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50-681: Mirecourt is the administrative capital of a canton positioned in the Xantois district at the heart of the Vosges plain, at the confluence of the River Madon with the Arol Valley. Most of the town is laid out on the west side of the Madon on a succession of levels. Visitors are attracted by the richness of the town's architecture and by the natural advantages of the site. Mirecourt is also at

100-480: A Stradivarius label does not confirm that the instrument is a genuine work of Stradivari. Recordings made with original Stradivarius string instruments Recordings made with replicas of Stradivarius string instruments The Museo del Violino in Cremona , Italy embarked on a project to preserve the sound of Stradivarius instruments. In January 2019, four musicians recorded scales and arpeggios using two violins,

150-520: A double-blind test in 2012 published in the study " Player preferences among new and old violins ", expert players could not distinguish old from new instruments by playing them for a short time in a small room. In an additional test, performed in a concert hall, one of the Stradivarius violins placed first, but one of the participants stated that "the audience in the concert hall were essentially equivocal on which instruments were better in each of

200-413: A general in his army, Marshal Gabriel Jean Joseph Molitor , 1er Comte Molitor), sold in 2010 at Tarisio Auctions to violinist Anne Akiko Meyers for $ 3,600,000, at the time a world record. Depending on condition, instruments made during Stradivari's "golden period" from 1700 to about 1725 can be worth millions of dollars. In 2011, his "Lady Blunt" violin from 1721, which is in pristine condition,

250-544: A minimum bid of $ 45 million. The auction failed to reach its minimum bid by 25 June 2014, and the viola was not sold. Vice magazine reported in May 2013 that "in recent years, Stradivarius investment funds have started to appear, pushing already astronomical prices even higher". Stradivarius instruments are at risk of theft. Stolen instruments are often recovered, even after being missing for many years. They are difficult to sell illicitly, as dealers will typically call

300-421: A particularly famous test on a BBC Radio 3 programme in 1977, the violinists Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman and the violin expert and dealer Charles Beare tried to distinguish between the "Chaconne" Stradivarius, a 1739 Guarneri del Gesú, an 1846 Vuillaume, and a 1976 British violin played behind a screen by a professional soloist. The two violinists were allowed to play all the instruments first. None of

350-401: A renaissance which has endured into the present century. Notably, Jean-Jacques Pages has produced outstanding instruments by copying famous eighteenth century models by the likes of Stradivarius and Amati . The Gérome brothers, now retired from making guitars and mandolins, have had their work endorsed by Georges Brassens who has purchased one of their guitars. The industry is celebrated by

400-566: A simple examination of the dense growth rings in the wood used in Stradivari's instruments. Two researchers – University of Tennessee tree-ring scientist Henri Grissino-Mayer and Lloyd Burckle, a Columbia University climatologist – published their conclusions supporting the theory on increased wood density in the journal Dendrochronologia . In 2008, researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center in

450-434: A viola, and a cello, including a famous 1727 violin named "Vesuvio." These recordings, known as the "Stradivarius Sound Bank," preserve the sounds. The project involved closing off streets and minimizing noise to ensure a quiet environment during the recordings. The musicians recorded over one million sound files across different techniques to capture the instruments' tonal characteristics. These recordings are stored as part of

500-452: A violin made in 2002 by Stefan-Peter Greiner . He states that the listener cannot tell that his instrument is modern, and he regards it as excellent for Bach and better than a Stradivarius for "the big Romantic and 20th-century concertos ." Some maintain that the very best Stradivari have unique superiorities. Various attempts at explaining these supposed qualities have been undertaken, most results being unsuccessful or inconclusive. Over

550-483: Is described as more "direct and precise", responding to the slightest touch with refined direction and elegance. There has been conjecture that the wood used may have been treated with several types of minerals, both before and after construction of a violin. Scientists at National Taiwan University have detected trace amounts of aluminum , copper , and calcium in wood from Stradivari violins. The traces may have come from chemical preservatives applied by loggers to

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600-732: Is no longer visible to the human eye on the surface of older violins, it can be detected within the top layers of cells. A lower layer of varnish is found within the topmost wood cells while an upper rests upon the wood. Echard's findings suggest that Stradivari used a mixture of common Cremonese resin, oil, and pigment as a varnish, rather than making his own. Echard did not find traces of specialized ingredients such as protein materials, gums, or fossil amber. A comparative study published in PLOS One in 2008 found no significant differences in median densities between modern and classical violins, or between classical violins from different origins; instead

650-451: The Dukes of Lorraine introduced to Mirecourt the manufacture of string instruments, a tradition which continues to flourish. At the same time Mirecourt became a centre of organ building . The last Duke of Lorraine to rule the territory was the former Polish king, Stanisław Leszczyński . He died early in 1766 and Lorraine passed to his grandson, by now King of France . In this way

700-473: The Dukes of Lorraine who owned the little town during the thirteenth century. An act of 1284, during the time of Duke Frederick III , confirms the annexation of Mirecourt and its lands to the Duchy of Lorraine . Mirecourt, the main town in the important Vôge Bailiwick , was above all a great trading centre. A European focus of economic and commercial energy during the sixteenth century was Lombardy from where

750-648: The Protestant currents from east of the River Rhine , established the Convent of Notre-Dame (Our Lady) and there encouraged instruction in lace making both at the school which was operated by the Sisters and at the orphanage. The project was a great success with daughters of rich families and with girls of the peasant class. By 1790 lace makers from Mirecourt were supplying merchants from abroad, and despite

800-533: The Stradivarius Sound Bank have aimed to digitally capture and preserve the sounds of these instruments for future generations. Stradivarius instruments have become known in popular culture, appearing in fiction and representing elite musical artistry. Stradivari made his instruments using an inner form, unlike the French copyists, such as Vuillaume , who employed an outer form. It is clear from

850-466: The region of Grand Est . At the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015, the canton was expanded from 32 to 56 communes : 48°18′0″N 6°8′3″E  /  48.30000°N 6.13417°E  / 48.30000; 6.13417 Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the string instruments, such as violins , violas , cellos , and guitars, crafted by members of

900-546: The 19th century to the present have often found no significant difference between Stradivari violins and high-quality modern violins. These findings have led some to question the objectivity of the instruments' legendary status. Stradivarius instruments are still played by leading musicians and housed in museums worldwide, such as the Museo del Violino in Cremona, which preserves several Stradivarius instruments. Initiatives like

950-599: The British violinist Matthew Trusler played his 1711 Stradivarius, said to be worth two million U.S. dollars, and four modern violins made by the Swiss violin-maker Michael Rhonheimer  [ de ] . One of Rhonheimer's violins, made with wood that the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology researcher Francis Schwarze had treated with fungi, received 90 of the 180 votes for

1000-460: The Derazey, Mennégand , Aldric, Lupot , Langonet , Gand , Bernard, Jacquot, Nicolas, Mougenot, Charotte, Apparut, Hilaire, Buthod , Collin , Laberte , Magnié, Peccate, Bazin , Ouchard and Vuillaume families including, most famously, Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume 1798 - 1875. Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume worked with famous violinist Niccolo Paganini. Luthier Didier Nicolas (1757–1833) is most likely

1050-464: The Netherlands, announced further evidence that wood density caused the claimed high quality of these instruments. After examining the violins with X-rays , the researchers found that these violins all have extremely consistent density, with relatively low variation in the apparent growth patterns of the trees that produced this wood. Yet another possible explanation is that the maple wood used

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1100-552: The Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari ( Latin : Antonius Stradivarius), in Cremona , Italy, during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. These instruments are known for their craftsmanship, tonal quality, and lasting legacy, and are considered some of the finest ever made. Stradivari's violins, in particular, are coveted by musicians and collectors, with many selling for millions of dollars. Antonio Stradivari made over 1,100 instruments, with approximately 650 surviving today. The exact methods Stradivari used to produce

1150-419: The belief that there are a wide range of chemicals that will improve the violin's sound. In a 2009 study co-authored with Renald Guillemette and Clifford Spiegelman, Nagyvary obtained shavings from a Stradivarius violin and examined them, and analysis indicated they contained " borax , fluorides , chromium and iron salts." He also found that the wood had decayed a little, to the extent that the filter plates in

1200-432: The best tone, while the Stradivarius came second with 39 votes. The majority (113) of the listeners misidentified the winning violin as the Stradivarius. Analysis of the treated wood revealed a reduction in density, accompanied by relatively little change in the speed of sound. According to this analysis, treatment improves the sound radiation ratio to the level of cold-climate wood considered to have superior resonance. In

1250-684: The centuries, numerous theories have been presented – and debunked – including an assertion that the wood was salvaged from old cathedrals. A more modern theory attributes tree growth during a time of global low temperatures during the Little Ice Age associated with unusually low solar activity of the Maunder Minimum , circa 1645 to 1750, during which cooler temperatures throughout Europe are believed to have caused stunted and slowed tree growth, resulting in unusually dense wood. Further evidence for this "Little Ice Age theory" comes from

1300-489: The craft remain a feature of the town. The Vosges psychiatric hospital (le centre hospitalier psychiatrique/CHS) remains the largest employer in the commune of Mirecourt, with over 1,000 salaried staff on the payroll. The commune's territory also contains the Mirecourt-Epinal aerodrome, which is managed by the departmental Chamber of Commerce . Mirecourt was founded during the first millennium. Mercuri Curtis

1350-583: The district and then of the entire arrondissement . This last distinction was lost in 1926, and today Mirecourt falls within the Arrondissement of Neufchâteau . One of the first boys' primary schools in France was founded at Mirecourt in 1828. Canton of Mirecourt The Canton of Mirecourt is a French administrative grouping of communes in the Vosges département of eastern France and in

1400-548: The end of the sixteenth century and the travels of the Dukes of Lorraine and their retinues to Italy. The first violin makers date back to as early as 1602 with Mr. Clabec, Jean de Fourcelle and Barbelin, followed by Nicolas Gérard and Demange Aubertin in 1619 and 1623; during the Thirty Years' War (1631–1661), violins were no longer mentioned in city records, but by 1673 four families of violin makers were in Mirecourt. It

1450-589: The first violin maker to manufacture violins repeatedly in Mirecourt. Born and raised in Mirecourt, he did his apprenticeship here and founded his shop A la Ville de Cremonne . He also founded a workshop, called D. Nicolas Aine, which became one of the most successful in Mirecourt. At the end of the 19th century, H. R. Haweis wrote "Mirecourt now stands out as perhaps the greatest and most excellent emporium of modern violin manufacture," and "the names of Maucotel, Medard, Mennegand , Silvestre, and Derazay, and above all Vuillaume, must always shed an imperishable lustre upon

1500-452: The heart of a road crossing, 24 kilometres (15 miles) from Vittel , 35 kilometres (22 mi) from Épinal to the east by southeast, 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Neufchâteau and 48 kilometres (30 mi) from Nancy . For much of the twentieth century Mirecourt was a staging post on the RN66, a major road towards Paris. Following improvements to the autoroute network towards the end of

1550-521: The instruments' famed sound remain unknown, with theories ranging from the unique quality of the wood used during the Little Ice Age to the varnishes and chemical treatments applied. Despite extensive scientific research, including modern acoustic analysis and CT scans , no one has been able to conclusively replicate or fully explain the tonal qualities of Stradivarius instruments. The reputation of Stradivarius instruments for having unmatched sound quality has been debated. Blind experiments conducted from

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1600-402: The listeners identified more than two of the four instruments. Two of the listeners identified the 20th-century violin as the Stradivarius. Violinists and others have criticized these tests on various grounds such as that they are not double-blind (in most cases), the judges are often not experts, and the sounds of violins are hard to evaluate objectively and reproducibly. In a test in 2009,

1650-526: The little town in the Vosges mountains." By 1925 the craft was organised into 18 workshops and 4 factories employing 680 workers. The economic and political hardships of the mid-twentieth century coincided with the disappearance of the workshops. However, the creation in the 1970s at Mirecourt of the National School of Lutherie ( École nationale de lutherie ) National School of Violin Making signaled

1700-581: The long struggle to control the territories between France and the Rhine was settled in a manner which no doubt would have pleased Le Grand Monarque . Ten years later, in 1776, the office of Lieutenant-General of the Bailiwick was sold to the young François de Neufchâteau . Under the secular regime established in the wake of the French Revolution , Mirecourt became the administrative centre of

1750-403: The number of forms throughout his career that he experimented with some of the dimensions of his instruments. The woods used included spruce for the top, willow for the internal blocks and linings, and maple for the back, ribs, and neck. Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri 's violins differ in their tonal quality, comparable to the difference between red and white wine. The Stradivari's sound

1800-495: The pair-wise instrument comparisons" and "I could tell slight differences in the instruments... but overall they were all great. None of them sounded substantially weaker than the others." Modern violins were rated as having better sound-carrying qualities and were preferred again in a study in 2017. While many world-class soloists play violins by Antonio Stradivari, there are notable exceptions. For example, Christian Tetzlaff formerly played "a quite famous Strad", but switched to

1850-509: The police if approached by a seller with a Stradivarius known to have been stolen. The General Kyd Stradivarius was stolen in 2004. It was returned three weeks later by a woman who found it and handed it over to the police. The Sinsheimer/Iselin was stolen in Hanover, Germany in 2008 and recovered in 2009. The Lipinski Stradivarius was stolen in an armed robbery on 27 January 2014 and subsequently recovered. The Ames Stradivarius

1900-504: The political and social turbulence of the early nineteenth century, the lace business continued to flourish and grow, with the middle of the nineteenth century a golden age. Nevertheless, by the middle of the twentieth century lace had fallen out of favour and the industry locally was much diminished. It has nevertheless survived, and today, supported by 140 participants, the Mirecourt lace business has recovered some of its international reputation. Lace making courses and permanent exhibitions of

1950-794: The pores between the wood's component tracheids had rotted away, perhaps while the wood was stored in or under water in the Venice lagoon before Stradivarius used it. Steven Sirr, a radiologist, worked with researchers to perform a CT scan of a Stradivari known as the " Betts ". Data regarding the differing densities of woods used were then used to create a reproduction instrument. Stradivari made mainly violins but also violas, cellos and some plucked string instruments (five guitars, two mandolins and one harp are known). About 650 original Stradivarius instruments have survived. Thousands of violins have been made in tribute to Stradivari, copying his model and bearing labels that read "Stradivarius". The presence of

2000-489: The presence in Mirecourt of the Musée de la Lutherie et de l'Archèterie françaises . Lace making is believed to have been introduced to Lorraine only in the sixteenth century, when the art arrived from Lombardy with the violin makers sponsored by the Dukes of Lorraine . Peter Fourier , the priest at nearby Mattaincourt , who would subsequently become a saint in recognition of his energetic Counter-Reformation work resisting

2050-476: The registered population declined by around 25%. Inhabitants are called Mirecurtiens in French. An unusual feature of Mirecourt is the extent to which the local economy continues to be underpinned by the same skilled crafts that have supported the local community for centuries. Both musical instrument and lace making bring significant amounts of wealth and employment to twenty-first century Mirecourt. Mirecourt's tradition of luthierie seems to date back to

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2100-513: The role available materials may have played in sound production differences, though it made no comment on variations in density differentials. The content of copper and aluminium is higher than current instruments. A Stradivarius made in the 1680s, or during Stradivari's "Long Pattern" period from 1690 to 1700, could be worth hundreds of thousands to several million U.S. dollars at today's prices. The 1697 " Molitor " Stradivarius, once rumored to have belonged to Napoleon (it actually belonged to

2150-407: The survey of several modern and classical examples of violins highlighted a notable distinction when comparing density differentials. These results suggest that differences in density differentials in the material may have played a significant role in the sound production of classical violins. A later survey, focused on comparing median densities in both classical and modern violin examples, questioned

2200-501: The twentieth century, the nearest major routes to Paris are now, the A31 autoroute and the RN57 respectively some fifteen kilometres (9 miles) to the west and to the east. The RN 66 has been correspondingly declassified: elements of the economic focus that once followed the old route nationale has followed the traffic away to the newer routes: in the final forty years of the twentieth century

2250-570: The wood they sold. As well, the violin makers applied varnishes to their instruments. Potassium borate ( borax ) may have been used to protect against woodworm . Sodium and potassium silicate may have been used to prevent mildew , rotting and insect damage. Simone Fernando Sacconi suggested that Vernice bianca , an egg tempera varnish composed of gum arabic , honey , and egg white , may have been used. French chemist Jean-Philippe Echard and his co-workers have studied varnishes on Stradivarius violins. He reported in 2010 that even when varnish

2300-616: Was dedicated by the Romans to the cult of the god Mercury . Early on, the town was part of the property of the Counts of Toul . The first surviving written record of Mirecourt dates from 960. This is the text of a donation made by a man called Urson who transferred his domain of Mirecourt (two farmsteads and environs) to the Abbey of Bouxières-aux-Dames . The heirs to the Counts of Toul were

2350-400: Was particularly in Mirecourt that the business of making stringed instruments took off, with 43 luthiers in 1635, and the business continued to grow into the twentieth century, by when it was claimed that Mirecourt was producing more than 80,000 instruments annually. This is frequently a family business which can grow into a dynastic one: numbered among Mirecourt's Lutherie dynasties have been

2400-601: Was sold in London for $ 15.9 million (it is named after Lord Byron 's granddaughter Lady Anne Blunt , who owned it for 30 years). It was sold by the Nippon Music Foundation in aid of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami appeal. In Spring 2014 the "Macdonald" viola was put up for auction through the musical instrument auction house Ingles & Hayday in conjunction with Sotheby's via silent auction with

2450-461: Was sourced from the forests of northern Croatia . This wood is known for its extreme density resulting from the slow growth caused by harsh Croatian winters. Croatian wood was traded by Venetian merchants of the era, and is still used today by local luthiers and craftsfolk for musical instruments. Some research points to wood preservatives used in that day as contributing to the resonant qualities. Joseph Nagyvary reveals that he has always held

2500-726: Was stolen in 1981 and recovered in 2015. A number of stolen instruments remain missing, such as the Karpilowsky , stolen in 1953. the Davidoff-Morini , stolen in 1995, and the Le Maurien , stolen in 2002. The Stradivarius instruments are famous for the quality of sound they produce. However, the many blind experiments from 1817 to as recent as 2014 have never found any difference in sound between Stradivari's violins and high-quality violins in comparable style of other makers and periods, nor has acoustic analysis. In

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