| Okay! Let's continue our discussions of music instruments. |
| Musical instruments have evolved over time, |
| being tweaked in design or in different materials in order to create the richest sound and greatest acoustical properties. |
| Professional musicians in particular are very specific in how they want their instruments. |
| They want their instrument to be able to deeply express the intent of the composer and player, |
| which would in turn create a more enjoyable experience for the audience. |
| However, many audience members at orchestras or band concerts |
| don't really know how important the instrument itself is to a good performance. |
| Think about it. |
| At the last concert you attended, what was going through your mind when you applauded? |
| Was it how the lyrics blew you away? |
| Were you showing appreciation for the skill and technical finesse that must have taken years of practice to be perfect? |
| What about the violin? |
| Some people may feel excited because it looks like their own instrument, |
| and have hope that their own strings could one day produce a melody with such skill. |
| However, what happens if the same musician plays a melody on another instrument? |
| One which isn't well tuned, or that's been weathered by improper care. |
| Think about this.. |
| What if they played the original with genuine catgut strings, |
| and the second version was played on metal coil strings? |
| I'm sure you can imagine what would sound richer, truer to the intent of the player. |
| But why would one instrument sound better, even if they appear the same? |
| Well, let's look at an intriguing case, about an amazing line of violins made in Northern Italy. |
| They originated from the city of Cremona, between the late 1600's and early 1700's. |
| Now, those violins were considered to be the best in the entire world. |
| The sound they produce, their aesthetic, the way they can be held, it's nearly perfect. |
| However, the violin-makers back then weren't more skilled than the ones today. |
| In fact, today's violin-makers can replicate Cremonese violins pretty much perfectly. |
| Dimensions, string tension, how sanded down the fingerboard was, |
| no detail was left out. |
| However, the replicas still can't live up to the sound quality of the original. |
| Why is that? |
| Well, for a while people thought that it was the varnish being used to seal the wood, |
| and that the Cremonese violins had special varnish that made them sing when played. |
| Chemical analysis showed this wasn't so. |
| They used ordinary furniture polish. |
| So! Recently, a scientist took a shaving from one of the old, priceless violins |
| and discovered something interesting. |
| The wood has a unique density pattern. |
| From that, today's violin makers were able to further perfect their own designs and replicas. |
| Yes! Eunice? |
| But what was so special about the wood's density? |
| Well... |
| Density is determined by how trees grow. |
| Old trees that live in areas with dramatically changing seasons |
| will grow quickly in the springtime, and slow down drastically in the fall and winter. |
| Early, fast growth results in slightly more porous wood. |
| Later, slow growth on the other hand, is much denser and less porous. |
| From this change in growth, trees will show rings in their center. |
| When cut down, darker wood is dense, lighter wood is porous |
| and the change is called density differential. |
| So! Variation in the wood's density will affect the sound that an instrument can make. |
| The sound will become a bit muffled in porous wood. |
| When scientists took a close look at the shaving piece from the Cremonese violin, |
| they found no differential. |
| The density of the wood was almost exactly the same throughout. |
| Meanwhile, modern violins often had a great difference in density variation, |
| which would create lovely staining patterns across the wood. |
| Interestingly, Northern Italy is not in the tropics, |
| and should have a fairly strong change in seasons. |
| During the time when Cremonese violins were made, |
| Europe was going through a mini ice age, |
| a period of years where the summers were significantly cooler than normal. |
| Now, because of this, trees grew at about the same rate throughout the year, |
| resulting in a density differential that was relatively small. |
| Okay! But how would someone replicate that kind of environment? |
| Well, they didn't grow a bunch of trees in a greenhouse. |
| Instead, a scientist found out how to process wood to force the properties to resemble Cremonese wood. |
| He exposed it to a type of fungus, a mushroom. |
| Normal fungus decomposes organic matter, |
| breaking it down into mulch and eventually dirt. |
| This particular species will only eat away at certain layers of wood, leaving others alone. |
| Using this fungus, the scientist was able to artificially remove unwanted layers, |
| and lower the density differential. |
| This technique allowed violin-makers to create violins that more closely resemble the rich sound that Cremonese violins can make. |