A database linking woody species, vibrational properties, and uses in musical instruments of the world

Une base de données reliant les espèces de bois, les propriétés vibratoires, et les usages en facture d'instruments du monde

Iris Brémaud (1, 2) , Bernard Thibaut (3) , Kazuya Minato (1)

1 Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto Prefectural University
2 MAB - Mécanique de l'Arbre et du Bois
3 UMR ECOFOG - Ecologie des forêts de Guyane

Very many wood species are used for building instruments throughout the world, but very little is known about this diversity. Furthermore, comparable vibrational properties of woods including damping are scarce and highly scattered. We present here the creation of a new specific relational database conceived as a tool to gather and study these aspects. It contains three main parts. 1) Botany (Tree/wood information; links to uses/properties). 2) Worldwide instruments (with woody species used for each part). 3) Viscoelastic vibrational properties of wood. Data sources are: our own field and experimental work; literature survey including many hard-to-obtain, non-English-language sources. Summary of data at present day: instruments =circa150; "instrument part/ species used" = c850; species with checked botany= c600; species used in instruments= c300; species with viscoelastic vibrational properties = c330 (covering about 5500 tests). Examples of the analyses made possible by this databank are shortly introduced. Efforts must also be pursued on: vibrational characterization of woods; collection of wood uses in worldwide instrument making cultures.

Domaines: Physique et Société [physics.soc-ph]; Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]; Vibrations [physics.class-ph]; Biodiversité et Ecologie; Environnement et Société; Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Musique, musicologie et arts de la scène

Iris Brémaud, Bernard Thibaut, Kazuya Minato. A database linking woody species, vibrational properties, and uses in musical instruments of the world. International Symposium on Musical Acoustics, ISMA2007, Sep 2007, Barcelona, Spain. ⟨hal-01979437⟩