Metals of music

Abstract

Musical instruments, such as brass wind instruments, flutes, organs, and bells, use metals in many forms. Two of these forms—bronze gongs of the Ifugao and iron harpsichord strings of the Baroque period—were studied in the Smithsonian's Conservation Analytical Laboratory. The ferrous strings from harpsichords of the 18th Century were drawn from iron that was strengthened with phosphorus, not steel, as had been supposed from their evident strength. The gongs were made from a high tin (ca. 22–23%) bronze alloy by a technique of hot forging and quenching more familiar from the smithing of iron. This alloy and its forming technique were in use for millennia, only recently being superseded in modern metallurgical applications by stainless steel.