String Theory

A WEAK SUN MA У HA VE SWEETENED THE STRADIVARIUS

Myriad proposals have surfaced in the past several centuries to explain how Antonio Stradivari imbued his now priceless wares with transcendental sound. Some have suggested that Stradivari used beams from ancient cathedrals: others argued that he gave his wood a good urine soaking. The latest theory proposes that the craftsman should thank the sun's rays—or lack thereof. Stradivari could not have known that his lifetime coincided almost exactly with the Maunder Minimum — the 70-

year period (from 1645 to 1715) of reduced solar activity that contributed to colder temperatures throughout western Europe during what is called the Little Ice Age.

Stradivari and the Maunder Minimum "began life a year apart," says Lloyd H. Burckle. a paleobiologist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. "Which means that during his later years, the golden period, he had to build violins out of wood that grew during the Maunder Minimum." The reduced radiation from the sun would have slowed the movement of the warm air over the Atlantic Ocean to western Europe, setting off a decades-long period of colder, drier climate. Such conditions would have been especially harsh for a tree adapted to temperate climes, such as the Norway spruce (обыкновенная ель), Stradivari's favorite for making soundboards. The result was slower, more even tree growth, which would yield a stronger and denser wood—positive attributes for violin crafting.

A changing climate probably didn't act alone in the Alpine forest of northern Italy, where Stradivari is said to have harvested trunks. Burckle notes. But when coupled with a unique amalgam of environmental factors—such as the regional geology, soil chemistry and moisture and slope and direction of the mountainside on which chosen trees grew—the altered climate becomes a more viable player. Burckle presented his hypothesis to Henri Grissino-Mayer, a tree-ring scientist from the University of Tennessee who has studied the influence of the Maunder Minimum on trees in western Europe, and the pair published the idea in the summer 2003 issue of the journal Dendrochronologia.

If indeed the Maunder Minimum led to the superlative sounds of the Stradivarius instruments, then it might appear that future violins would never produce similarly dulcet tones. "If you say it's the climate and it will never return, that makes it all seem hopeless." remarks Joseph Nagyvary. a chemist and violin maker at Texas A&M University. But having studied for three decades how various wood treatments can enhance the sound of instruments. Nagyvary thinks Stradivarius-like quality is achievable without an ice age: "We can now make the sound just as good."