Violinmaking: Why Bosnian Maple Wood is King

Legendary violins are made of Bosnian wood grown hundreds of years ago. But can modern luthiers replicate what Stradivari had available to him?

The extraordinary sound of the fine violins, violas and cellos made by the legendary luthiers Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) and Guiseppe Guarneri (1698-1744) is attributed to many factors. Workmanship is of course at the top of the list. So too are the geometrics of form, solid joints, scrollwork detail, symmetry, and a flush fitting bridge - to name a few critical details.

But the most obvious feature that Stradivari, et al. employed was the wood - a Bosnian maple that remains today the preferred material for fine instrument making. The characteristics of Bosnian maple - referred to as tonewoods, as is also the northern Italian spruce that is often used together with Bosnian maple - are the subject of centuries of speculation between violinmakers and their many devotees.

The Bosnian maple tree itself is native to mountainous southern Europe. A violin maker in the 17th century may have had an extra advantage at crafting a fine stringed instrument due to climatic conditions at the time - and perhaps an unwitting assist from foresters who harvested the wood.

The time period that falls roughly from the 16th to the 19th centuries is referred to as “the Little Ice Age.” This cooler period, marked by larger glaciers and poor crop yields, bore one possible benefit: the Bosnian maples, and other trees as well, were more dense, as measured by tree rings. In theory, this contributed to the enduring superlative sound of a Stradivarius instrument.

The role of the foresters might sound apocryphal (if not slightly romantic, where the brutish lumbermen are somehow collaborators with the likes of Tchiakovsky), but research conducted in 2015 seems to indicate a chemical processing of the wood contributed to its excellence. The study used five different analytical techniques to assess tiny shavings of wood from two Stradivarius cellos, two violins as well from the master luthier, and a violin made by Guarneri.

The findings were that both luthiers, who were working at roughly the same time, used wood that had been treated with something containing aluminum, calcium, copper and other elements. Why? Other wood used to build furniture at the time contains these same minerals. It appears a worm and possibly fungal infestation was affecting much of Europe at the time, and this treatment was used on Bosnian maple to ward off those pests.

There is no evidence that Stradivarius and Guarneri were aware of this. The study was published in 2016 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

With or without worms, fungi, and chemical treatment, Bosnian wood remains an honored component of contemporary violin making.

Professionals engaged today in silviculture (tree farming) may not be aware of this use. But as a horticultural industry guidebook on various tree cultivars says about Bosnian maples, “Perhaps the greatest asset of a Bosnian maple is its poise…cool green spring foliage on a vase-shaped form that would make it one of the best specimens in any garden.”

It’s not at all hard to imagine a string quartet playing Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” in such a garden. Bosnian wood has beauty in all phases of its lifecycle.

The Study: Do Modern Violins Measure Up to Strads?

Double-blind tests in 2014 found newer violins have a preferred sound, shocking many. But it’s music to the ears of violinists with smaller budgets.

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and taste is on the tongue of the gourmand, is the sound of the sweetest violin only in the ear of a melophile, or “music lover”?

Each of these begs the question on superlatives: is there a “best” for everything? And since the time of Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737), luthier of the eponymous Stradivarius, it’s been a matter of conventional wisdom that his fine violins were in fact the best of the best. But are they? Two recent double-blind tests suggest that may not be the case after all.

First, a little background: Craftsmanship, woods available at the time (density differentials, perhaps due to colder weather conditions when the source trees were growing), varnishes made of egg white, honey, and gum arabic ... all are thought to have contributed to the quality and mystique of the fine cellos, violas and violins Stradivari crafted. Most recent auctions of individual Strads have fetched in excess of $15 million. According to CMUSE, a music news and entertainment website, world-class violin soloists who play Stradivariuses include Anne-Sophie Mutter, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Salvatore Accardo, Edvin Marton, and Anne Akiko Meyers. Famed cellist Yo Yo Ma plays a Stradivarius cello.

Tests comparing Stradivarius violins with newer top-quality violins were conducted under the direction of musical acoustician Claudia Fritz (Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris), violinmaker Joseph Curtin of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and their colleagues. The first was with six violins, three Strads and three top-quality modern violins. It was conducted in a hotel room in Vincennes, the suburb of Paris, by two violinists who wore modified welding goggles to prevent them from knowing if they were playing old or new instruments. Fifty-five listeners rated each instruments, and the outcome favored the new violins.

The first study met criticism - too small a sample, too few listeners, in a hotel room and not a concert hall - so the researchers expanded their study with a second test in 300-seat auditorium in New York City before an audience of 82 listeners. The outcome was the same: new violins beat the Strads. This study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (“Listener evaluations of new and Old Italian violins,” Fritz, Curtin, et al, 2017).

One point made repeatedly by the listeners was about the instruments’ projection, the loudness of the sound. The newer violins won on that score, and the ratings for projection correlated with ratings for overall sound quality.

While this may tarnish (for some) the perception of Stradivariuses, it could be otherwise seen by the vast majority of violinists as a plus. Modern violins at modest prices might not be a compromise for virtuosos.

It also bears noting that double blind tests have debunked the differences between bargain-price wines and their $100-per-bottle cousins. And top chefs have been fooled with imitation crab, thinking it was the real thing.

The German violinist Christian Tetzlaff formerly played a Strad, but ditched it (well, not technically thrown in a ditch) for a violin made in 2002 by Stefan-Peter Greiner. Why? It doesn’t perform well for “big Romantic and 20th century concertos,” he says.