Handbook of Materials for Wind Musical Instruments

Dr. Voichita Bucur, currently adjunct professor at RMIT Melbourne, Australia, received her bachelor in Engineering in 1962 from Polytechnic Institute Brasov, Romania, and her PhD in Mechanics and Ultrasonics in 1984 from the Institut Supérieur des Materiaux, St Ouen, Paris, France. Her fields of research encompass development of non-destructive techniques (vibrational, acoustic, ultrasonic, X- rays) for the assessment of the quality of trees, wood products and wood-based composites, mechanical characterisation of materials with non-destructive techniques, wood science and technology, and mechanical characterisation of wood for musical instruments.In 2004 she awarded silver medal by Société d’Encouragement du Progrès, France, for contributions to mechanics, acoustics, wood science, education and service to the society. In 2007 she had the distinguish award at 15th International Symposium on Nonestructive Testing of wood, Duluth, Minessota, USA, for contribution to thedevelopment of nondestructive techniques for wood and wood based composites. .

• Introduction - the outline of the book.-  Organologic description of wind instruments.- Wood species for reed -driven instruments – clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bassoon.- Materials for reeds of reed driven instruments.-  Metallic materials for lip- driven instruments and for air jet driven instruments.- Fibrous auxiliary materials - the felt, the cork.- Organic auxiliary materials - the leather, the parchment.- Resonant air column in wind instruments.- Effect of wall material on vibration modes of walls of wind instruments.- Effect of bore shape and tone holes.- Methods for measuring the acoustic properties of wind instruments.- Manufacturing of tubes in metal for brass instruments and pipe organ.- Manufacturing of tubes and pipes in wood.- Manufacturing of reeds for reed driven instruments.- Manufacturing of pads and keys.- Digital fabrication of wind instruments.- Traditional cleaning and ultrasonic cleaning techniques for metallic wind instruments.- Degradation of organ pipes and of brass instruments.- Restoration and conservation of brass musical instruments.- Restoration and conservation of historical pipe organ.- Marble, the nondegradable material for pipe organs.