Fungus the secret of Stradivarius?

September 18, 2009 at 02:10 PM ·

Hello everyone,

A fellow violinist pointed me to this recent article. One of the theories about the old Cremonese sound is that those fiddles were made with wood from trees that grew during a time of very cool summers and long winters, leading to a difference in the properties of the wood. Supposedly some scientists came up with the idea of "rotting" modern wood with some specific fungi to generate wood with similar properties. Recently some fiddles made with such treated wood were put up to a listening test against a Strad. Surprisingly the audience chose the fungal violin. Of course such blind tests are not an accurate test, but pretty interesting nonetheless. Go to the link to read for yourself.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090914111418.htm

Replies (7)

Oliver Steiner

September 18, 2009 at 03:08 PM ·

Has anyone proposed a theory that Beethoven Symphonies are great because of a special ingredient in the ink he used?

Carol .

September 18, 2009 at 03:36 PM ·

there is already a thread on this subject, have you not seen it? it was started Sep. 16.

Fungus-treated wood = excellent violins?

Chris Min

September 18, 2009 at 08:18 PM ·

I might have missed it. I could have sworn there wasn't a thread on this when I wrote it, and then there was a gap before my post made it up on the page... Apologies :-)

Royce Faina

September 19, 2009 at 02:51 PM ·

No worries, it happens. I've done it and others will. ;^)

D Kurganov

September 19, 2009 at 09:18 PM ·

This makes no sense, because all of the other makers were working with generally the same wood. Therefor, it could not be this fungus wood (or anything to do with the "little ice age") that separated the Stradivari's and the lesser makers. It's just craftsmanship...when will people stop trying to find an easy answer to such a complicated question?? Human nature i guess...