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Brief Communications
Nature 444, 565 (30 November 2006) | doi:10.1038/444565a; Received 18 July 2006; Accepted 8 November 2006; Published online 29 November 2006
Wood used by Stradivari and Guarneri
Joseph Nagyvary1, Joseph A. DiVerdi2, Noel L. Owen3 & H. Dennis Tolley4
Abstract
The material used by the old masters to make exquisite violins may have been chemically manipulated.
Abstract
Whether or not the great Italian violin-makers used wood that had been chemically processed in order to preserve it and enhance the instrument's sound quality has long been a contentious issue1, 2. Here we use nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy to analyse organic matter in wood taken from antique instruments made by Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu. Our results indicate that the wood used by the masters could indeed have been chemically treated, a technique that may inspire an approach to violin making that is more chemistry-based.
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