WEBVTT - What's the deal with Stradivarius violins? 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:13.319 works dot com. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:19.680 there's Charles W Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry Rolling. Yeah, 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:24.000 Jerry said right before she press record, I'm sleepy three one. 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.320 Oh really, Yeah, I didn't hear you. Didn't you notice that? Did? 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.200 I was just memorizing. I was practicing what I was 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:32.560 gonna say. Oh, that's right, I'll go ahead. I just did. 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.960 Oh I was successful. You're practicing. Help. Hey, welcome to 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:42.440 the podcast. Uh should we talk fiddles? Uh? Yeah, chuck 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:45.040 fiddle d D. Let's do I bought one a few 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.159 years ago. By the way, I took one lesson. Uh huh, 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.239 and you became an expert. No, that's just me, man, 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:54.040 That's how things go with me. I have a lot 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:55.920 of things that I've been like, I'm gonna do this, 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.760 go allow of balls in the air. Yeah. Specifically musically, 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:02.800 I bought a steel guitar and I didn't learn to 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:07.560 play that. I bought a keyboard and was gonna learn 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.960 to play piano. Didn't do that. The violin. I'm keeping 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:15.880 a violin though. So you're stimulating the economy, Yeah, pretty much, 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:18.200 and I usually keep just like sell that and use 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.080 that money to buy the next thing. I don't play, 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:23.279 but I don't know, like I know how to play guitar. 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.480 So I'm kind of realizing at my age, like maybe 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:28.520 that's all it's gonna be. You're a guitar man, like 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:30.720 Bread said. Yeah, but used I used to want to 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.200 be like man by the time I die. I want 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:35.399 to be able to play all the stringed instruments. That 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:40.000 was my goal, and I've learned one. I mean that's 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:42.160 more than some people. I don't. I don't know how 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:44.520 to play any stringed instruments. So but you don't care 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.240 to it sounds like no. I mean, well, so you 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.600 consider the piano stringed instrument. Uh it's got strings so yeah, 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.240 as a percussion or is it stringers? It both? Well, 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.800 a little hammer hits the strings percussion interesting, um, whereas 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:04.480 a harpsichord is plucked. Yeah, talking piano, I wish I 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:06.560 could play the piano. I'd like to learn that one day. 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:10.640 My brother took lessons as a kid and my sister, 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.440 but I didn't. Oh yeah, Scott can still play a 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:18.639 little bit today of course. Hey Scott super bro. Uh 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.240 so the fiddle. A little history here before we get 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:26.200 into the man um the fiddle or violin. There's no difference, 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:30.760 by the way, is that right? Yep? One pronounced one 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.560 way and the others pronounced the other way. Yeah, it's 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:35.120 a little and I thought there was a difference when 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:36.720 I bought mine. I was like, well, what's the difference, 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:38.640 And it's just and how you play it. They're like 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.480 kill billies play fiddles. Yeah, other people play violin exactly. 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.200 So the fiddle at first was not a well regarded instrument. 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.040 It was thought of as a sort of a cheap 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:51.839 tavern instrument, you know, like you'd get drunk and hop 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.359 up on the table at the tavern and beat out 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:58.200 a little Irish jig. Uh yeah, And it didn't have 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:03.000 a good reputation. Win well, I mean this is uh 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:08.040 the sixteenth century, Okay. So then initially yeah, okay, yeah, 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:12.120 I'm with you, I'm okay hang uh. And then even 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.400 in parts of Italy, at first the church ordered the 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.919 destruction of violins. They were so like look down upon. 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.720 And then a lady named Catherine de Medici got on 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.919 board and she's like, this thing is wonderful. I'm gonna 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.320 order thirty eight of them for my court from this 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:32.480 guy named Nicholas Amati who was the grandson of the 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:37.160 great violin maker Andrea Amadi. Actually she probably bought them 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:42.680 from Andrea if it was and um, yeah, it was 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.280 fifteen sixty four, and uh, that was it. Things started 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:48.880 to change and that's literally what kind of led the 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.440 violin down a path of respectability. Yeah. Once you introduced 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:57.040 it into court, people tend to follow suit. Yeah. Um yeah. 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:02.480 So the the Amadi's lived in a place called Cremona, Italy, right, 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.960 and Cremona because the Amadis lived there, who were basically 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:11.320 the de factor inventors of the violin, cello and viola 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:15.400 as we recognize them today. Because that's where they were from, 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:22.040 Cremona became the center of violin production, stringed instrument production, 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:26.080 plain and simple. Yeah, which is pretty neat, like the 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.600 the idea that that's where violence came from and that 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.920 they're that recent in origin, and of course that goes 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.960 further back than that, like lutes were obviously around long 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.360 before the violin. But again, if you look at a 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:40.840 violin today and say, oh, it's a violin, you can 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:46.360 thank the Amadis of cremona for for making that recognizable 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:48.880 to you. Yeah, and here's another cool little fact. The 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.640 uh the you know, the fancy beautiful shape of a 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.760 violin is not for aesthetics. It is all about the 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.360 sound that it makes. The violin doesn't give a damn 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.800 whether you think that looks good. Well, it turned out 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:05.560 to look beautiful. But all those curves allow for equal 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:08.680 resonance of all the notes, which if it was more 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.440 basically shaped, certain notes would be sound better than others. 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:17.159 Huh so um. That allowed the entire fingerboard to sound 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.239 wonderful well. Plus Also, if you look at a violin 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.000 face on, sure, uh, if you go down the sides 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:27.760 in the middle, it's cut in. Those are called seabouts. 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.880 Those actually have a practical purpose, I'm sure, in addition 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.760 to helping produce sound. But it allows the bow to 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:37.920 play the strings on either side without hitting the body 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.479 of the violin. Pretty clever. It's really hard to play. 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:47.280 I can't stress that enough. It's like I thought, this 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.159 is not so different than the guitar. Like I'm just 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:51.240 holding it under my neck and using a bow instead 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:53.800 of fingers. That's got to be a pretty big difference. 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:57.760 It's a huge difference fingers bow totally different. You're born 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.360 with one the other. You have to like buy well, 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:05.239 it's it's a combination of pressure on a string, angle 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.160 of the bow on the string, pressure from your parents, 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:13.440 placement of the bow on like as far as how 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:18.760 far down it is, up and down the violin um speed. 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.039 It's like there's like ten different things that go into 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.960 making a sound on a violin that you have to 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:29.160 do successfully all at once. It's really really hard. Like 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:32.200 I was intimidated and went in the closet. You go, 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:34.520 maybe my daughter will play one day and it will 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.359 be waiting for her. So we'll see. But should we 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.680 go over the parts? I know you mentioned the sea about? Sure, 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.360 sea about is my favorite, so you take it from there. Well, 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:45.479 if you look at the violind you got the very 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.839 above those little tuning pegs which are contained in the 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:51.600 peg box. You've got the scroll, which is that kind 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:56.040 of curvy, lovely fancy piece at the top. Uh. Then 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:58.840 you have the neck and the fingerboard. The neck goes 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:01.760 from basically down to the body of the violin, but 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:06.039 the fingerboard continues on through it. Uh the upper bout, 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:08.679 the lower about and then that sea about You mentioned, 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.360 which is also called the waist. Then you have your 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.680 two f holes cut on either side, the fancy holes. Yeah, 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:17.680 they look like f's. Uh. Then you have your bridge, 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.400 which is the very thin piece of wood that keeps 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:24.200 the strings you know, off of the violin body itself 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:27.720 and taught. Then you have your tailpiece at the bottom 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:31.240 where the strings end, and then the all important chin rest. 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.160 And that's a violin. Bam, go make one now I'm leaving. 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.280 So again, there was the amadis that came up with 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:45.360 the the violin you just described. That's right. And one 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.960 of the amadis the grandson of Andrea Amati, who I 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.760 think is credited with inventing the violin basically. Um, but 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:57.960 his grandson, Nicola uh, taught a young man by the 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:02.480 name of Antonio and and only a Strativiry. That name 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:06.760 sounds familiar, Yeah, Uh. Antonio Stradivari was born in Cremona. 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.040 They're not sure when they think, probably about sixty four. 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:13.200 Life is a bit of a mystery, his young life 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.960 at least, right, not a lot of great records on it. 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.800 Do you know what? This just a jog my memory. 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:23.160 We never explained why Alexander Hamilton would shave two years 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.880 off of his age, even though we specifically said we 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:30.080 were going to. Well that's awesome. Should we follow up now? 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.560 Probably not. I think people would get mad. Yeah, if 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:36.120 you want to know, right in and we'll tell you, 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:39.560 or maybe we'll post it on such means. I think 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:43.760 that's better. Yeah, but who cares. We're talking Stradivaria now. Yeah, 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.680 we've moved on all right. So Stradivari. Uh, there's not 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.160 very good records, um about his his youth. I think 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.880 as you said, um, but he pops up in sixteen 0:08:53.960 --> 0:09:00.960 sixty six at the very latest. That's right. Violin pops 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.600 up in sixteen sixty six. I should say. It has 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.560 an inscription on it and a label actually uh, And 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.640 if you translated to English, it says made by Antonio 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:16.480 Stradivari of cremona pupil of Nicolo Amati in sixteen sixty six. 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:20.880 Well done a year of satan. Uh. And that means 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:26.559 he was either a pupil, which it clearly says, or 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.440 a bit of a bit of a stretch of the truth, 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.600 in a bit of a ruse in a career move. Really. Yeah, 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.000 there's some people that say, and that's why I was wondering. 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:39.480 It says people believe some people believe he was a pupil. Yeah, 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:41.520 I didn't the well it says he was a pupil 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.280 and the inscription. But the other thought is that maybe 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:45.560 it was a bit of a career move to say 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.760 I was taught by the grade Amati um who's dead 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:51.360 now and can't say otherwise. Maybe, but who knows. I 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:53.760 bet he was probably a pupil. Actually he wasn't dead, 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:57.200 so that would have been pretty uh gutsy to have 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.319 done that, because um Amati didn't die for many years, 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.080 many more years after sixteen sixty six. So I think 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.280 the common consensus is that he was a pupil of 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:08.360 the body. He would have said, he's stealing in my business, 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.280 So what up with that? Man? This thing is gonna 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:16.040 be lousy with that, alright. So sixteen sixty six, you 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:20.240 are correct, he builds his very first violin on his own. Uh. 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:24.520 He continues to build violens on his own in his attic, 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:29.040 which was apparently the tradition attic violin building? Was it? 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:31.360 That's what it said. I guess that was just like 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:34.480 where you would put your workshop. Who knows, maybe it 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:37.000 I don't know. Have you ever seen the movie The 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:43.319 Red Violin. Yes, great movie, agreed, like stick with it. 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.520 I think I might have seen that on your recommendation 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:49.600 years ago, if I'm not mistaken. Uh yeah, really good 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:54.199 movie though. Um so he's making violence. He moves into 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:58.240 a home in sixteen eighty and um he started to 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:03.520 get some recognition as a great builder and maker of violins, 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.880 a great craftsman. He did, h and he was still 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.280 kind of living in the shadow of the Amadi's um 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:13.520 But when uh Nicola Amadi died in sixteen eighty four, 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.600 by this time everyone said, this guy is Cremona's best 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:22.120 maker of violins, which since Cremona was the world capital 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:24.720 of violin making and they were made elsewhere, but Cremona 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:26.559 was like the place where the best were made, the 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.480 crem of the Cremona Right, that made him the world's 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.440 best violin maker. And he hadn't even entered his golden 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.720 period yet. Yeah, and he was making more than violins. 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:39.840 He's making cellos and guitars and mandolins and harps uh 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:45.559 pretty much anything with strings except harpsichords. Who knows, he 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:47.960 might have made a harpsichord that that'd be worth a 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.079 lot probably. So, Uh, all right, should we take a 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:55.520 break here, Yes, all right, we'll get into more craftsmanship 0:11:55.640 --> 0:12:14.720 right after this. M alright. So Strativari is following in 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:19.600 Amadi's amati It's footsteps, but he's also like, you know 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.400 what I'm gonna, I'm gonna start tweaking this thing, Yeah, 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.840 and craft my own brand of violin. Uh. And he 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.480 does so. He said, I'm gonna use some new materials, 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:33.400 maybe some new finishes. I'm gonna I'm gonna make that 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:38.599 c about a little straighter then you're used to. And 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:42.360 then f's a little straighter the f holes Is it straighter? 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:44.360 Was that the deal? I knew? We altered the f 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:47.760 hole some and uh something with the scroll too, Is 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:52.440 that right? He made it more amazing, and he made 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:59.400 the scroll larger, the f holes not only straighter, but longer, 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:04.320 larger scroll, and a and a straighter and stronger seabout 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:09.199 that was like mechanically that those were the biggest differences, right. 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:11.920 But he also crucially came up with his own formula 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.839 for a varnish. Um It's a very easily recognized, deep 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:21.080 deep red brown varnish that his violins have. It's very handsome, 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.120 but a lot of people, as will see later, believe 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:29.439 that it's possibly the varnish that makes strato various violins 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:34.480 so great because when he made these changes, not only 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.840 was he making these changes to the the shape and 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:43.360 appearance of the violin um, he was also like a 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:48.400 master would in layer like the craftsmanship that his violins 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.920 had or just unparalleled. They're flawless, flawless works of art 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.120 as musical instruments. So in addition to just being a 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.360 flawless work of art, they also sounded better than anything 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:04.080 anything that could possibly um compare to be compared to 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:08.360 it um. And what's really exceptional about Strata various is 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:10.760 it's not just one of those things where like, oh 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:13.760 the name is actually what what is really driving it? 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:18.880 A strata various violin that's three years old today is 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:23.440 probably better than any violin that's been produced in the 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.440 last three hundred years, including a brand new one. Like 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:30.440 they're only now getting to the point where they can 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.600 they they've discovered techniques where they can start to replicate 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:38.800 the sound of strativarius. That's how good this guy's violins were. 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:42.120 That that it's not it's not a joke, it's not hyperbole. 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.080 Of how great the strata various violins were, they are 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.080 still the ones that this guy made by hand are 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.720 still the best violins in the world. That's really saying 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.600 something considering how much progress we've made in the last 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.240 three hundred years on just about everything. And and these 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:59.880 are you know, for the the finest uh tuned ear 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:05.400 is in the world. Like, clearly there are flawless amazing 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:10.760 instruments and violins being produced since then. But for the 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:15.720 true like aficionado, they can spot the difference. Apparently, Oh yeah, 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.320 like you and I can't know. But people whose job 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:24.560 it is to um identifying a praise strata various violence 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.760 say that comparing it to a non strut strata various 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.960 like a knockoff or something, is like comparing a ferrari 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.360 to a school bus. It's like that. Obvious people like 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:38.160 saying things like that, it's a great quote. We're just 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.320 a couple of schumps. What do we know? Um, so 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:47.040 it just might be a new gag. So uh. He 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:51.080 and his first wife had six kids. He was good 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.160 at having kids. He and his second wife. His wife 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:58.280 sadly died in He got remarried and had five more 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.760 kids with wife Number two. He was great at making 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:09.480 violins and making children, yes, crafting children's great at crafting 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:13.200 little babies. They called them the mice jo in the bedroom, 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:15.480 you know what I mean. And I think a couple 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.040 of his sons even went on to follow in his footsteps. 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.600 Is that right from his first marriage? Right? They were 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:24.280 second line. They were smumps, though they couldn't hold a 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.760 candle to their father's work. So let's talk about the 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:32.960 golden period from seventeen hundred to seventeen twenty five. Depending 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:36.440 on who you talked to, this was the golden period 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.240 where these violins. I mean he had really honed his 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.640 design at this point, and the materials that he used 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:47.200 and everything kind of all coalesced into making the best 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:49.680 violins in the history of the world. It was like 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:54.840 Lebron's tenure at the Heat. Oh well, we'll see his 0:16:54.920 --> 0:17:00.200 career is not over yet. Yeah you're calling it now, huh? 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:04.040 I mean he he he made a case for a 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.239 resurgence this past season. But we'll see if he can 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:12.080 repeat it. Okay. He was playing on five hundred cylinders 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:14.520 with the heat. It was just perfect because he didn't 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.160 have to be the team leader. He could be one 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.560 of like the leaders that that team had several leaders 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.159 and he could be one of them. It wasn't like 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:26.000 the whole team just pushed upward towards Lebron. See A 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:28.040 lot of people have the opposite view that that was. 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.200 You know, anyone can get on a team of superstars 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.720 and win championships, but no, not necessarily would be the 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:37.080 one leader is a bigger accomplishment. I'm very curious to 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.439 know how, say, like the Golden State Warriors are going 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.919 to be next season with Durant and Steph Curry and 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:46.560 Clay Thompson on there. Thompson knows so much, but like 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.040 stef Curry and Kevin Durant, they're like two of the 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.280 greatest players that have ever lived, ever lived, not just 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:53.639 they're playing right now. How are they going to gel 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:59.240 the idea that Duane Wade and Chris Bosh and Lebron James, 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:01.440 we're all a well to keep their egos in check 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:05.280 and come together to work together and lead a team together. 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:08.399 That I think that's harder than that's just being like 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:12.000 forget it, I'll do it myself, you know. Yes, all right, 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.879 So strata vari is uh making his mark on the world, 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.960 getting his reputation and he's making a lot of money. 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:23.080 He wasn't one of these. It's like after he died 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:25.919 they later realized how great he was. He was a 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.280 rich man making and selling these violins. Yeah, apparently there's 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.879 a phrase richest strata vari Yeah, like richer than an 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:35.399 astronaut is what we would say today. Yeah, he was 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:37.680 one of the more famous guys in Italy at the time, 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:42.600 for sure. Yeah, and rightfully so. His crowning achievement, supposedly 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:47.360 is uh in seventeen sixteen when he built the Messiah Uh. 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:50.080 And this is the only violin that he never sold 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:52.480 that he kept in his workshop till the day died. 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:58.199 It was his head stash violin. And um he this 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:01.880 this violin has rarely been played. Apparently. One of the 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.960 sort of things unspoken rules when this thing has been 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.520 sold and passed down is that don't even play it. 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.560 This one should remain pristine. Yeah. It's basically as close 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:15.000 to a mint conditioned strata various as you can find 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:17.840 in the world. Oh, it's not close, it's meant yeah, 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:20.119 but I mean a couple of people have played it. 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:27.439 It's it's not been unplayed. Okay, Yeah, a couple of 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.600 bad eggs in there, a couple of super lucky violin 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:34.119 plays that screw your unwritten rules. This is before the 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:39.520 Ashmolean got their hands on it. Okay, um, so post seventy, 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:44.080 post Golden period, he still produced violins and things, but uh, 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.000 apparently his eyesight was going, his hands were not as steady, 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.240 and they weren't quite what they were during the Golden period. 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:52.600 I'm sure they were still wonderful violence. Oh yeah, he's 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.560 still turning out the good stuff, but nothing like that 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.040 Golden period. And he worked into his nineties, so he 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:02.240 was building violence for you know, seventy years. He worked 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:04.240 up to his death, as far as I understand, I 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:07.840 think so, um so yeah, but that Golden period stuff 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:11.040 that was there was the Messiah from seventeen sixteen, the 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:16.480 Large from seventeen fifteen, the Bets from seventeen o four. Um. 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:19.000 Those are just a few of the ones that he 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.919 made during this period that are still around today. He 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:26.720 made I saw a thousand alysis of hundred stringed instruments 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:31.879 during his career, About six hundred and fifty survived today. Um. 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.720 And there they tend to have names, especially the ones 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.400 from his Golden period. As you just heard. Um, they 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.080 have names, and they're usually the name of the most 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:47.119 famous UH player who owned it. Right, Um, they weren't 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:55.080 like Skippy and old Roy right barnabas violin So Um, 0:20:55.119 --> 0:21:01.800 there's a there's a superstition among violinists that the more 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.719 you play a violin, the more a particular person plays violin, 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:08.920 the more that violin takes on the character of that player. Right, 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:12.400 so much so that a violinist or even a cellist 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:15.919 or of the oldest can come along afterward and play 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:21.720 that person's violin and it will it will sound much 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.080 more like the person who's violin it is than the 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:28.240 person playing it. And there's there's a further superstition that 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.480 the more you play of violind the better it sounds. Well, 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.439 that's not a superstition, that's fact in any instrument. So 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:37.679 there is a study, um from I think that I 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:42.720 came across that that found that the more violin would 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:50.439 is vibrated, the more the dampening coefficient is lowered. The 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:54.639 lower the dampening coefficient. The longer a note resonates, the 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.760 longer a note resonates, the richer the sound. And so 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:00.760 just playing it right because you're you're vibrating the wood 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.000 when you're playing a violin. The more you do that, 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:06.440 the more frequently you do that, the better the violin 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:09.080 is actually gonna sound so astoundingly. The more you play 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:11.159 a violin, the better it sounds. Well, that's true for 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:16.600 any instrument. Yeah, it's called breaking it in. It's like 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:20.760 a pair of jeans that you can identify with that. Sure, 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:23.600 I love jean and you know a pair of jeans 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.719 five years in or better than there when you take 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.640 them off the shelf. Yeah, it's the same thing. It's 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:33.719 breaking it in, especially strings with anything with a fingerboard. 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.520 That fingerboard just you know, wears in. Those frets wear 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:39.920 down little, and it does get a little bit tuned, 0:22:39.960 --> 0:22:45.280 I think to your style. Yeah for sure. Yeah, very interesting. Um, 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:48.080 I'd like to do more on musical instruments here and there. Okay, 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:49.919 I'm putting it out there, all right, all right, Well 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:52.920 let's take another quick break and we will get into 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:58.399 all the controversies surrounding just why these things sounds so 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:15.920 good and all those theories. Pretty interesting stuff. So, Chuck, 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:18.239 I gotta say you did a good job putting this 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:24.280 one together. Mhm, Okay, I'm I'm interested in it. You know, 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:27.400 we I had that stuff from the B Side podcast 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:31.320 for like two months back in the day. People still 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:35.560 call for it and we uh covered this very briefly. Yeah, 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:38.000 and not we didn't do right by it. So that's 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:39.800 I was like, you know what, that's a good topic. Nice, 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:44.359 I mean, dust that one off. Um. So there have 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:48.000 been many many theories over the years, like if the 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:54.119 strata is so revered and legendary that people experts, scientists 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:56.639 are bound to want to crack that nut. Yeah, like 0:23:56.680 --> 0:23:59.760 why yeah, like what's the deal? And it's not. Again, 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:03.639 this is it's objectively better than other violence. The ones 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:08.840 that strat Stratavari made correct some of the theories. The 0:24:08.920 --> 0:24:11.760 old theories back then was that he would soak the 0:24:11.760 --> 0:24:15.560 wood in salt water, not true. That the wood was 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:20.360 coated with volcanic ash not true. Dragon's blood was used 0:24:20.359 --> 0:24:25.959 in the varnish. That may have been true. Uh, George R. 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:29.000 Martin came up with that one. Probably so, and then 0:24:29.040 --> 0:24:31.600 I'll you know, we'll get into the more modern theories. 0:24:31.640 --> 0:24:38.320 There's really well, there's a couple of leading theories. One 0:24:38.720 --> 0:24:43.240 is the wood Yeah, this ice age would which we'll 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:48.480 talk about and the others the varnish. Okay, well there, 0:24:49.440 --> 0:24:53.000 Strata Varia was working during what's known as Europe's Little 0:24:53.040 --> 0:24:57.760 Ice Age, which is a period of unusually, very unusually 0:24:58.160 --> 0:25:02.080