Famed violinmaker Antonio Stradivari may have benefited not only from unparalleled expertise but also from a 70-year cold spell caused by a dearth of sunspots, researchers say. But others say the analysis doesn't ring true.
CREDIT: HENRI D. GRISSINO-MAYER
Researchers have suggested that Italian master luthiers of the late 17th and 18th centuries achieved superior tone by using secret varnishes, wood taken from ancient castles, or special drying techniques. But violinmakers may have been aided more by an extended period of long winters, cool summers, and slow, even tree growth, say climatologist Lloyd Burckle of Columbia University in New York and tree-ring scientist Henri Grissino-Mayer of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The unique climatic conditions produced dense wood with narrow tree rings, which was ideal for violins, they report in the current issue of Dendrochronologia. The cold snap is associated with the Maunder minimum, a period of low solar activity that began in 1645, 1 year after Stradivari's birth.
However, "the correlation between ring spacing and the acoustical properties of wood has not been established," says Colin Gough, a physicist at the University of Birmingham, U.K. Besides, Gough says, it's difficult to find a measurable difference between the tonal qualities of old and new violins.
