Treating Wood With Fungus Allows Violin To Sound Like A Stradivarius

The front view image of the Antonio Stradivari violin of 1703. Picture taken at the Musikinstrumenten Museum, Berlin.

The violin is a musical instrument. It is part of the string family of musical instruments. It usually has four tuned strings. Instead of plucking the strings like a guitar to create music, a bow is drawn across the string.

A bow is a wooden stick with a string (usually horse hair) strung between the ends.

The violin is also called a 'fiddle' although technically, any bowed stringed instrument like a cello or a bass (which is part of the violin family) can be considered a fiddle. The violin is the smallest of the violin family.

The most well known type of violin is the Stradivarius. These violins were made by the Stradivarius family (most notably Antonio Stradivari) during the 17th and 18th century. The reputation of a Stradivarius is very widespread and is said to have excellent sound qualities.

An authentic Stradivarius made by Antonio can fetch millions of dollars in today's market. There are around 100 documented Stradivarius still around today.

Treatment with fungi makes a modern violin sound like a Stradivarius

A good violin depends not only on the expertise of the violin maker, but also on the quality of the wood that is used. The Swiss wood researcher Professor Francis W. M. R. Schwarze (Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, St. Gallen, Switzerland) has succeeded in modifying the wood for a violin through treatment with special fungi. This treatment alters the acoustic properties of the instrument, making it sound indistinguishably similar to a Stradivarius. In his dinner talk at the 1st ECRC "Franz-Volhard" Symposium of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and Charité - Universitätsmedizin on September 7, 2012 in Berlin-Buch, Schwarze reported on his research and gave a preview of what his wood treatment method could mean, particularly for young violinists.

Low density, high speed of sound and a high modulus of elasticity – these qualities are essential for ideal violin tone wood. In the late 17th and early 18th century the famous violin maker Antonio Stradivari used a special wood that had grown in the cold period between 1645 and 1715. In the long winters and the cool summers, the wood grew especially slowly and evenly, creating low density and a high modulus of elasticity. Until now, modern violin makers could only dream of wood with such tonal qualities.