Stradivarius

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Antonio Stradivari, by Edgar Bundy, 1893: a romanticized image of a craftsman-hero
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Antonio Stradivari, by Edgar Bundy, 1893: a romanticized image of a craftsman-hero
One of the violins in the Stradivarius collection of the Palacio Real, Madrid, Spain
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One of the violins in the Stradivarius collection of the Palacio Real, Madrid, Spain

Stradivari is the surname of one of the most famous violin-making families in history.

The founder, Antonio Stradivari, was born in Italy in 1644. Antonio Stradivari may have been a disciple of Nicolo Amati, of the Amati family of violin-makers of Cremona. Antonio Stradivari set up business for himself in 1680, though his early violins are generally considered inferior to those made between 1698 and 1720. While many of his techniques are still not fully understood by modern science, it is known for sure that the wood used included spruce for the harmonic top and internal parts and maple for the back, strip and neck, and that the wood was treated with several types of minerals, including potassium borate (borax), sodium and potassium silicate, and bianca (a varnish composed of Arabic gum, honey and egg white).

A Stradivarius (or "Strad") is a stringed instrument built by members of the Stradivari family, especially by Antonio Stradivari.

The playable instruments are highly prized by world-class musicians and others who can afford them. Their individual qualities are considered worth distinguishing, and a Strad is often identified by the name of someone (often a famous musician) who formerly owned it or regularly performed on it.

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[edit] Instrument quality

A Stradivarius made in the 1680s or during Stradivari's Brescian period (1690-1700) could be worth several hundred thousand dollars or more at today's prices in auction. If it was made during Stradivari's "golden period" (1700 to 1720), depending on condition, the instrument can be worth several million. They rarely come up for sale and the highest price paid for a Stradivarius (or any musical instrument) at public auction was 'The Christian Hammer', made in 1707, which sold for US $3,544,000 on May 16, 2006. Private sales of Stradivari instruments have exceeded this price.[1] [2] The world's only complete set of Stradivarius instruments (string quintet) belongs to the Spanish Government and consists of two violins, two cellos, and a viola. They are exhibited in the Music Museum at the Royal Palace (Palacio Real) of Madrid. Another important collection is the collection of the Royal Academy of Music (York Gate Collections) in London.

Many people find violins labeled or branded as "Stradivarius," and believe them to be genuine. It is believed that there are fewer than 700 genuine Strads left in existence, very few of which are unaccounted for.

The fame of Stradivari's violins is not a modern phenomenon: the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is supposed to have owned one; another famous story is about a Stradivarius Cello, known as the "Duport" which has the spur marks of Emperor Napoleon, who scratched the cello when he tried to play it. They also played an important role in the James Bond film The Living Daylights.

One aspect of Stradivari's approach, if the BBC TV series Lovejoy was as thoroughly researched as it is polished, is illustrated in the episode Second Fiddle, first broadcast in 1993, in which an instrument forger is engaged to camouflage a Stradivarius as a lesser instrument. As the options for just how to achieve this end are discussed it is noted that one would expect the 'f'-holes in the front of a violin to be symmetrical yet, in Stradivaria, they are often slightly offset. This is put down to him being less of a perfectionist than tradition would credit but, if true, may express a preference for an aural aesthetic over a visual.

The reputation of the Stradivarius is such that its name is frequently invoked as a standard of excellence in other unrelated fields (such as ships and cars); for example, the Bath Iron Works' unofficial motto is "A Bath boat is the Stradivarius of destroyers!".

[edit] Theories and reproduction attempts

These instruments are famous for the quality of their sound. There have been many failed attempts to explain and reproduce the sound quality, including these:

  • That Stradivari used wood from an old cathedral to build his instruments, but tree-ring dating has shown this to be false.
  • That the density of the wood grown during the little ice age and used to build the instruments is responsible. The theory is that this wood is denser and thus more ideal for making violins; this is because trees grow slower in colder climates and produce thinner or tighter rings. [3] [4] This has also called into question by simply examining Stradivari's instruments and noticing that many of them had very thick rings in the wood. [citation needed]
  • That the glue Stradivari used had a great effect on the sound.
  • Modern research tools have not solved the mystery, but devices such as the scanning laser vibrometer are aiding researchers in testing the theory that the careful shaping of belly and back plate, in order to "tune" their resonant frequencies, may be an important factor.
  • It was reported in late March 2001 that Joseph Nagyvary, a biochemist at Texas A&M University, succeeded in making a violin somewhere near the quality of a Stradivarius using these two processes:
  • Leave the wood in sea water for a while. Due to lack of land space in Venice, in former times imported wood was often stored in water in the Venice Lagoon, where a type of rotting affected it slightly. He managed to get hold of some wood shavings from a Stradivarius violin, and under a microscope he found that in that wood the natural filter plates in the pores between the tracheids had disappeared.
  • Treat the wood with borax.
See this news link.

[edit] Named Strads and their Namesakes

[edit] Violins

  • Milanollo- played, among others, by Christian Ferras, Giovanni Battista Viotti, and Nicolò Paganini. Currently played by Corey Cerovsek- 1728

[edit] Violas

There are 13 extant Antonio Stradivari violas. [12]

[edit] Cellos

Antonio Stradivari built between 70 and 80 cellos in his lifetime, of which 63 are extant. [13][12]

[edit] Harp

Antonio Stradivari made a single harp during his lifetime. [14]

[edit] Mandolins

There are two known surviving mandolins made by Stradivari.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Stradivarius tops auction record. Retrieved on 2006-06-07.
  2. ^ a b Successful $3,544,000 bid of "Hammer", AP. Retrieved on 2006-10-18.
  3. ^ CNN's "Little ice age" theory to Stradivarius' quality
  4. ^ National Geographic magazine article on the "little ice age" theory
  5. ^ Aranyi Stradivarius
  6. ^ Amatese sold as "an interesting violin"
  7. ^ a b c d e f Stolen and still missing
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Extended loans from the Stradivari Society
  9. ^ "The Lady Tennant" sold for more than $2 million
  10. ^ "ex Brüstlein" owned the Austrian National Bank
  11. ^ "Davidov-Morini" stolen and still missing
  12. ^ a b Extant Stradivari works
  13. ^ 63 extant Stradivari cellos
  14. ^ Stradivarius made one harp

[edit] External links

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