Why are Stradivarius instruments good? Stradivarius instruments might be good because of their age, because of their craftmanship, because of the materials they are made of, because of the person playing them, or simply just because of their name. On the other hand, they might not be as good as we think they are.
Most people are familiar with the Stradivarius violin, but Antonio Stradivari made several types of stringed instruments. All in, Stradivari is said to have constructed 1,116 instruments throughout his life. He had many children, but only one of them continued to build instruments after Stradivari died, called Francesco, and he died 6 years after his father. There are said to be approximately 650 of Antonio Stradivari’s instruments still around, and many of them are worth a lot of money. It obviously depends on their quality, but the most expensive Stradivarius ever sold was called “The Messiah Antonio Stradivari” and it sold for $20 million. These days, some investment funds, or hedge funds, are putting their money in Stradivarius instruments. Just as with whiskey, wine, and art, they are not doing it for the appreciation of the product, but in the hope that the price will go up and they will get a substantial return on their investment.
Incidentally, here is a bonus fact for you. A maker of stringed instruments is called a luthier. Antonio Stradivari was a luthier.
Antonio Stradivari was born in 1644 in Italy, and he died in 1737. He started off as an apprentice and then began to build his own violins. It took him a while to develop his own style, but once he did, he was able to sell instruments to incredibly wealthy clients, establishing his name and business. After he became famous, other luthiers copied his style. So, what is it that makes his instruments so good and sought after. Well, to be honest, nobody seems to know and there has been a lot of research done into his instruments.
The first reason might be because of how old the instruments are. All of his stringed instruments are made of wood and as wood ages, it changes in shape and quality. The wood can expand, which opens up the instrument more, increasing its resonance and making the sound richer. The amount an instrument is played also has a big effect. Vibrations from the stings change the quality of the wood. Older violins will have been played much more than newer ones and will have benefitted from that quality. There is also some level of survivorship bias as well. Not all old violins are better than new ones. The good ones will have been played more and have had more care taken of them, so they have survived. The less good ones will have fallen by the wayside, giving us this impression that all old instruments are good instruments.
The second reason might be because of how they were made and the materials they were made of. There is no arguing that Stradivari was a master craftsman. He came up with several innovations, such as the size of the violin, and the modern violin bridge. He had his own way of making his instruments and even his sons, who he trained, were not able to equal his skill. However, just like paintings, there is always more than one master craftsman and Stradivari was certainly not the only person in the world making marvelous instruments.
The material he used might have something to do with it. There is a theory that he made his instruments during a period called the “Little Ice Age”, which was a period of cooler temperatures across Europe, caused by low solar activity. The theory is that this cold period stunted tree growth and made the wood much more dense than usual, giving his instruments a richer and more resonant sound. This can be seen by looking at the rings in the wood he used for his instruments. Stradivari may also have used maple wood from the cold north of Croatia. The cold temperatures made the trees grow more slowly, which made the wood denser. There is also a theory that the quality could come from the materials he used to treat and finish the wood.
The reputation for quality may just have come about because of the people who play them. A Stradivarius is a very expensive instrument and the only people that can afford to play them are the best musicians in the world. If the best musicians are playing Stradivarius instruments, then those instruments are going to sound much better.
And the last reason might just be because of the name. Blind tests have shown that people, including professional musicians, can’t tell the difference between a Stradivarius and a more modern instrument. Perhaps we just associate the name with quality and our brain makes it sound better than it is. Very interesting. And this is what I learned today.
Try these next:
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stradivarius
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Stradivari
https://www.livescience.com/44651-new-violins-beat-stradivarius.html
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/violin/why-stradivarius-special
https://www.myluthier.co/post/the-5-most-expensive-violins-in-the-world-updated-2024
https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/browse-the-archive/makers/maker/?Maker_ID=723
Image By User:Husky – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1052941