What makes Stradivarius violins so special?

Twenty Thousand Hertz

Dallas Taylor

Music, Design, Arts, Music Commentary

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2019

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Stradivarius violins are reputed to have an exquisite sound that cannot be replicated or explained. Why is that? And what, exactly, is a Stradivarius violin anyway? This episode features interviews with The Strad magazine’s managing editor, Christian Lloyd, and violin maker Joseph Curtin. Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound and hosted by Dallas Taylor. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook. Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org. Can you tell the difference between a Stradivarius violin and a modern violin? Take the informal test here! Our classical tracks came from Musopen. Check them out at musopen.org. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/stradivarius Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to 20,000 Hertz. I'm Dallas Taylor.
0:09.0	The music you're hearing right now isn't coming from just any violin. This is from a
0:13.3	Strativarius violin, a family of instruments so distinguished and mysterious that it's become
0:18.2	legendary. This one in particular is named Antonius, and it's
0:21.8	being played at the Met. However, these instruments are spread all over the world. Strativarius
0:27.1	violins are renowned for their supposedly unique sound. They're also among the most expensive,
0:32.3	most respected, and most studied instruments in the world. A single Strativarius violin is
0:37.0	valued in the millions of dollars.
0:39.0	This is because only a handful of these instruments still exist.
0:42.2	And it's impossible to make more.
0:44.6	Eventually, one by one, they will become too fragile to be played.
0:48.4	And with enough time, all of them will fall silent.
0:55.6	The sounds of Strativarius violins are considered so precious that they're preserved in a
0:59.8	digital archive. To do this, a group of musicians and sound engineers took over a concert
1:04.1	hall. There, they recorded every possible note and note transition a Strativarius violin
1:08.7	could make, or at least every possible sound they
1:11.0	could think of. The entire process took five weeks. During that time, the surrounding city of Cremona,
1:16.3	Italy had to keep noise to a minimum. This was so other sounds wouldn't leak into the recordings.
1:20.9	It was so important that the city's mayor diverted traffic around the concert hall. Some women
1:25.6	were even asked not to wear stilettos on the cobblestone streets.
1:29.2	Even kissing teenagers were shooed away from the vicinity. But why such fuss over this kind of a violin?
1:42.7	I think Stradivarius violins matter hugely in the grand scheme of things.
	...

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