Posted on 12/06/2003 11:24:15 PM PST by blam
Contact: Mary Tobin
mtobin@ldeo.columbia.edu
845-365-8607
The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Climate linked to the quality of musical instrument making
Little ice age and maunder minimum enabled stradivari violins
Image credit: Mark Inglis
There has been considerable debate surrounding the reasons why instruments crafted in the late 17th and early 18th centuries are tonally superior to modern instruments. Theories range from the skill of the craftsman to secret techniques such as a special varnish, the drying of the wood, the storage time, or even the use of old wood from historic structures. Lloyd Burckle of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, and Henri Grissino-Mayer of the Laboratory of Tree Ring Science, University of Tennessee, have proposed an alternate hypothesis--climate. Their research was published in the journal Dendrochronologia.
Burckle and Grissino-Mayer propose that the superior sound quality of instruments from this era may be explained by the climatic regime that gripped Europe and perhaps much of the world from AD 1645 to 1715. Known as the Maunder Minimum, it was a period characterized by a scarcity of sunspots and a reduction in the Sun's overall activity. The less intense solar radiation and activity coincided with a sharp decline in temperature during the Little Ice Age and a period of very cold weather in western Europe. The Maunder Minimum is clearly seen in tree-ring records from high-elevation forest stands in the European Alps. The long winters and cool summers of this 70 year period produced wood that has slow, even growth--desirable properties for producing quality sounding boards.
Antonio Stradivari of Cremona, Italy, perhaps the most famous of violin makers, was born one year before the beginning of the Maunder Minimum. He and other violinmakers of the area used the only wood available to them--from the trees that grew during the Maunder Minimum. Burckle and Grissino suggest that the narrow tree rings that identify the Maunder Minimum in Europe played a role in the enhanced sound quality of instruments produced by the violinmakers of this time. Narrow tree rings would not only strengthen the violin but would increase the wood's density.
The onset of the Maunder Minimum at a time when the skills of the Cremonese violinmakers reached their zenith perhaps made the difference in the violin's tone and brilliance. Climate conditions with temperatures such as those that occurred during this time simply can not and do not occur today in areas where the Cremonese makers likely obtained their wood.
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There must have also been some climatic anomaly between 1957 and 1974 to produce THESE sonic gems!
We are now in a period of increased solar activity but I hear scant few mention that it could have a hand in increased temperatures (global warming). No, it just has to be industry's fault. They can't make a big political stink about the sun, so this requires blaming it on capitalism.
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Why would that necessarily be a completely true statement?
I spent thirty-five years building houses and while I assume that most of the lumber we used was grown during my lifetime, there was one very memorable exception.
We built a mortise and tenoned open beamed living room that was structural as well as ornamental and the owner wanted the "perfect" beam for the center carrier. I found the beam at an outfit that for five generations specialized in taking old buildings apart and saving the structural components.
Originally one of "the Kings trees" this massive Maine white pine beam was taken from a 250 year old house that had been dismantled fifty years before I got my hands on it.
From the growth rings one could tell that the tree had been growing for at least 200 years before Columbus hit Hispaniola.
I have the cut end as a stand alone end table sized cribbage board.
Excellent story thanks. I've heard similar stories in my area about 'heart pine.'
A FReeper once told me that the wood from Noah's Ark was likely to be in some wooden structure in present day Turkey.
Some of the rivers down in 'Bama are chock full of Southern Yellow Pine logs that sank during the old logging drives, bottomed out and sealed of from the atmosphere for fifty years or more. The heartwood of these logs is rock hard and of a beautiful reddish coloration. It makes some of the best solid wood flooring around.
A young entrepeneur up here just started the same type of salvage operation a few years ago. I hope he makes a good buck at it.
I have read about the same here also.
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