Strombolian activity consists of a series of explosions caused by the breaking of large overpressurized bubbles at the surface of the magma column. Acoustic pressure has been measured for 36 explosions at Stromboli. We propose that sound is generated by the vibration of the bubble before it bursts. Oscillations are driven by an initial overpressure inside the bubble, assumed to be initially at rest, just below the magma-air interface. Inertia effects cause the bubble to overshoot its equilibrium radius. Then the bubble becomes underpressurized and contracts because of gas compressibility. These oscillations are only slightly damped by viscous effects in the magma layer above the bubble. The bubble cannot complete more than one cycle of vibration because of instabilities developing on the magma layer that lead to its breaking, near the minimum radius. Assuming a simple geometry, we model this vibration and constrain the radius and length of the bubble and the initial overpressure by fitting a synthetic waveform to the measured acoustic pressure. The fit between synthetic and observed waveforms is very good, both for frequency, ≈60 rad s⁻¹, and amplitude. The initial bubble radius is ≈1 m, and the length varies between several and a few tens of meters. From the initial overpressure, approximately 10⁵ Pa, we calculate the maximum radial velocity of ejecta, ≈30 m s⁻¹. The generally good agreement between data and predictions of our model leads us to suggest that acoustic measurements are a powerful tool for the understanding of eruption dynamics.