The Identification of Wood used in the Construction of 17th and 18th Century Keyboard Instruments

Abstract

However, there are surprisingly few cases where the woods used in individual antique instruments have been identified through scientific examination and there are very few such identifications reported in the literature. Standard works on musical instrument history most frequently use current workshop terminology or repeat earlier sources with the typical result that one often finds soundboards simply described as pine or even deal. More frequently, the subject is entirely avoided, although it is usually one of the first questions raised by the restorer or copyist of early instruments.