Saving "the forest that sounds": fundraising to restore the spruces of the Stradivari Forest, destroyed by storms.

STRADIVARI FOREST

They call The Sounding Forest, and it's a wonderful one forest in Val di Fiemme, in the Panaveggio Natural Park, an enchanted place full of spruces where, legend has it, Stradivari himself went to choose the trunks for his perfect violins. By hitting them with a hammer to test the wood.

Maestro Stradivari, an exceptional violin maker, builder of some of the most precious violins in the world, bordering on perfection, used to walk in this forest made of spruces, silver firs, larches and pines, with the undergrowth full of blueberries. Here he chose only the fir trees that would become the soundboards of his violins: they are centuries-old trees with wood endowed with great resonance capacity. It is a very elastic wood, which allows for better transmission of sound, and its lymphatic channels act like tiny organ pipes.

La Stradivari Forest, therefore, is a place of particular charm for anyone who loves classical music and the magic of artisan creation: some jewels of Italian violin-making art are of inestimable value, exhibited in the Cremona Violin Museum, and not everyone is allowed to know the secrets of the trunks of the sounding forest.

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STRADIVARI CROWDFUNDING FOREST

In fact, there are few expert lumberjacks who can tell if wood makes music before cutting it. One of them is Fabio Ognibeni, who has been traveling the Val di Fiemme for thirty years, choosing trees that will one day become violins, cellos, but also harps, piano soundboards, and harpsichords.

At the end of October the magic was broken: the terrible Maltempo which hit the Trentino Alto Adige It has wiped out trees in impressive numbers: the same amount as ten years of planned felling. Centuries-old fir trees And 150 200 years thrown away by the power of a mad nature. 700 thousand cubic meters of very precious wood now unusable, when the average annual consumption is 90 thousand. A disaster that does not have an immediate impact, but whose effects will be seen starting from 2020: currently the lumberjacks-luthiers are working with stored wood, but the trees that can be used for musical instruments are on average (says the expert) two or three out of a thousand. And with a half-destroyed forest, violins and musical instruments I'm in danger.

Ognibeni, an entrepreneur-craftsman, still cannot accept the fact that his trees, the trees he has been walking among since he was little more than a teenager, have been destroyed by storm “Vaia”, winds of 200 kilometers per hour, and that his children will no longer be able to see them. For this reason, with his “Ciresa” A company that has been producing soundboards for musical instruments around the world for decades has launched a crowdfunding campaign to save the precious Stradivarius wood.

Saving the Sounding Forest is not just a romantic gesture, but an attempt to restore a fragile ecosystem almost completely destroyed and an economic resource that has created income and jobs.

Together with the Forestry Authority, he decided not to stand still and to try in every way to save the resonant fir trees, with perfect trunks with thin, straight grain, approximately 1300/1500 cubic meters of precious wood, which represent four times the annual requirement of the violin-making companies.

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THE WOOD THAT SOUNDS

The fundraising is urgent because, as Ognibeni himself explains, if the wood remains in trunks on the ground, with the summer heat will decay and will be attacked by mold and parasites, rendering it unusable for its intended purpose. Since it is a valuable wood and costs almost double that of traditional timber, it represents a monumental challenge for a small artisan business. Hence the crowdfunding initiative "Save Stradivari's Wood," which asks luthiers and Ciresa customers, as well as private citizens and supporters who are sensitive to the issues of music and nature, to provide a cash advance on future purchases, or a contribution in exchange for a letter of commitment to repay.

All those who join this crowdfunding will receive, in addition to the letter of commitment, a violin-shaped wooden soundboard, with their name engraved on it, as a symbol and confirmation of their personal commitment to save the “Music wood”.

The payment method is by bank transfer, and on the website ciresafiemme.it You can find the number of members and the number of trees saved, data updated almost in real time.

(Cover image and text accompanying image taken from the website ciresafiemme.it)

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• Heal yourself in the woods with forest bathing. A bath in wellness thanks to the trees.

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