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By Jennifer Gressett
The Battalion
What’s the recipe for making
beautiful music? Ask Texas A&M
University biochemist and violinmaker
Dr. Josef Nagyvary and he’ll say you
need three main ingredients: a bit of
chemistry, a dash of physics and a well-
made violin.
“Materials are very important
determinants of the excellence of the
sound,” Nagyvary said. “They are just
as important to the violin as apples are
to apple pie.”
Although Nagyvary has spent years
studying the materials and construction
techniques of great violinmakers such
as Antonio Stradivari, he says the
preservatives used by Stradivari aren’t
uncommon today.
“Even my grandmother knew that if
she wanted to make apricot preserves,
she had to use salicylic acid, ’ Nagyvary
said.
Used in the preservation of wood,
salicin is a bitter white glucose found in
the bark and leaves of willows and
poplars. Nagyvary says this type of
preservative was widely used in the
humid climate of northern Italy, where
the first violins were made.
But preservatives alone aren’t what
saved the Stradivari violins.
Nagyvary said Stradivari only sold
his violins to kings and queens, who
then stored them in royal cabinets.
“Musicians are the reason that
violins are battered and worn
throughout the years,” Nagyvary said.
“But the nobility only allowed
musicians to play occasionally as hired
Kyle Uumet(/7TF»e Battalion
Dr. josef Nagyvary, a Texas A&M biochemist, records the been transformed into a laboratory provides a quiet
sound of several notes from a violin outside the Biochemistry environment for his research. Nagyvary later analyzes his
Field Laboratory. The old house on Agronomy Road that has recordings in the Chemistry Building on campus.
hands, which is why Stradivari’s violin
has lasted 200 years.”
Nagyvary has continued his material
analysis because of this wear and tear
on the violin. He uses electronic
instruments to study the chemical
composition as well as the sound
spectrum of the violin. This analysis,
he said, could improve the techniques
of musicians all over the world;
assuming they are willing to learn.
However, just like Picasso, Nagyvary
said musicians are single-minded; they
like to work alone and they don’t want
any input.
“The problem is that most violin
players quit school at the age of 13 or
14,” Nagyvary said. “They have no
advanced knowledge of science or
math, and they don’t want to learn it.”
Therefore, in an attempt to inspire
those musicians and composers, he
formed a lecture tour called "Decoding
the Stradivarius: the Materials, the
Sound and the Mystique.” His tour
includes 19 cities in the United States
and Europe, most of which are financed
by the American Chemical Society.
“The chemists feel that it is their
own business to show that chemistry is
important for music and violins,”
Nagyvary said.
During his recent tour through
Europe, Nagyvary visited Budapest
where he spent a week at the spring
festival in Hungary, his homeland. Not
only did he present his violin in a gala
concert, but he also donated that violin
to the Hungarian Conservatory.
“As with any business, the best way
to publicize is to give samples,”
Nagyvary said. “And it was a good
feeling to give something back to my
country.”
But if he’s so good at this violin
business, why isn’t he playing at Texas
A&M?
“There simply is no interest in music
here,” Nagyvary said. “It’s just that this
university is big enough that it can
stand to have a few oddball projects
now and then.”
Nagyvary said he first became
interested in the project when he came
to Texas A&M and he needed a hobby.
It was just a coincidence that he was
also interested in biochemistry, he said.
Presently, Nagyvary is collaborating
his research with physics professor
Robert Kenefick, who teaches a course
in acoustics. They have a joint project
analyzing the sound spectrum of the
violin.
“If a student can reproduce the
spectrum of a Stradivari violin, he or
she will sound like a great player,”
Nagyvary said.
As for the future, Nagyvary and
Kenefick say they hope to continue to
tell musicians across the world about
the new technologies in chemistry and
physics. But personally, Nagyvary has
goals of his own.
“They say that the great Antonio
Stradivari made violins until he was 93
years old,” Nagyvary said. “And if I can
make violins until I, too, am 93 years
old, then I will consider myself a
success.”
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John Steelquist (left), an industrial engineering graduate student, prepares to
engage in battle with Jim Wilson during a Society for Creative Anachronism
meeting at a local park. Steelquist is the society's chapter president and Wilson is
the society's chapter chronicler.
A&M’s SCA
chapter keeps
Camelot alive
By Paul Neale
The Battalion
Members of the Society for Creative
Anachronism bring a piece of Camelot
with them every Sunday when they
assemble for a time of recreation and re
creation.
The Society for Creative Anachronism
(SCA) is an international, educational
organization dedicated to the study of the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Anachronisms, or anything out of its
proper time, come alive through society
members’ medieval costumes, combat,
names and games. Members practice
the sciences, skills, arts and crafts of the
colorful, bygone eras.
Patricia Roberts, SCA’s hospitaller, or
the Middle Ages’ equivalent to a public
relations chair, said members of SCA take
a hands-on approach to studying the arts
and sciences of the two time periods.
“We research history from 600 A.D. to
1600 A.D.,” she said. “And we try to
learn as much about the time by actually
doing the things.”
Clothed in a black and white
Elizabethan dress (circa 1 565) and
wrapped in a green corduroy cape,
Roberts fills the role of her persona:
French noblewoman Isabeau Beauvallet.
SCA members take on a persona from
days of yore and register their names and
devices, or family symbols, with the
College of Heralds, a group that
researches personas to make sure they are
consistent with the time period.
“If they (members) know anything
about their family history, they pick a
persona which fits it,” Roberts said.
Most SCA members make their own
costumes or buy them from other
members. Costuming, Roberts’ favorite
aspect of SCA, gives members a chance to
express their personas.
Like other aspects of SCA, members
may carry authenticity as far as they care
to, she said.
“Some don’t use sewing machines to
make their garb,” Roberts said. “I’m
perfectly happy to go buy my fabric at a
cloth store and sew it using all modern
equipment.”
SCA stresses that it isn’t a fantasy
group. Instead, the members are
concerned with historical re-enactment
and sharing their knowledge at weekly
tournaments and guild meetings.
The dance guild, for instance, meets
on Sunday nights to practice court and
country dances from the Renaissance
period. Country dances of that era
influenced what is known today as square
dancing.
Other examples of guilds include
armoring, weaving, and ale brewing.
Texas A&M’s chapter is currently working
to form a scribes guild.
The society also holds fighter practices
on Sunday afternoons to teach its
members the art of combat. The
combatants — suited in armor made
each week at the armorer’s guild — safely
engage in the medieval armored combat
and the Renaissance rapier duello, a style
of combat similar to fencing.
The combat was what initially drew
the attention of local chapter president
John Steelquist. But he emphasized that
education is the society’s main focus.
“One of the big things we try to stress
is that we are a medieval research
organization,” he said. “The fighting is
just a part of the research.”
Steelquist, who named his 11th-
century Saxon persona “Ulsted the
Unsteady,” has been a member of SCA
since high school. An industrial
engineering graduate student, Steelquist
enjoys SCA’s blend of education and
entertainment through re-creation of the
past.
“I’ve always liked European history. . .
and that makes it fun,” he said.
Jim Wilson, the chapter’s chronicler,
suited up in almost 70 pounds of armor,
credits the society’s history of “no
serious injuries” to the care taken by
members of the armorer’s guild. Wilson
heads this guild from his shop every
week.
“Inferior armor will lead to broken
bones,” Wilson said. “That’s why we’re
real careful about what we use.”
The guild uses aircraft aluminum,
stainless steel and leather to fashion its
medieval armor.
Wilson, aka Wolfgang Von Hammer of
12th-century Teutonic Germany,
displayed his blue and black, 13-pound
shield bearing his registered device and
its partner, the European longsword.
Wilson said the solid rattan sword,
wrapped with leather and duct tape to
ensure safety, has been researched and
constructed as accurately as possible.
“ItTl bend before your bone does,”
Wilson said.
Although SCA was incorporated in
1968, the society considers a medieval
theme party, held on May 1,1966, to be
its beginning. A group of science fiction
and fantasy enthusiasts in Berkeley, Calif.,
threw a Mayday party based on the
legends of King Arthur. Keeping step
with the Revolutionary and Civil War
groups forming at that time, the group
organized a medieval re-enactment
group. And as the saying goes, the rest is
history — or at least a re-creation of it.
SCA welcomes new members and
invites anyone interested to join in their
weekly events at Brison Park. Extra
costumes are on hand in so nobody will
be nude, what SCA considers wearing
street clothes to the gathering.
Contact John Steelquist at 822-7493
or Patricia Roberts at 776-5491 for more
information.
G&W acts
play Rudder
Wednesday
By Michael Plumer
The Battalion
A country music tripleheader comes
to Rudder Wednesday night as Sawyer
Brown, Diamond Rio and Tim McGraw
hit the stage in a concert presented by
MSC Town Hall.
The show was originally scheduled
for G. Rollie White Coliseum but was
moved to the Rudder venue because of
sound system problems. Individual
tickets remain for the concert which is
scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.
McGraw, the son of former major
league pitcher Tug McGraw, will lead off
the show. His second album, “Not a
Moment Too Soon,” was released last
week and is currently number one on
the country charts, bumping John
Michael Montgomery from atop the
perch he has occupied for the last
month.
The first single from the album
“Indian Outlaw shot up the charts
where it peaked at number one. Along
the way, McGraw received criticism
from Native American groups attacking
the political correctness of the song.
The second act to take the stage,
Diamond Rio, is fast becoming the
Alabama of the 1990s. They became
the first group in the history of country
music to have a debut single reach
number one when “Meet in the
Middle” pulled the trick in early 1991.
They are also touring in support of a
second album, “Close to the Edge.”
Critics said Diamond Rio, led by lead
singer Marty Roe, has overcome the
cookie cutter grouping that
accompanies most groups. Their stage
presence is strong and infectious and
crowds usually leave the arena with
positive vibes.
The marquee act of the night is
another group who has seen some
recent success. Sawyer Brown. Their
latest release, “Outskirts of Town,” has
spawned one hit single, “The Boys and
Me.” The latest cut off the album is the
title track; it is a tissue-grabbing ballad
about growing up in the country.
Sawyer Brown has had trouble
carving its own niche in country music
but hoW can you not like a group who
has this lyric in a song: “I ain t first
class but I ain’t white trash?”
The faster-paced songs are Sawyer
Brown’s strength and most fans usually
find themselves clapping along.
Tickets for Wednesday’s show are still
available at the MSC Box Office.