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Restoration of Historical Musical Instruments

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Handbook of Materials for String Musical Instruments

Abstract

Restoration interventions on historical musical instruments need a deep understanding of physical phenomena at the origin of the damages to be repaired and of the physical, mechanical and chemical properties of the materials composing the system. Loss of original material can be produced as a result of structural modifications during restoration. The preservation of the material uniqueness of old musical instruments is one of the primary responsibilities of museums. Ethical considerations require methodological concreteness, rigour and collaboration of specialists from different fields when considering restoration of historical musical instruments. Our attention is focused on the restoration of the famous Guarneri violin the “Cannone” and the restoration of pianos from Romantic period. The soundboard has longitudinal cracks its surface has a pronounced concavity induced by wood moisture content variations and consequential wood shrinkage and swelling. Tone-colour restoration of historical pianos has to solve several problems related to the obsolescence of several structural elements such as the soundboard, the hammer-set and the wear of the mechanics. The advanced technology of our era can reveal many hidden messages of historical instruments, but it is important to remember that nothing can be achieved without the contribution of skilled craftsmen. Copies of historic instruments can largely satisfy reproducing what we imagine as “ideal sounds”. Therefore making copies benefits tremendously from access to preserved and ideally, unrestored historic instruments. There is no doubt that aesthetic quality of period musical instruments deserves consideration because among other aspects, this quality goes together with acoustical quality impacting musical performance.

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  1. Melbourne, Australia

    Voichita Bucur

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Bucur, V. (2016). Restoration of Historical Musical Instruments. In: Handbook of Materials for String Musical Instruments. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32080-9_15

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