When the Legend is Discovered to be a Myth

Last week the Stradivarius McDonald was sold at £27,000,000. For those who do not know, a Stradivarius is a string instrument made by Antonia Stradivarius, born in Italy in 1644. The instruments, only an estimated 650 of which still exist, are said to be the best instruments in the world. Typically, Strads are either played by the best of the best or owned by wealthy collectors since they are so costly. Internationally renowned viola soloist, David Aaron Carpenter, was chosen to play the McDonald for the auction. 

Stradivarius

After speaking with David about his experience playing the McDonald(view here), I realized that his feedback was expected considering it was a Strad. He raved about the tone and the quality of the viola; all he wanted to do was play the fine instrument again. I did not doubt his opinion at all and I still do not but after hearing NPR's raido story, "Is a Strad Just a Violin?", I started to think a bit more critically on whether the age of an instrument determines its quality and on a broader scale, how much of something's price and name influence the actual quality.

When shopping for a new violin, the age of the instrument is a huge factor, or at least it has been up until now. The older the better, and typically the more expensive. As I spent my time shopping for a new viola today, the oldest one from the 1700's turned out to be the least attractive in almost all of its aspects. In NPR's study, they did a blind test on master musicians by giving them a mask which blurred their vision and sense of smell and having them play many different instruments, some modern and some old. In the end, the majority of the musicians preferred a modern instrument over the Stradivarius and guessed which were old and new incorrectly. 

This was shocking to me and very hard to believe. As the radio story speaker addressed, it is a disappointing study that musicians don't want to hear. Although it is relieving that you don't have to spend $45,000,000 to get the best instrument you can, the legend of Strads is something that you want to believe in and I know that personally I still do. Because I know that many people don't  particularly care about string instruments, the study can be put into a different setting with almost anything. If a name is passed around so frequently and the price is so high it is nearly impossible to prevent that from influencing you're own bias. How much of what we believe to be true comes from our own opinion versus the legends and prices of items?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/05/09/310447054/episode-538-is-a-stradivarius-just-a-violin