Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

My Other Fiddle is a Strad

Yesterday morning, I heard a news story about Sam Zygmuntowicz, a violin maker in Brooklyn.  Zygmuntowicz uses his laptop computer to analyze the sound of precious antique instruments, which gives him a leg up toward building better new violins, and doing a better job repairing old ones.  He's also involved in an intriguing project called Strad 3D, which uses CAT scans and other imaging techniques to model how Stradivari's famed violins work acoustically.  When I got to work, Jennifer and I started talking about Zygmuntowicz's fascinating work, which made us think of several books about violins, how humans comprehend and use music, and technology's role in how we create it.

Zygmuntowicz is unusual among luthiers in that his work is the focus of a book The Violin Maker by John Marchese.  Jennifer investigated the book, and here's her description:  "Marchese follows Zygmuntowicz as he builds a violin for Eugene Drucker, a famous violinist who, prior to commissioning Zygmuntowicz, played a Stradivarius.  Can you imagine?  That's like being asked to build a computer for a guy who's used to working with the Cray Supercomputer!  The process Zygmuntowicz goes through is fascinating, from choosing the block of maple, to the delivery of the violin to Mr. Drucker at his surprise 50th birthday party.  Also interesting is Drucker's experience with the new violin and how it makes him reconsider his own sound. Marchese tells a really good story and I found myself excited and nervous for everyone involved."

But I wanted to know more about Stradivari and his violins.  They're so famous that even people who are completely unmusical have heard of them--why is that?  Toby Faber's Stradivari's Genius traces the history of six instruments from their origins in master luthier Antoni Stradivari's workshop through three centuries of adventures and intrigue, including thefts, scandals and pacts with the devil.  The book is partly a biography of the six remarkable and famed instruments (so famed, in fact, that they all have names: the violins: the Messiah, the Viotti, the Khevenhüller, the Paganini and the Liminski; and the cello, the Davidov.)  But it is also a social history examining the passions inspired by Stradivari's instruments, musing about what made Stradivari so special, and detailing other luthiers' efforts to replicate his methods.

We got to wondering next about how our brains understand music, and Jennifer found a book that explains some of the ins and outs.  Here's what she has to say about it: "So, it is widely agreed that Stradivari's instruments are indeed special, but what about the human brain takes in the vibration coming from such and instrument and turns it into beautiful music in our heads?  And more than that, why is music such an important part of so many of our lives?  In This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel J. Levitin carefully studies the captivating question of music and the human brain--from the first music heard in the womb, to a ninety-year-old man hearing rock and roll music for the first time (and liking it).  And of course, Levitin includes a section on "ear worms" (from the German Ohrwurm) which is basically stuck song syndrome--something that can drive many of us a little crazy!"

Thinking about the different high-tech methods Zygmuntowicz uses to examine the sound of fine old violins, I began to wonder about the history of recording itself.  From the earliest phonographs machines to modern computer technology, Mark Katz investigates how recording technologies have developed and what they mean to human culture in his book Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music.  Reading the book, you'll get a sense for the history of the methods used to capture music and replay it, but you'll also be treated to a very interesting series of arguments about how recordings have changed the very nature of our interactions with music.