Then, a guy he barely knew whacked the chestnut-colored treasure 450 times with a plastic hammer.

Not to harm it, but to understand it.

Violins crafted by Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri Del Gesu 300 years ago still define excellence for world-class violin makers such as Zygmuntowicz. Their ease of play and power continue to enrapture the world's best players and their fans.

Generations have tried to match and exceed the craftsmanship achieved in Italy's pre-industrial workshops. Painstakingly, makers have taken the precious relics apart and analyzed each hand-carved piece, down to the direction of the grain on maple and spruce plates.

But some things human eyes, hands and ears cannot perceive. Modern technology can.

That is why Zygmuntowicz this month chaperoned $14 million worth of violins to Eastern North Carolina.

At ECU, George Bissinger was ready to probe the antique instruments with 21st-century tools: lasers, CAT scans and the sometimes cold but precise language of science. For 30 years, the physicist has labored to crack the complicated, unseen ways that violins make music.

When word got around that Bissinger had access to lasers that could measure violin vibrations in three dimensions, Zygmuntowicz and other makers wanted to help him test the best.

"This is a brand new window to look through," said Zygmuntowicz, a New York City violin maker who borrowed three violins from client friends for study.

Zygmuntowicz and string designer Fan-Chia Tao hand-delivered the 1715 and 1734 Stradivarius violins. The violins -- among 650 Stradivarius instruments, including harps, guitars and cellos that survive today -- are so cherished that each has a name. One is the "Titian" and the other is "Willemotte." In addition, Zygmuntowicz and Tao brought a 1735 Guarneri known as "Plowden" to Greenville.

They and other curious makers laid the chestnut-colored beauties on a plush blue cloth in Bissinger's lab. And they waited to see what else art could learn from science.

Below the surface

To most people, a violin looks like a simple enough sound machine. Taut strings rubbed just right by a trained artist appear to produce the rich tones that stir the soul.

But strings alone don't make much noise. They do rock a violin's bridge. Waves of energy produced there get amplified and expressed from the body of a violin.

Bissinger focuses deeper. He examines sound frequencies; the ways an instrument can vibrate, called modes; and the amplitude, or power, of sound signals. Like the makers, he observes how the shape, stiffness and density of a violin's parts affect its voice.

Trained as a nuclear physicist, Bissinger got into this work by accident. In the 1970s, the amateur violinist built a violin that didn't sound very good, even though he meticulously followed instructions. He wanted to better understand why. In 1993, he was in deep enough to abandon ECU's particle accelerator laboratory and devote himself full-time to acoustics.

Now he runs the Violin Computer Aided Design Engineering Analysis System at ECU, a research program funded by the National Science Foundation.

The program is working on a computer model able to predict how different components of a violin influence sound. Bissinger hopes to develop a vocabulary for violins that researchers, violin makers and musicians can share.

"Musicians say a violin is a 'little opened up,' " Bissinger said, referring to a description that players use when the instrument projects its sound well. "That is so vague."

Next page >

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.