under Spanish, French, Austrian, and Italian rule.
By the 17th century, the town was home to a thriv-
ing community of instrument-makers. (Even
now it boasts some 250 luthiers.)
Historians credit craftsman Andrea Amati
with creating the modern violin here in the
1500s. But it was Stradivari, born around 1644,
who combined three key innovations that
helped accelerate the instrument’s transition
from the chamber rooms of the Baroque period
to the concert halls of the Classical: He designed
his offerings slightly larger than his contempo-
raries. He flattened the arch of the top plate,
called the belly, and made the piece lighter than
was customary. He elongated the f-shaped holes
that permit the belly to vibrate freely and allow
the air resonating inside to more easily radiate
as music. These changes provided the powerful
sound and projection musicians sought. “HeDe Lorenzi’s performance is part
of a campaign to preserve the Stradi-
varius sound. Although many of the
approximately 1,100 stringed master-
pieces that Antonio Stradivari and his
sons handcrafted in this town have
endured for some 300 years, they are still mortal. Almost
half have been lost to accidents, haphazard repairs, or the
wear that comes with age. Of the 650 or so that survive, some
have grown too fragile to play, their wood too thin or joints
too weak to take the string tension or bowing pressure. Even
those that still see regular use may change over the decades,
as time and vibration slowly alter their mellifluous tone.
Stradivari remains the defining figure in violin-making, a
name on par with Chanel or Ferrari. He fashioned instruments
for kings and cardinals, and his creations bring their distinc-
tive voice to the repertoires of modern soloists like Itzhak
Perlman and Anne-Sophie Mutter. Musicians, luthiers, and
scientists have tried for decades to figure out what gives a Strad
its beautiful sound, yet no one has
ever quite replicated it. And so the
dream is to create a digital archive
that will survive long after the last
Stradivarius falls silent, allowing
composers and artists to continue
making music with them.
De Lorenzi proceeds, working
through scales at varying tem-
pos, intensities, and volumes
with the precision and passion
he’d bring to a Dvořák symphony
or Verdi opera. In a stuffy, sound-
proofed room tucked beneath
the auditorium’s seats, audio engineer Thomas Koritke,
whose company will create a virtual version of the instru-
ment, listens through speakers as his computer records it all.
He will do this every day for five weeks, meticulously docu-
menting thousands of variations of the sounds Vesuvio and
three other masterworks of its era can produce.
The museum hopes this painstaking exercise grants the
rare treasures a degree of immortality so they might enchant
future generations. “These instruments have been played
for 300 years,” says Fausto Cacciatori, a curator there. “We
are committed to making them play for another 300.”
The Museo del Violino, which opened in 2013 to celebrate the
work of Stradivari and others, sits in the heart of Cremona. The
ancient city, about an hour outside Milan, began as a Roman
colony in 218 B.C. and developed a rich, cosmopolitan culture
THE SONG OF THE IMMORTAL VIOLINperfectly understood the new requirements of
the violinists of the time,” Cacciatori says.
At base, the material used to craft any stringed
instrument determines its sound. Violin-makers
have, since Amati’s time, considered spruce ideal
for the belly; its grain has the strength to endure
the tension of taut strings, yet provides enough
flexibility to vibrate freely. The best of it comes
from Alpine regions, where cold weather slows
tree growth, creating the tight grain that maxi-
mizes resonance. “If you choose a very good piece
of wood and understand how to work with it, you’ll
have a very good violin,” says Massimo Lucchi,
co-founder of the Academia Cremonensis, a
violin- and bow-making school in Cremona. Luth-
iers favor maple for the body and neck for its ideal
mix of strength, resonance, and aesthetics.
Given the importance of wood, it’s natural that
any effort to understand what gives a Stradivarius
its storied voice would begin there. In 2003, re-
searchers suggested that the lumber Stradivari
sourced from forests in the Val di Fiemme in“These instruments have been played for
300 years,” says Fausto Cacciatori, a curator
at Museo del Violino. “We are committed
to making them play for another 300.”
of 32 mics placed