Le 6 nov. 08 à 20:34, [EMAIL PROTECTED] a écrit :
> Dear David and David,
>
> Another line of research considers treating the
> soundboard with chemicals. I noticed this New Scientist article
> (which you may well know) and which claims a strad's sound could be
> partly due to treatment with wood preservative, against fungal and
> insect attack.
Logs often grow some distance from the mill, if not dragged or
sledded, were floated down stream in chains or as part of rafts.
When lake or other large body of water allowed, vast 'rafts' were
assembled using chains and dragged by ships.
At the mill, thare was usually a pond where logs were kept in the
water to prevent them from internal faults from the stresses of
drying out until the mill hands had time to prepare them
properly. It also allowed water to replace sap, making the final
drying process less stressful. It would not be unusual for such a
pond to have brackish water, some part salt, some part fresh.
Might have been fed by streams contaminated by mine tailings. All
of the mineral content seen by Nagyvary could have an accidental
source, one that made for wood with unusual qualitys. It is quite
likely that such qualitys would have been noticed, exploited,
considered, and attempts made to replicate and understand the
process for when different sources might be needed. The 30 years
war and the napoleonic wars provided ample reason for craftsmen all
over europe, but especially in the german states to be wary of
l'homme armee and associated economic ravages.
That sounds entirely possible: accidental contamination
later recognized as a source of improvement (better conservation of
the wood and/or improved sound).
Indeed, I think that the process for obtaining nylgut was discovered
accidentally. Now, I believe M.P. is going to make some deliberate
experiments on new types of synthetic strings.
(as far as I can understand, most synthetic music strings were not
produced originally for that purpose).
However, the quotation ('' salts improve the voice of all sorts of
musical instruments' ) from Bernard Palissy does seem to show that at
least some luthiers were conscious of the improvement that these
salts could bring, and that somehow BP had heard about this.
Perhaps the spruce wood, used by the Italian masters, would have come
from areas originally controlled by the closed and secretive guilds
centred on Fussen, so the fact that Bernard de Palissy had heard
anything about these treatments, could be surprising. Although he
would have been well placed to pick-up and understand the
significance of such information. As a master stained-glass artist he
travelled widely all over France and neighbouring regions, the Low
Countries, perhaps even in the Rhine Provinces of Germany and in
Italy. While carrying out this work, his experiments with coloured
glass making would give him a wide practical and theoretical
knowledge of salts and oxides, which could allow him to understand
the significance of such information.
Indeed, Palissy (perhaps a "father" of chemistry) became a sort of
forerunner in diffusing such 'scientific" knowledge, actually
organizing lectures in which he divulged his discoveries,
"Having in this way learned the truth about such things, and being
quite convinced of it, I reflected that I had spent much time in
learning about earths, stones, waters, and metals, and that old age
now was urging me to multiply the talents God had given me, so that
it would be good to bring to light all these wonderful secrets, in
order to bequeath them to posterity." BP
Nevertheless, he refused to divulge the "recipes" of his own glazes.
In the "Art de Terre", through his dialogue between Practic and
Theoric, he explains the dilemma:
"Do you really believe that a man of sound judgement would be willing
to give away the secrets of an art that cost the one who invented it
a high price?" To which Theoric replies, "There is no charity in you.
If you are resolved to keep your secret hidden in this way, you will
take it with you to the grave and none will profit from it, so that
your end will be cursed..."
but Practic tells how objects of unlimited reproduction carried out
with recipes and no art, just debase the art as happened, for
example, with "histories of Our Lady printed in wood cuts following
the model of a German called Albert (Durer), only those stories were
made in such great abundance that they fell into low esteem and were
sold for two liards a piece, although the drawing was finely done,"
I don't think, therefore, we should be surprised not to find detailed
recipes for loading spruce, or even for loading gut.
You are right in saying how much the 30 years and the Napoleonic
wars must have disrupted this ancient guild structure, presumably
much of their skills and knowledge could have been lost.
This, I think could also have been true for the network of string-
makers guilds that spread out from Italy over much of Europe.
At a time when patents did not exist, the only way an atelier could
keep its supremacy, must have been secrecy. Even today we see this in
areas where patents don't really hold law.
Here in the centre of Paris there is a family run atelier of master
icecream craftsmen. I have heard much speculation that the secret
recipes are only held by a few male members of the Berthillon family.
Now whether the "loading" of spruce soundboards was deliberate or by
sheer chance and with no knowledge on the part of the luthiers (but I
think we often underestimate the experimental skills and knowledge of
the "old ones"), it does seem that such chemical treatments do bring
improvements to musical instruments. I wonder therefore, why these
same techniques are not used more widely today.
Anthony
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