Dear Peter,
Tradition is the name of the game in instrument making where makers are
sticking to well tried materials that they know will last two or three
generations and will be an investment as with string instruments.
When you start to mention computer aided design it is a mistake to
think that this will produce perfect instruments especially in repect
to NSP's. The input for any programs being used has to come from
someone who has had a lifetime's experience to start with and then
variables such as the reeds, the type of bag being used and the ambient
playing conditions can all knock things sideways.
Colin R
-----Original Message-----
From: P DUNN <p.dun...@btinternet.com>
To: nsp@cs.dartmouth.edu
Sent: Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:41
Subject: [NSP] re chanter material.
I've been following with interest, the string regarding
chanters/drones
made from non-wood materials. My first clarinet, a 'cheapish' Boosey
and Hawkes was made from a plastic material. My second, and much more
expensive, was made from African Blackwood.
I notice the positive remarks that ivory seems to get with regard to
tone. Am I completely wrong to assume that the very qualities that
ivory possesses, e.g. hardness and impermeability, are shared by some
of the man-made materials that have been mentioned? Interesting that
the more expensive woodwind instruments seem to shun such materials.
At some time in the future, might this mean that chanters and drones
could be produced using computer-aided programs (I believe someone
has
or could produce such a program) and would this mean an end to tuning
problems, whether caused by some of the holes being slightly
mis-placed
or by temperature fluctuations, and other such-like problems
associated
with a naturally made product? I suppose the downside (or upside,
depending on one's point of view)) would be instruments which didn't
display any maker's idiosyncrasies.
Just a thought!
Peter Dunn
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