Making wooden musical instruments: An integration of different forms of knowledge (3rd Annual Conference COST FP1302 WoodMusICK - Barcelona)

The craft of building wooden musical instruments requires a wide variety of both empirical and theoretical skills -embodied in pragmatic processes- that aim at the same primary goal: to play music.

The process of building a musical instrument implies different types of knowledge -i.e., types and quality of wood, working and processing technologies, varnishes and glues, mechanics and acoustics- as well as with musical knowledge these skills are acquired in a large measure by oral transmission and apprenticeship even in the most modern schools.

This Conference proposes to discuss the following questions:

• What is the relationship between sound aesthetics and making, historically and currently?
• What are the criteria of choosing, assessing and processing the wood used by the different makers?
• What kind of relationship exists between scholars and makers through societies and times?
• This Conference aims to enhance the cooperation among makers, museums, scholars, and scientists to increase the basic and general knowledge of how wooden musical instruments work, and also how working together can improve this knowledge.

The main topics selected for the Conference are the followings:

• Approaches, solutions and designs developed by makers and which could be investigated by advanced technologies.
• Relationships between music and cultural aesthetics and technical innovations.
• Musical instrument making in different times and regions.
• Wood selection and treatment.