FRANCE: To this day the violins made by the Italian masters Antonio Stradivari, Giuseppe Guarneri Del Gesuin and Andrea Amati are regarded as among the finest musical instruments ever made.
Now an analysis of nearly 500 violins has found that their characteristic tone and sound is likely to have come about as a result of tiny errors made each time the trio’s craftsmen tried to replicate the original blueprint for their production.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that vital to the sound of what is now commonly known as a Stradivarius violin is the shape and length of the it’s f-shaped holes, through which air escapes.
The more elongated these holes are, the more noise the instrument can produce.
