Stradivari became wealthy by making violins for the rich and powerful.
Article tells how he made violins.
There has been a lot of debate in recent years over what makes a violin special, and, indeed, whether the violins that have traditionally been considered the greatest -- those by Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, in particular -- are really special at all.
Even more recently, Stoel and Borman [36] applied computed tomography to study the densities of early wood and late wood in five Cremona violins and eight violins made by distinguished contemporary makers.
By the early 18th Century, he had produced a violin that was "not as long but quite large, flatter but not so flat that you lose the resonance that makes the violin so magical".
He purchased the violin, made by Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri, who is thought by many to be the finest violin maker ever, in a private sale through Sotheby's for "well in excess" of $3.54 million, the previous record price at auction for a musical instrument, the auction house said.
The results from these classical violins were compared to those of eight contemporary violins, made by T. Borman, A.T. King and G. Rabut (Table 1), in order to determine whether objective measurements of material properties can explain the historical consensus on the differences in quality of sound between classical Cremonese and modern violins.
"I get to go because if I don't come, they don't get to see a Stradivarius and a Guarnerius," says Sloan, half joking, referring to his two 18th-century violins, made by Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù in Cremona, Italy, during the golden age of violin making.
MADISON "Art Strings," works by high school students made from violins.
He deplores the fact that the town is indifferent to great violins made by Stradivari and others.
