Division of Image Processing, Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e46629. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0046629. Epub 2012 Oct 10.
Classical violins produced by makers such as Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu have long been considered the epitome of the luthier's art and the expressive tool of choice for the most celebrated violinists. It has been speculated these makers had access to wood that was unique in some way and that this was responsible for their acclaimed tonal characteristics. In an attempt to discern whether the above conjecture is true, we analyzed 17 modern and classical Dutch, German, Austrian and French violins by wood densitometry using computed tomography and correlated these results with our previous study of modern and Cremonese violins; in all studying 30 instruments of the violin family. In order to make this comparison possible we developed methods to cross calibrate results from different CT manufacturers using calibration wood pieces. We found no significant differences in median densities between modern and classical violins, or between classical violins from different origins. These results suggest that it is unlikely classical Cremonese makers had access to wood with significantly different wood density characteristics than that available to contemporaneous or modern makers.
由安东尼奥·斯特拉迪瓦里（Antonio Stradivari）和瓜奈里·德尔·吉苏（Guarneri del Gesu）等制琴大师制作的古典小提琴一直被认为是制琴艺术的典范，也是最著名的小提琴家首选的表达工具。人们推测这些制琴师可能接触到了某种独特的木材，这是他们备受赞誉的音色特点的原因。为了探究上述推测是否属实，我们使用计算机断层扫描对 17 把现代和古典的荷兰、德国、奥地利和法国小提琴进行了木材密度分析，并将这些结果与我们之前对现代和克雷莫纳小提琴的研究进行了关联；总共研究了 30 件弦乐器。为了能够进行这种比较，我们开发了使用校准木材对来自不同 CT 制造商的结果进行交叉校准的方法。我们发现，现代小提琴和古典小提琴之间，或来自不同产地的古典小提琴之间的平均密度没有显著差异。这些结果表明，古典克雷莫纳制琴师不太可能接触到与同时代或现代制琴师所用木材密度特征有显著差异的木材。
