On the road to creating an affordable master instrument: New financial support for the "fungus violin"

EMPA
Dec 9, 2011

Empa researcher Francis Schwarze has managed to achieve, and even out-do, the Stradivarius sound with the help of a Swiss violin maker. By treating the wood with Physisporinus vitreus, a white-rot fungus which attacks and destroys certain structures in spruce, he was able to create a material with extraordinarily good tonal qualities.

Violins made of wood treated with fungus need not hide their lights under a bushel when compared to a Stradivarius, as a blind test before an expert audience has already demonstrated. However, these tonal masterpieces are only available as individually-made instruments.

In order that these biotech violins may be manufactured in larger numbers, Empa researchers are currently working on optimizing and standardizing the fungal treatment. Financial support for the project is being provided by a generous new sponsor, the Walter Fischli Foundation.

What talented young violinist has not dreamt of playing on a Stradivarius, that non plus ultra of the violin-maker’s art? Unfortunately, of course, these instruments are rare, and well beyond the budget of most musicians. "Imitations" of similar tonal quality are therefore very sought-after, and the Empa researcher Francis Schwarze has managed to achieve this feat with the help of a Swiss violin maker. By treating the wood with Physisporinus vitreus, a white-rot fungus which attacks and destroys certain structures in spruce, he was able to create a material with extraordinarily good tonal qualities. So good in fact that the new "fungus violin" put its own role model in the shade. At a specialist conference in 2009 two of the new instruments were compared in a blind test to a Stradivarius and both the jury of experts and the conference audience judged their sound to better than that of the violin made by the Italian Master of Cremona.

Schwarze now intends to develop a standardized biotechnological process so that sufficient fungally-treated wood can be produced to make instruments in respectable numbers. This is the only way that would allow an industrial partner interested in the technology to manufacture the violins on a quasi-“mass-produced” basis. In order to create the necessary bridge between science and industry it is vital to develop technologies which offer potential partners significant commercial advantages. In this case this means standardizing the wood treatment parameters to such an extent that a specific tonal quality can be guaranteed. This is not an easy task to accomplish with a material such as wood which is subject to natural fluctuations in quality.
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