Scanning a Stradivarius
Medical 3-D imaging makes it possible to study the anatomy of the world's greatest stringed instruments – and uncover the secrets of its makers
- By Erica R. Hendry
- Smithsonian magazine, May 2010, Subscribe
As an 8-year-old boy in Denmark, Bruno Frohlich wanted to be a musician. He became a church organist’s assistant, yearning to create the haunting sound that poured from the instrument’s pipes.
But Frohlich soon became more interested in how the organ worked; the church organist arrived one morning to find his young pupil taking apart the instrument with a screwdriver and a hammer.
Frohlich, 64, and now a research anthropologist at the National Museum of Natural History, is still fascinated with musical instruments—though he has found a less destructive way to study them. In his laboratory sits a massive CT scanner, which is normally used to create three-dimensional images of human tissue. Frohlich uses it to probe the anatomy of the world’s greatest violins, including those made by Antonio Stradivari between 1677 and 1727.
Musicians throughout Europe traveled to Italy to purchase Stradivari’s violins. His competitors tried to figure out his “secret”—or, failing that, simply put his name on their violins. Today, artisans and scientists are still struggling to recreate the Stradivari sound. Some have chipped varnish off the violins, hoping to discover a special chemical compound. Others have built their own instruments, using artificially aged wood.
But Frohlich puts no stock in secret ingredients. He prefers an investigation into all elements of the violins’ design. “There’s no way we can do a study focusing on just one small thing,” he says.
Nor does he see much value in trying to assess how a violin actually sounds—mainly because there is no objective way to measure euphony, where beauty is in the ear of the beholder. Still, the popularity of Stradivari’s instruments attests to their having struck a chord among many musicians.
Over the past ten years, Frohlich has scanned nearly 50 violins and other stringed instruments—by Stradivari, his contemporaries and current artisans. He is still compiling data, but has come to some initial conclusions. One distinguishing characteristic of a Stradivari violin is a consistent volume of air within it, which can affect tone quality. And, while the wood in other violins can be several millimeters thick, many of the Stradivari instruments Frohlich has studied are just one millimeter thick in places of the body. Frohlich is not certain whether the thinner wood contributes to the instrument’s unique sound. More likely, he suggests, musicians simply preferred a violin that weighed less—allowing for more comfort with the instrument and better performances.
Until now, there has been no way for instrument makers to quantify such characteristics and correlate them to musicians’ preferences for dark, low tones that linger in the air and for richness and depth of sound.
“What we might find from Frohlich’s work is that there’s a way to describe a perfect air volume before you hear it, before we finish the violin,” says John Montgomery, a violin maker who repairs instruments at Smithsonian museums and the Library of Congress. Such knowledge, he adds, “can be repeated from one instrument to the next.”
Once Frohlich is done analyzing the data, he says, he’ll work with Montgomery to make the results available to instrument makers—something unthinkable in Stradivari’s day.
“In the old days you had this very rigid master-apprentice relationship, and it was very secretive,” Montgomery says. “You weren’t allowed to tell people what you knew, you had to keep it to your trade.” But Frohlich’s research could transform the crafting of violins from solo performances into symphonies.
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Comments (10)
@Karen Matuz
Antonio Stradivari made instruments between 1677 and 1727, in Italy. What you have is a "model" (a copy) of a Stradivarius. While a cheap Stradivarius would be roughly $1million, yours is going to be worth considerably less.
Posted by the allknowing on September 8,2010 | 12:46 AM
I have a violin with a sticker on the inside Antonio Stradivari Made in Germany I am very interested in finding out more about the year it was made and what it might be worth. Please direct who I might contact for this information Thank You karen mautz
Posted by karen matuz on July 11,2010 | 07:19 AM
I did internship for a year under Dr. Frohlich's supervision. I stayed in touch with him for many years after, but I lost contact in the past five years.
Could I please get his contact so that I can write to him? Or, could you please kindly forward him this comment?
He taught me a lot and he provided me with excellent recommendation letters. I would like to get in touch with him if possible.
Many thanks.
Regards,
May Oo
Posted by May Oo on June 4,2010 | 08:02 PM
The article, "Scanning a Stradivarius" by Erica Hendry is interesting. Does the shape and placing of the "f" holes on the top of the violin affect the special quality of a Stradivarius? Stradivari experimented with the design and arching of his instruments. More information on the volume of air in his earlier instruments compared to those of Amati would be helpful.
Eugene Gratovich
Austin, TX
Posted by Eugene Gratovich on June 2,2010 | 06:37 PM
"The Sight Of Music research" by Bruno Frohlich imaging violins was captivating. Many years ago, I read Antonia Fraser’s 1969 biography: "Mary Queen Of Scots". There was a footnote of special interest; Mary Stuart’s personal rule in Scotland coincided with a marked change on the whole weather graph of Europe. A little ice age period of cold climate from 1550-1700 now established by copious evidence from almost all parts of the northern hemisphere (see H.H. Lamb "Trees And Climate History In Scotland" 1964). The mini ice age gripped Europe, and it Slowth Tree growth that yielded uncommonly dense Alpine Spruce.
This ice age reached its coldest point during a 70 year period from 1645-1715 known as Maunder Minimum (Maunder documented a lack of solar activity).
Stradivari was born a year before the Maunder Minimum. And this Golden Period 1700-1720 with slow ring growth could correlate for Antonio Stradivarius, and other famous 17 century Italian violin makers a unique sound which could affect tone quality.
Stradivari was a gifted violin maker, and possibly a lighter wood was also a gift from Mother-Nature. That would strike a chord for the entire world to possess a symphonic masterpiece.
Gail T. Hurst
San Diego, CA
Posted by Gail T. Hurst on May 23,2010 | 07:14 AM
It's really interesting, maybe this will change the way of making the violins for ever, beacuse those results are going to de the makers!
Posted by Lizbeth Prado on May 14,2010 | 01:03 PM
Laurence Libin makes very interesting points. I too found the article very sweeping in its pronouncements. "Consistent volume of air"? What is that exactly?
And the article says Frohlich has studied "nearly 50" violins and other stringed instruments, and not all of them from Stradivari. That's a very small study sample indeed, to draw conclusions from!
Just how many Stradivari violins did he scan? It would be helpful to know their names too (Messiah, Hammer)
Posted by Dr Luis Francisco Dias on May 13,2010 | 04:28 AM
Dear Mr Erwin Frolich,
Yes, you are related to Bruno Frolich.
- Regards,
Alan Smithee
Posted by Alan Smithee on April 28,2010 | 03:55 AM
i would like to no if i am related to bruno frohlich in any way my dad game from germany in 1930 to the untied states got married had to sons my name is erwin frohlich and my brother is paul frohlich my dads name was paul frohlich to he had 2or3 brothers and 1 sister they would all be around 90 yrs old maybe older over 100 yrs old i just wonder if he was one of the sons of my dads brothers most of them never left germany , thank you
Posted by erwin frohlich on April 24,2010 | 08:41 PM
CT scanning has been used for years to examine fine violins, for instance by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. What is meant by "a consistent volume of air" within a Stradivari violin? Many Strads have been altered internally, so this assertion is highly questionable, as are assumptions about wood thickness, since top and back plates may have been thinned or reinforced. What data support the belief that light weight favors comfort and better performance? Are Strads lighter than Amatis, both in their original condition? Finally, any assertions about distinguishing characteristics of Strads must depend on examination of very many other makers' instruments (including accurate copies of Strads) to ensure that those features purporting to distinguish Strads are in fact unique to his work. I hope Mr. Frohlich's research is more serious than this article suggests.
Posted by Laurence Libin on April 22,2010 | 09:37 PM