Tag Archives: violins

Nanoimaging helps unravel mystery of coating used in Stradivarius violins

Caption: A highly precise, nanometer-scale imaging technique revealed a protein-based layer between the wood and the varnish coating of these two Stradivarius violins [images of the San Lorenzo 1718 (left) and the Toscano 1690 (right)]. Credit: Adapted from Analytical Chemistry 2022, DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.2c02965

An October 25, 2022 American Chemical Society (ACS) news release (also on EurekAlert) describes how the mystery of the violins was unraveled,

Stradivarius violins produce elegant music with a level of clarity that is unparalleled by modern instruments, according to some musicians. And it’s the finishing touches — mysterious treatments applied hundreds of years ago by Antonio Stradivari — that contribute to their unique look and sound. In a step toward unraveling the secret, researchers in ACS’ Analytical Chemistry report on a nanometer-scale imaging of two of Stradivari’s violins, revealing a protein-based layer between the wood and varnish.

Previous studies have reported that some stringed instruments crafted by Stradivari have a hidden coating underneath the shiny varnish. This coating’s purpose would have been to fill in and smooth out the wood, influencing the wood’s resonance and the sound that’s produced. Knowing the components of this film could be key to replicating the historic instruments in modern times. So, Lisa Vaccari, Marco Malagodi and colleagues wanted to find a technique that would determine the composition of the layer between the wood and varnish of two precious violins — the San Lorenzo 1718 and the Toscano 1690.

Using a technique previously used on historic violins, synchrotron radiation Fourier-transform infrared spectromicroscopy, the team found that both samples had an intermediary layer, but this method couldn’t differentiate the layer’s composition from the adjacent wood. Then they turned to infrared scattering-type scanning near field microscopy (IR s-SNOM) to analyze the samples. The IR s-SNOM apparatus includes a microscope that collects images tens of nanometers wide and measures the infrared light scattered from the coating layer and the wood to collect information about their chemical composition. The results of the new method showed that the layer between the wood and varnish of both instruments contained protein-based compounds, congregating in nano-sized patches. Because IR s-SNOM provided a detailed 3D picture of the types of substances on the violin’s surface, the researchers say that it could be used in future studies to identify compounds in complex multi-layer cultural heritage samples.

The authors acknowledge CERIC-ERIC [Association of European-level Research Infrastructure Facilities] and Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste for access to experimental facilities and financial support.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

A Nanofocused Light on Stradivari Violins: Infrared s-SNOM Reveals New Clues Behind Craftsmanship Mastery by Chiaramaria Stani, Claudia Invernizzi, Giovanni Birarda, Patrizia Davit, Lisa Vaccari, Marco Malagodi, Monica Gulmini, and Giacomo Fiocco. Anal. Chem. 2022, 94, 43, 14815–14819 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.2c02965 Publication Date:October 17, 2022 Copyright © 2022 American Chemical Society

This paper appears to be open access.

Musical Acoustics at Vancouver’s (Canada) April 29, 2014 Café Scientifique

Vancouver’s next Café Scientifique is being held in the back room of the The Railway Club (2nd floor of 579 Dunsmuir St. [at Seymour St.], Vancouver, Canada), on Tuesday, April 29,  2014 at 7:30 pm. Here’s the meeting description (from the April 23, 2014 announcement),

Our next café will happen on Tuesday, April 29, 7:30pm at The Railway Club. Our speaker is Dr. Chris Waltham from UBC Physics and Astronomy. The title and abstract of his talk is:

Musical Acoustics: What do soundboxes do and how do they work? 
 

Nearly all string instruments have soundboxes to radiate the vibrational energy of the strings. These wooden boxes tend to be objects of beauty and of iconic shapes (think of a violin or guitar), but seldom is any thought given to how they work. A large part of the field of musical acoustics is the analysis of sound boxes, and although the question of “quality” remains elusive, much progress has been made. For example, pretty much every feature of a violin’s morphology can be understood in terms of vibroacoustics and ergonomics, rather than visual aesthetics (with the possible exception of the scroll, of course). Although Andrea Amati would not have used the language and methods of mechanical engineering, the form he perfected most definitely follows its function.

I like to talk about acoustics and violins. Also harps, guitars, guqins and guzhengs.

For anyone curious about Andrea Amati, there’s this from his Wikipedia entry (Note: Links have been removed),

Andrea Amati was a luthier, from Cremona, Italy.[1][2] Amati is credited with making the first instruments of the violin family that are in the form we use today.[3] According to the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota:

It was in the workshop of Andrea Amati (ca. 1505-1577) in Cremona, Italy, in the middle of the 16th century that the form of the instruments of the violin family as we know them today first crystallized.

Several of his instruments survive to the present day, and some of them can still be played.[3][4] Many of the surviving instruments were among a consignment of 38 instruments delivered to Charles IX of France in 1564.

As for guqins and guzhengs, they are both Chinese stringed instruments of 7 strings and 18 or more strings, respectively.