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Article: Secrets of the Strad. (Stradivari violin)
- Article from:
- Popular Science
- Article date:
- September 1, 1984
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1984 Bonnier Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Two centuries ago, annoyed that their successors' apprenticeships were much shorter than their own had been, northern italian violin makers "forgot" the formulas for the wood treatment and varnish that had helped give the early Stradivari, Guarneri, and Amati instruments their clear, sweet tone.
At least that's one story told to explain why those formulas didn't get passed along. They seemed irretrievably lost until a biochemistry professor at Texas A&M University in College Station began applying an electron microscope and the latest analytical tests to the quest.
The professor, Hungarian-born Joseph Nagyvary, himself an amateur violinist and violin ...
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