Stradivari meets science

Abstract

Tree rings reveal instruments’ shared roots Antonio Stradivari has gone down in history as the creator of some of the best-sounding stringed instruments ever made. Of the over 1,100 violins, cellos, violas, guitars, and harps he made in his lifetime (1644–1737), about 650 have survived into the 21st century. Today, “Strads” remain favorites of top-tier musicians. It’s thought that Stradivari learned his craft from Nicola Amati. However, tangible evidence linking the luthiers is limited to a single Stradivari violin bearing the label Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis Alumnus Nicolaij Amati, Faciebat Anno 1666 . Well, that, and the fact that scientists confirmed last year that both men used wood from the same tree ( Dendrochronologia 2022, DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2022.125960 ). Mauro Bernabei and his colleagues at the National Research Council of Italy used a high-resolution camera to record the growth-ring pattern—essentially a tree’s fingerprint—in the soundboard wood of a Stradivari harp from 1681.