The Silent Legacy of The Messiah

Music technology has developed rapidly over the past number of years, with touchscreen interfaces and portable DAW devices now both commonplace and affordable. However, in terms of violins, nobody has surpassed the manufacturing techniques of Stradivarius since he created his final piece in the 18th century…

Fiddling The Numbers

Stradivarius made about a thousand violins over the course of his lifetime, of which it is estimated about 650 survive today. Although extensive efforts have been made to replicate his success at this delicate craft, nobody has managed to equal the quality of a genuine Strad violin – and perhaps most intriguingly, nobody actually knows why.

One theory, supported by a Dutch study in 2008, claims that the violins were made from wood that was both particularly and consistently dense across the entire instrument. Another suggestion, which seemingly corroborates this theory, is that low global temperatures in the Maunder solar minimum (1645-50) caused stunted tree growth leading to increased wood density during this period.

The Ashmolean museum was bequeathed ‘The Messiah’ violin last century under the condition that it never be played again; fortunately, there are still plenty of Stradivarius instruments in action around the world, but perhaps some day the Messiah may be the last playable Stradivarius. In that case, it would be a shame for it to remain silent forever…

If you fancy testing your ear, the Telegraph has a challenge for you to spot the difference between a performance on a Stradivarius and on a budget £40 high-street violin. (For the producers among you, just looking at the waveform should actually be enough to identify the budget option!)



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