Abstract
The most valuable musical instruments in the world are 17-18th century violins from Cremona, Italy (made by Stradivari and Guarneri), and Chinese guqins (7-string zithers) from the 8-13th century. Today, musicians still prefer these antique instruments for their superior acoustic qualities that cannot be reproduced by later makers. Over the centuries, many theories have been proposed to explain the unique playing properties of famous violins and guqins, but most are based on conjectures rather than factual evidence.
Highlights
Wenjie Cai is a lecturer at the School of Cultural Industry and Tourism, Xiamen University of Technology (China)
How do they sound? There has always been a confounding issue in the research of antique string instruments: How do we ascertain that instrument acoustics can change or improve over time? Alternatively, how do we demonstrate that old masters in Cremona make the finest sounding violins? These are very difficult questions to answer
We propose that hemicellulose breakdown and cellulose rearrangement are key factors that underlie the unique acoustics of famous antique violins and guqins
Summary
Wenjie Cai is a lecturer at the School of Cultural Industry and Tourism, Xiamen University of Technology (China). We will discuss why chemistry can help us solve the mystery of highly prized antique musical instruments, the marvels of ancient technologies These include the famous Baroque violins made in Cremona, Italy by Stradivari and Guarneri, and millennium-old Chinese guqins. It is the consensus of leading musicians that highly prized antique violins and guqins exhibit superior acoustic qualities that modern makers cannot reproduce This is a rather mysterious phenomenon if we consider that violins and guqins are hand-made wooden boxes with relatively simple structures Most musical instruments do not inherently increase in value over time. Instead of subjective listening tests, Tai and coworkers have resorted to objective analyses to evaluate Stradivari violins’ timbre quality[6] They recorded five top-notch Stradivari instruments from the Chimei Museum in Taiwan, which has the world’s leading collection of antique Italian violins. The oils and resins could be cooked or processed (adding metal ions) to generate different red, orange, yellow, or brown shades
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