Review on the characterisation of ancient stringed musical instruments varnishes and implementation of an analytical strategy

Échard, Jean-Philippe; Lavédrine, Bertrand

doi:10.1016/j.culher.2008.03.005

Cited by 67 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The direct detection of lake pigments in historical musical instruments is very rare [1], although they use of lakes is indicated in technical documents. One description of the possible application of lakes comes from Michelman [22]: he specifically reported the use of madder extracts to generate lake pigments of different colours by reaction with metallic rosinates (containing either Al 3+ , Zn 2+ or Fe 2+ ) dissolved in the varnish.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Approaches for Detecting Madder Lake in Multi-Layered Coating Systems of Historical Bowed String Instruments

et al. 2018

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Musical instrument coatings are generally made by multi-layered systems of organic and inorganic materials, applied on the wood substrate by the violin makers during the finishing process. This coating has paramount relevance for several aspects: protection from sweat and dirt, increase of specific acoustic features, and especially aesthetic effects. In fact, the colour of historical bowed string instruments represents a very peculiar characteristic of each workshop. Among the various colourants, lakes are the most challenging to detect because of their sensibility to the alteration processes. In this work, non-invasive and micro-invasive procedures were applied to a set of mock-ups mimicking historical coatings systems prior and after artificial ageing, in order to highlight the overall information that can be recovered for the detection of madder lake in historical bowed instruments. A set of techniques, including colourimetry, visible and UV-light imaging, stereomicroscopy, Fibre Optics Diffuse Reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), X-ray Fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy-Dispersive X-ray microprobe (SEM-EDX), and Fourier-Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used in order to evaluate the pros and cons in the detection of organic and inorganic component of madder lake at low concentration levels.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, the development of non-invasive and micro-invasive analytical methods have given impetus to the instrumental detection of the materials employed in the "finishing process", consisting in coating systems made by superimposed layers of organic and inorganic materials [1,2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Approaches for Detecting Madder Lake in Multi-Layered Coating Systems of Historical Bowed String Instruments

et al. 2018

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“…It is used as industrial timber, for construction and as pulpwood. A special quality is the occurrence of resonance wood, used for musical instruments (Ono and Norimoto, 1984;Echard et al, 2008). In earlier times P. abies was often planted on cleared land to provide timber and fuel wood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spruce Trees Growth and Forest Landscape Depending on Microstational Factors and Ecological Conditions

et al. 2017

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Spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) is an important forest tree species in Romania, occupying approximately 24% of the total forest area. Due to its variable temperament, the spruce is generally considered a semi-shadow species. Through the research carried out in Valea Ierii (N-W of Romania), the response of spruce was evaluated according to different microstational conditions (e.g. exposure, altitude, density etc.), in nine sample plots, each of them with a surface of 500 m 2 , on a total area of 10 hectares. There were noted interaction responses to several ecological factors. Results showed that the trees with SouthWest exposure and at an altitude of 1,200-1,370 m have accumulated the largest amount of biomass, showing significant differences from the trees exposed on North-East plots and at altitudes comprised between 1,170-1,380 m. Behavioural differences regarding growth and biomass accumulation capacity was statistically ascribed to slope exposition, which was therefore considered as principal factor regulating landscape function of the forest, with a strong ecological impact. In the whole set of populations, the response function varied considerably within the S-W expositional plots compared to the N-E plots exposition, but without significant differences related to trees density and altitudinal level. Because all stands under study were pure, composed of even-aged spruce trees, differences may be related to a range of habitats as geosystem and/or geofacies levels, respectively altitudinal forest, exposition, density and other local conditions. The superior growth of the trees on the S-W exposition slope was explained due to the young stage of the spruce, and the trees preference until this age for sunny and more dried conditions. Probably, in the next years, the trees' evolution will confirm that the spruce prefer low temperatures, low insolation inside the forest, high and permanent humidity. Further spatio-temporal analysis will be useful for reliable hypothesis to be inferred as functions of the forest, but also landscaping, depending of the trees' age and ecological conditions.

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“…Most of these studies on historical string instruments [1,2,4] deal with the violin and very few deal with several instruments which allow comparisons. In these studies, the instrument is generally considered in its static state whereas musical instruments were designed to radiate sound and therefore to vibrate.…”

Section: -Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With this understanding, they hope to develop an accelerated ageing process to offer aged wood to makers. Some authors are studied the surface layers [2,3] of the musical instruments and their conservation within cases. Some others consider the static deformation of the mechanical structure due to hygrometric variations or string tension [4,5].…”

Section: -Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

18th and 19th French harp classification using vibration analysis

Carrou

Conte²,

Dugot³

2017

Journal of Cultural Heritage

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Most heritage musical instruments are not played anymore for conservation reasons. Most of the time, each instrument is the only representation left of a style or a historical period. This is coherent with the museums' task, which is to present diversity in makers, making processes, materials, etc. It is thus interesting to study not only an instrument but also its evolution according to music history or to technical evolution. Studying the whole production of a maker allows a better understanding of his know-how and his technical evolution.Nevertheless, the museum audience has no way to evaluate the acoustical properties of these historical instruments except when a copy (or fac-simile) is ordered. This paper intends to apply a global vibrational analysis on the harp corpus of the Musée de la musique to understand the consequences on the potential acoustical behaviour of the different construction techniques used by two famous harp makers, Erard and Cousineau. The idea is to survey the whole corpus, using the least invasive techniques which are still effective when applied to instruments in a conservation state and to define a vibrational descriptor able to represent different making strategies from the acoustical point of view. Whereas usual descriptive measurements do not discriminate Erard and Cousineau harps' acoustical behaviours, vibrational measurements, which are strongly influenced by construction techniques, do give this possibility. KeywordsMusical instrument -Cultural heritage -vibrational analysis -concert harp -ErardCousineau -Classification

show abstract

Review on the characterisation of ancient stringed musical instruments varnishes and implementation of an analytical strategy

Cited by 67 publications

References 31 publications

Approaches for Detecting Madder Lake in Multi-Layered Coating Systems of Historical Bowed String Instruments

Approaches for Detecting Madder Lake in Multi-Layered Coating Systems of Historical Bowed String Instruments

Spruce Trees Growth and Forest Landscape Depending on Microstational Factors and Ecological Conditions

18th and 19th French harp classification using vibration analysis

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