s equivalent of a search for the holy grail, and some might deem it as fruitless as alchemists attempting to turn lead to gold.</p>
<p>Plenty of articles over the years in Strad, Strings, and luthier professional trade publications, if anyone is interested in the history.</p>
<p>As technology evolves, it’s possible someone will find the secret. </p>
<p>The beauty of the sound of a stringed instrument is the skill of the maker old or modern, and the hands of the musician wielding it.</p>
<p>I’d rue the day someone finds the “secret” and new age Strads, Amatis, Guarneri’s, de Salo’s and Maggini’s role off the factory floor, cut by CNC routers, set up and adjusted by production workers to exacting factory specs.</p>
<p>But that’s just me.</p>
<p>The Japanese and now the Chinese and to some extent other SE Asian countries have changed instrument making.</p>
<p>For better or worse there now are very good instruments available at prices where people who could not before, can now afford wonderful sounding instruments.</p>
<p>I too have mixed emotions. </p>
<p>It sounds like this was a legit study, playing behind a curtain and they may have sound a way to make a violin that sounds as good or better that will make wonderful instruments available to people that never could have dreamt of Strad level sound.</p>
<p>It will be interesting how much they end up selling for. Maybe I will take up the violin when they start selling them at Costco. Just kidding.</p>
<p>People have been looking at the ‘mystique’ of Stradivarius, Guaneri et al, they have analyzed the wood, the techniques, the varnishes, and so forth, and every couple of years someone comes up with the ‘ultimate solution’ (as the nice woman who runs a local violin store said, there is always someone claiming it was because of a magic tree, and claim to have the only seeds…).</p>
<p>A couple of years ago it was that stradiverius used wood that either came from old abandoned monasteries that had been exposed to water for centuries, or from old dead trees, or because the wood was shipped by river, and got water saturated (there is a luthier in Berkeley, CA who makes violins out of 100 year old wood pulled from Lake Superior…supposedly has an incredible sound, though he doesn’t claim it is as ‘good as a strad’). Many years ago 60 minutes did a program on a guy with much the same thing, including a varnish that included gem dust, and supposedly violinists couldn’t tell either.</p>
<p>Let me add that from time to time sound tests are done like this, blind, with modern violins costing in the 20-50k range, and often they beat stradiverius’s and the like in that kind of sound test. </p>
<p>Does that mean these won’t make good, low cost violins? Could be, and I hope that happens, because the cost of concert quality violins has gotten so ridiculous, and I am not even talking strads. But will they replace strads and other violins of the ‘old masters’? I suspect not, and here is why:</p>
<p>1)The age of the violins itself is a factor, and that is something that chemistry and physics will have a hard time reproducing.Violins change, not just with age, but with use, and each player and their playing style changes the instrument (and this isn’t metaphysical, new agey stuff, I am talking the way a violinist plays shapes the sound of the instrument). It may take a long time before any ‘pseudo strads’ play at that level I suspect.</p>
<p>2)Most Luthiers will tell you that the material the violin is made from is only part of the picture, that the craftsmen who made them had a lot to do with it, that the little things they knew to do, the tiniest little tricks and methods, make a big difference. Stradiverius and his successors, along with other golden ages in violin making (the 19th century French violins of Gand, Vuillaume, Bernadel and so forth eg), lived in a time and place where they were around others working on the instruments, where there was a hotbed of innovation going on, that allowed for them to create what they did (and who knows how many of the masters violins were destroyed before ever being played, because they were crap?) We are seeing the cream of the crop passed down to us, but what we don’t know is how many failures went into each one</p>
<p>3)Then, of course,we have mystique.In the car industry, makers have tried to make a ‘ferrari killer’, that costs less and performs better, and in many cases they have succeeded, at least technically.The Acura NSX had ferrari performance for around 100k, the Corvette ZR1 even bested it at around 100k, and while great cars, with a following, they basically have not entered the ferrari/exotic realm, they stayed mundane. </p>
<p>4)I also suspect that with these violins, they will not be able to create a great many ‘top notch’ violins, even if they use a uniform process, build things using computer controlled woodworking machines, and so forth. The sound of a violin is a lot more then the sum of its parts, I could give a luthier the same wood, the same varnish that Stadiveri used, the same tools, the exact measurements, and what he would come out with would more then likely not sound like a strad. I would guess that the wood will be commonly available, and will produce a number of nice sounding, relatively inexpensive instruments, but will end up producing only a small number of high end instruments, which will remain expensive. Even among a top maker, the sound quality varies, so with this it is likely the same thing will occur. </p>
<p>Then again,I could be wrong,but keep in mind this is nothing new, this has been said many times before. I would be very surprised, to say the least, if factory violin makers, even using this wood, can turn out something as good as a strad (Side note; The Strad magazine (or was it violin magazine) had an article about Sam Zygmontowicz (a very well respected modern violin maker, his violins now sell in the hundreds of thousands of dollars) and a group of luthiers who at their annual conference took upon the challenge of taking a factory violin and turning it into something that sounded identical to a strad.They are using all kinds of state of the art analysis equipment, audio, cat scans, etc, to try and accomplish this. If they are able to meet their goal, and combined with this wood, then you might see high quality, concert level instruments coming out at relatively low prices…but I am skeptical.</p>