Unique sound and ancient climate

2004/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

It can influence the XVII. Climates of the twentieth century to a violinist? To those who touch a stradivarius, perhaps yes, because according to the climate the trees give different wood and the violinists were able to choose the most suitable wood.

A scientist who investigates the rings of tree trunks and a climatologist collaborate to analyze the wood of the most famous violins in the world. According to the expert in climatology, XVII. In the 20th century a cooling occurred in Europe with minimum temperatures in 1645, a year before the birth of the famous Antoni Stradivari.

The record of these temperatures has been confirmed by dendrochronologist, a scientist who studies the rings of tree trunks. For this purpose, he has analyzed not only the violins but also the furniture of the time. The influence of temperature is reflected in the wood of these pieces, whose trunks have finer rings than those of the following, and the wood is more compact.

According to scientists, the fact that the wood is compact can help explain why the Stradivarius are sonority. However, according to other physicists, it has not yet been shown that solid wood increases the resonance capacity in violins.