An African violin – The feasibility of using indigenous wood from southern Africa as tonewood

The wood used to make musical instruments needs to have particular properties. Depending on its function, such as a soundboard for string instruments or the body of a wind instrument, different properties are desirable to obtain the best musical quality. Several different classification schemes exi...

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Autores principales:	Martina Meincken, Gerhard Roux, Thomas Niesler
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Academy of Science of South Africa 2021
Materias:	wood for soundboards spectral analysis exotic wood musical instruments string instruments Science Q Science (General) Q1-390 Social Sciences H Social sciences (General) H1-99
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/2d33f38f0c714fb89c02f9aa400be966
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:2d33f38f0c714fb89c02f9aa400be9662021-12-02T06:15:00ZAn African violin – The feasibility of using indigenous wood from southern Africa as tonewood10.17159/sajs.2021/111751996-7489https://doaj.org/article/2d33f38f0c714fb89c02f9aa400be9662021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://sajs.co.za/article/view/11175https://doaj.org/toc/1996-7489 The wood used to make musical instruments needs to have particular properties. Depending on its function, such as a soundboard for string instruments or the body of a wind instrument, different properties are desirable to obtain the best musical quality. Several different classification schemes exist that correlate physical and mechanical properties of wood to define desirable ranges for tonewoods, and to allow suitable wood species to be chosen. The physical and mechanical properties of various wood species indigenous to southern Africa were characterised and then assessed in terms of their suitability for violin construction using these classification schemes. The results of this analysis show that the most suitable of the wood species assessed are yellowwood and sapele. These were subsequently used by a professional luthier to build an ‘African’ violin. The sound quality of this instrument was determined subjectively through performances to an audience and more objectively via spectral analysis of audio recordings. This analysis shows clear differences in the relative magnitude of the harmonics between the violin made from indigenous wood and an instrument made with conventional wood species. Despite the differences, yellowwood and sapele were found to be suitable tonewoods, resulting in an instrument with a unique sound. Significance: • Good quality violins are always made from spruce and maple wood, which have to be imported to South Africa – often at high cost. However, the growth conditions of most southern African wood species should make them suitable tonewoods. We showed that several species are suitable to be used as tonewoods and that the sound produced with such a violin is – although somewhat different – of high quality. Martina MeinckenGerhard RouxThomas NieslerAcademy of Science of South Africaarticlewood for soundboardsspectral analysisexotic woodmusical instrumentsstring instrumentsScienceQScience (General)Q1-390Social SciencesHSocial sciences (General)H1-99ENSouth African Journal of Science, Vol 117, Iss 11/12 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	wood for soundboards spectral analysis exotic wood musical instruments string instruments Science Q Science (General) Q1-390 Social Sciences H Social sciences (General) H1-99
spellingShingle	wood for soundboards spectral analysis exotic wood musical instruments string instruments Science Q Science (General) Q1-390 Social Sciences H Social sciences (General) H1-99 Martina Meincken Gerhard Roux Thomas Niesler An African violin – The feasibility of using indigenous wood from southern Africa as tonewood
description	The wood used to make musical instruments needs to have particular properties. Depending on its function, such as a soundboard for string instruments or the body of a wind instrument, different properties are desirable to obtain the best musical quality. Several different classification schemes exist that correlate physical and mechanical properties of wood to define desirable ranges for tonewoods, and to allow suitable wood species to be chosen. The physical and mechanical properties of various wood species indigenous to southern Africa were characterised and then assessed in terms of their suitability for violin construction using these classification schemes. The results of this analysis show that the most suitable of the wood species assessed are yellowwood and sapele. These were subsequently used by a professional luthier to build an ‘African’ violin. The sound quality of this instrument was determined subjectively through performances to an audience and more objectively via spectral analysis of audio recordings. This analysis shows clear differences in the relative magnitude of the harmonics between the violin made from indigenous wood and an instrument made with conventional wood species. Despite the differences, yellowwood and sapele were found to be suitable tonewoods, resulting in an instrument with a unique sound. Significance: • Good quality violins are always made from spruce and maple wood, which have to be imported to South Africa – often at high cost. However, the growth conditions of most southern African wood species should make them suitable tonewoods. We showed that several species are suitable to be used as tonewoods and that the sound produced with such a violin is – although somewhat different – of high quality.
format	article
author	Martina Meincken Gerhard Roux Thomas Niesler
author_facet	Martina Meincken Gerhard Roux Thomas Niesler
author_sort	Martina Meincken
title	An African violin – The feasibility of using indigenous wood from southern Africa as tonewood
title_short	An African violin – The feasibility of using indigenous wood from southern Africa as tonewood
title_full	An African violin – The feasibility of using indigenous wood from southern Africa as tonewood
title_fullStr	An African violin – The feasibility of using indigenous wood from southern Africa as tonewood
title_full_unstemmed	An African violin – The feasibility of using indigenous wood from southern Africa as tonewood
title_sort	african violin – the feasibility of using indigenous wood from southern africa as tonewood
publisher	Academy of Science of South Africa
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/2d33f38f0c714fb89c02f9aa400be966
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An African violin – The feasibility of using indigenous wood from southern Africa as tonewood

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