The Tianqin, an ancient musical instrument originating 5,000 years ago from the Luoyue ethnic group, has long been referred to as "Dingding" among the folk due to the resonant sound it produces. After in-depth research by Guangxi ethnomusicologist Fan Ximu, it was officially named "Tianqin." In the film, Mr. Qin Huabei, a fourth-generation inheritor of the Zhuang ethnic Tianqin tradition (recognized as intangible cultural heritage), passionately shares with us the craftsmanship, materials used, and the historical legacy of the Tianqin.
The making and playing of the Tianqin is not merely an artistic expression - it is also a reverent continuation of ancestral wisdom and culture. With strong support from the local government, Mr. Qin Huabei has been actively engaged in the preservation and promotion of Tianqin culture. Through teaching in schools, carefully mentoring apprentices, composing new songs, and performing, he is dedicated to ensuring that this precious cultural heritage continues to thrive and evolve in the modern era.
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Nyckelharpa Luthier Esbjorn Hogmark
Esbjörn Hogmark is currently the best Nyckelharpa Luthier. IWCS was very honored to have the opportunity to interview him. In this video, you get to see musical performances from him and his family. Apart from talking about his past life experiences, this video also shows parts of the instrument-making process.
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From July 24-26, 2024, the "2024 First Macau International Percussion Competition and the Sixth China Marimba Arts Festival" was successfully held at the City University of Macau. This video features a performance from the event and was recorded, filmed, and edited by the International Wood Culture Society.
The marimba ensemble piece Splendor Stars was brilliantly performed by the "Liu Keke Percussion Ensemble." Founded in 2023, the ensemble is led by Zhang Liu, a young percussionist and JIAXUN Keyboard Percussion Artist, serving as its Artistic Director. The members include winners of major national competitions and students from prestigious music conservatories. The ensemble has won the Gold Award in the Keyboard Percussion category for the Youth Social Group at the 17th National Youth Percussion Competition.
Composer: Chin Cheng Lin
Arranger: Zhang Liu
Performed by: Zeng Haoliang, Lin Zhihan, Lin Yuheng, Wu Shuzhe, Gao Zhikai, Lin Weikun, Xu Hanyi
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“Uproar in Heaven” is a traditional opera from the Chinese Beijing opera repertoire, with its story adapted from chapters five and six of the classic novel “Journey to the West”. From July 24-26, 2024, the "First Macau International Percussion Competition and the Sixth China Marimba Arts Festival" was successfully held at the City University of Macau. This video showcases one of the performances from the event, arranged by Wang Jianhua and performed by seven musicians, including Zeng Haoliang and Lin Zhihan. The video was recorded, filmed, and edited by the International Wood Culture Society.
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A Visit to Bethlehem Mission Society
Swiss alphorn player Mike Maurer made a journey to Taitung arranged by IWCS and WWDF to show the gratitude of 70 years of Bethlehem Mission Society of Switzerland's evangelization in Taiwan.
The first stop was the Bethlehem Mission Society where he learned about the history and legacy of the missionaries; Piyoxo Catholic Church and the grave of the fathers, where Mike’s music served as a tribute to their enduring spirit and profound impact. Later, Mike visited Taitung Art Center, Bethlehem Love Art Exhibition where 34 artists record and pass on the touching stories of the mission. Also founded by Swiss priest, Kung-Tung Vocational High School woodworking department considered as the cradle of Taiwanese woodworking, Mike had the chance to listen to the angelic vocal of the choir, marking this magical journey full of thankfulness.
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A music video depicting a woman trying to runaway and find a sacred safe haven for herself in the woods. The video was shot at the Sequoia National Park in California.
Wooden Musical Instrument: Native American Flute
Performed by Rose Angel, a recording artist flutist, singer & song writer.
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Okinawa Ukulele Exhibition 2023
The Okinawa Ukulele Exhibition 2023 was hosted in Itoman, Okinawa, Japan. Luthiers from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan exhibited their handcrafted ukuleles beside non-stop musical performances from Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese musicians.
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Harmony in Nature's Rhythms - Bill Miller (Live All)
Delve into the soulful melodies of southwest Wisconsin with a unique collaboration between the International Wood Culture Society (IWCS) and the Native American artist, Bill Miller.
This live performance was recorded at the iconic Leo & Leona's on Oct. 1st. Bill's music, deeply rooted in the whispers of forests and the narratives of trees, not only showcases his profound connection to his heritage but also harmonizes perfectly with the essence of our documentary "Tapping into Nature's Sweetness, A Maple Syrup Story," a film that celebrates the maple syrup traditions of southwest Wisconsin. This unique blend of music, wood culture, and storytelling not only enriches the cultural tapestry of the community but also embodies the core mission of IWCS. It serves as a reminder of the intricate relationship between humanity and the environment, celebrating the profound beauty of nature and the preservation of heritage.
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Harmony in Wood - Bill Miller's Flute Performance (All)
Bill Miller's flute performance is a captivating celebration of the beauty and cultural significance of wooden instruments. With skillful hands, he weaves rich, earthy melodies that resonate with our connection to nature, tradition, and the artistry of wood. His music brings wood to life, captivating our senses and merging culture, nature, and artistry into a harmonious experience.
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Sound of Wood from Aershan
Aershan City is located in the northwest of Inner Mongolia, across the southwestern foothills of the Greater Khingan Mountains. It is rich in forest resources. Common woods include elm, pine, and birch. Bai Chunshan is a cadre of an enterprise in Aershan. He often uses his spare time to go into the mountains with his wife Liu Yan to look for discarded wood to make root art and small handicrafts. In 2004, by chance, Bai Chunshan found a piece of wood and used his ingenuity to make it into a "one-piece" erhu.
Over the next twenty years, after they found wood that met the angle requirements for making violins, they made them into instruments such as Erhu or Sihu. This wood is rare and they have only made eight instruments to date. These musical instruments, in which the piano stem and the piano barrel are integrated, have no splicing, no gaps, and no cracks, which reduces the damage to the tone during the propagation of sound waves, thus improving the sound quality. The sound played with it is beautiful and rich, and has been recognized by many professionals.
Currently, Bai Chunshan is rated as the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Aershan City. He has also successfully applied for a Utility Model Patent for "a stringed instrument with a rod and sound box integrated to improve timbre." After that, he and his wife will continue to search for and make one-piece musical instruments, and hope that more people can hear the sound of Aershan Linhai played by these instruments.
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Recompose: Wang Shen
Performance Team: WangJiaXun Percussion Group
The Dual Olympics City is a percussion ensemble piece adapted by Wang Shen. Since Beijing successfully hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, it became the first “Dual Olympics City” in the world. This work combines the theme songs of the two Olympic Games with a promotional song. Retaining the different musical styles of each work, it uses the orchestration method of marching percussion, which is an innovation in the form of percussion performance.
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Recompose: Wang Shen
Performance Team: WangJiaXun Percussion Group
The Hymn to Life is a percussion ensemble piece adapted by Wang Shen. Retaining the original music style and rhythm of The Lonely Warrior, this work incorporates the melody and rhythm elements of Coldplay's Viva La Vida at the beginning of the music, and used the ensemble form of keyboard percussion and drums to show the pure music performance, which made the audience have a refreshing experience and feeling.
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This is a video about Millar Ukulele. The audiences get to see how Millar ukuleles were crafted in first part of the video. The second part is a live musical performance played with two different Millar ukuleles. The last part is audio and visual comparison between different Millar ukulele models.
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Jiangzhou Drum Music - The Fighting of Bull with Tiger
Drummer: Gao Chenxu, Feng Piaoyang
Performance Team: WangJiaXun Percussion Group
Jiangzhou Drum Music is a traditional folk music in Xinjiang County, Shanxi Province of China, listed as the world intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.
"The Fighting of Bull with Tiger" is a representative piece of Jiangzhou Drum Music, featuring two large drums on stage, symbolizing the two beasts of the bull and tiger. The music consists of three chapters: meeting, playing, and fighting. Using flexible drumming techniques, the players shows the audience the stubbornness and fierceness of the bull and the mighty and brave of the tiger.
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An Excerpt of Peking Opera - Climbing the Mountain, Fighting the Tiger
Recompose: Wang Jiaxun
Xylophone: Wang Shen
Suona Horn: Shi Nannan
Performance Team: WangJiaXun Percussion Group
“Climbing the Mountain, Fighting the Tiger” excerpted from the Peking Opera work "Outsmart the Tiger Mountain" was recomposed by the founder of the group, Wang Jiaxun, in 1995 and premiered at the Pontivi Festival in France in 1997.
The work combines Western melodic percussion instruments like xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, and traditional Chinese Peking Opera percussion instruments such as drums, small gongs, cymbals and large gongs.
The combination of Chinese and Western orchestration not only retains the tradition of music, but also gives it vitality, bringing more fresh and rich experience to the audience.
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Djeguele Festival (Ivory Coast) - The Balafon in the Spotlight in Boundiali
The seventh edition of DJEGUELE festival also called the Balafon Festival took place in Boundiali, a place located at the Northern part of Ivory Coast. It is an annual cultural event held in Ivory Coast to celebrate the balafon and promote West African music and culture. During the festival, musicians, and dancers from across West Africa come together to perform and compete in various categories. The DJEGUELE Festival is a significant event for the people of Ivory Coast and West Africa, as it celebrates their cultural heritage and promotes intercultural exchange and understanding. The festival also attracts tourists and visitors from around the world, who come to experience the vibrant music, dance, and culture of West Africa.
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Ruudga Fiddle in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso has a rich musical tradition, with various types of drums, balafons, and stringed instruments such as the kora, the ngoni and the RUUDGA being popular. The Ruudga is an African traditional instrument mainly used by the MOSSI people in Burkina Faso. It is played like a violin and is stereotyped to be played by blind people. In the ancient time women did not have access to it.
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Musical Bow by Timbiri Winsey (Burkina Faso) & Group Performance with Traditional Instruments
Timbiri WINSEY is a renowned musician from Burkina Faso. He plays a variety of musical instruments, mainly string instruments among which the MUSICAL BOW. It is the most basic of stringed instruments. The mouth bow also called musical bow is so called because it is shaped like a small bow between which is stretched a fiber string. The string measures between 50 and 70 cm, the bow between 80 and 130 cm. Tim WINSEY explained to us that the musical bow also called LOLO in the BAMBARA language was passed on to him by his grandfather. In this video, Tim WINSEY produces the sound of Birds when they call for rain and the sound of water which is according to him the simplest and fair natural gift.
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Jinghu is the main accompaniment instrument of traditional Chinese opera Peking Opera, and is also a typical bamboo wooden instrument. With the development of Peking Opera, Jinghu has also been inherited and innovated in long-term practice. Liu Zhenghui is one of the practitioners, especially in the research, application and promotion of bionic python skin and bionic snake skin. In this video, Liu Zhenghui enthusiastically shared his experience and handicraft of Jinhu-making and Jinhu playing skills.
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PANAFEST - A Ghana Cultural Event
The Pan African Historical Theatre Project now known as PANAFEST is a cultural event held in Ghana every two years for Africans and people of African descent. It was first held in 1992. This year it took place at Cape Coast castle. Thousands of enslaved Africans, sometimes from hundreds of miles away, were brought to Cape Coast Castle to be sold to British slave ships. During the interim period, Africans were imprisoned in what the British called “slave holes,” or dungeons in the basement of the Castle that had little ventilation and no windows. On that occasion we attended some of the cultural activities during our wood culture tour in Ghana. Due to COVID 19 pandemic the number of participants was controlled and limited but we were able to enjoy some traditional musical performances, handicrafts exhibitions, rituals performance, payers and speeches only to name those. Chiefs from different villages of Ghana were invited and their entrances to the event venue were spectacular one after another. An appointment is fixed in two years times with the hope that the sanitary situation will get back to normal very soon.
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Dramyin - Tibetan Plucked String Instrument
Dramyin is a traditional Tibetan plucked string instrument with a long history of using in the religious festivals. Mr. Qimei Douji was a Yangqin master, and he’s invited to give lessons to some folk music lovers at the public art museum after his retirement. In this interview, Mr. Qimei Douji introduces the structure of dramyin, its unique tone and performing skills. He sings when playing the dramyin and people are attracted to dance along with the music.
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Aorelio Domingues - Paranagua Fandango Master
Ilha dos Valadares is an island belonging to the municipality of Paranaguá, in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Founded in 1648, it is Paraná's oldest city, with one of the largest ports in Brazil. Born and living on the isolated island, rabeca/ fandango master- Aorelio Domingues, who is also member of “Associação de Cultura Popular Mandicuera” (Mandicuera Popular Culture Association), leads the association in revitalizing cultural activities of the Caiçara people from the coastal region of the state of Paraná. The entity formed by a group of popular artists and masters its motto is the preservation and diffusion of their intangible heritage. With careful use of the Atlantic forest, Aorelio has developed on-hands techniques for everybody to make their own traditional folklore music instrument: rabeca and fandango. The studio, with incentives, is open daily with free access to the community, all instruments made, as well as the construction technique, are donated to small tribes along the southern coast. Inherited from his grandfather, today Aorelio and his twin daughters continues the path of diffusing cultural events and manifestations that belongs to the Caiçara people.
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Making a Nepali Drum with Shekhar Kulu Nepali
Shekhar Kulu Nepali is a professional Nepali drum maker living in Kathmandu, Nepal. In this demonstration video, you can see him preparing animal skins for the drum to the completion of a traditional Nepali drum. He also talked about the preferred wood to make Nepali drums, and what motivated him to be a drum maker.
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Alumiozo Caririzeiro from Ceara, Brazil
Music group from Juazeiro do Norte, state of Ceará. Formed by talented musicians Difreitas, Airton Santos and Evanio Soares, brings the unique Cariri region style show “Alumiozo Caririzeiro”. Perfect blend of classic and local folk music, their music represents the identity of local Northeastern Brazil, revealing the climate, people, culture, sound of the region.
The group plays with self-made peculiar wooden music instruments, group leader Difreitas is also a music teacher, who designs and teaches children to make their own rabeca in a practical way, reducing 90% use of wood and local materials. Watch his simple-steps demo for the creation of rabeca and listen to the amazingly charming and interactive sound.
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Eduardo Córdova Reyes - Cuban Percussionist
In 1982 Eduardo Córdova Reyes graduated from the National School of Art Instructors of Cuba; and in 1989 he graduated as Professor of Percussion of the National Center of Improvement for the Artistic Teaching of Cuba. From the year 1990, he works as a percussion teacher at the Vocational Art School. One day he decided to make his own instruments because the sound of his drum did not leave him completely satisfied. Thus begins an adventure in which cedar trunks, ironwork and leather begin to shape a world of sonorities and dreams in which music and crafts converge and complement each other without setting precise limits. He held exhibitions of instrument, conference, demostrations and created his musical group Obbara, participates in international event, especially World Wood Day culture event in China and Turkey organized by International Wood Culture Society which offered him an occasion to meet, play and communicate with musicians from around the world on the same stage. Córdova is also known as The King of Drums. He has devoted all his effort to acoustic music and the construction of drums. He considers his percussion teaching as a very important part in his life, which makes him fulfilled.
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2014 IUFRO - International Wood Culture Society
The World Congress 2014 of International Union of Forest Research Organization (IUFRO) was held in Salt Lake City, Utah. International Wood Culture Society (IWCS) joined the conference, and brought all participants different ways of viewing the wood culture.
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This film is about a young man who skates through the city streets looking for scraps of wood. He brings these pieces of wood home and creates an ukulele out of what he found. Most people throw away wood after it is used for whatever task it was needed for, but the potential wood becoming something new and fresh is limitless.
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A story of Jan Pawlikowski, a successful and passionate luthier, who has been working with wood for 57 years. Despite his age he spends days and nights making instruments for customers from all over the world.
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There is a mystery hiding behind the inimitable sound of Stradivarius’ instruments. All through the years there have been many speculations: there are those who say that he used special varnishes, alchemies handled down from father to son, or even that the trees that he used contained particular types of wood fungi. In truth, it seems that Stradivari and the other masters from Cremona were first of all experts in selecting the wood, and that they went into the forests in person to choose the most suitable trees. According to a legend, Antonio Stradivari rolled the trunks to select those with the most vibrant timbre. Until today the mystery remain unsolved.
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Wood Culture Festival in Şişli
2015 World Wood Day-Wood Culture Festival was held in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey. This event comprising wood music, folk art, and other interactive activities offers a great opportunity for the public to approach wood culture.
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Traditional Music of Turkey with Wooden Instruments
This Wood Culture tour will introduce you to the primary music genres and wooden instruments in Turkey. The musical culture of Turkey is shaped and influenced by the multiple ethnicities within Anatolia region through out history. It can be categorized into two genres, Anatolia Folk music and Ottoman/Turkish Maqam music. Traditional Instruments also fall under these categories as well. We will explore the materials the instruments are made from, their history, and the bound between the instruments and musicians.
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2015 WWD Culture Tour in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey - Music of Wood - Lin Yao
Lin Yao was born in 1987 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, and started to learn Pipa (Chinese lute) at 6 year old. She is the chief Pipa player in Wenzhou Folk Music Group and a music teacher in Wenzhou School for Special Education. Pipa is a short-necked, four-stringed plucked Chinese lute. It is one of the oldest Chinese musical instrument with a history over 2,000 years. Modern pipa appears as a shallow, pear-shaped body with a wooden belly, along with 29 or 31 frets. The four strings run from a fastener on the belly to conical tuning pegs in the sides of the bent-back pegbox. Its name suggests the plucking direction: pi, "to play forward," pa, "to play backward." The strings of Pipa that once made of silk, are now usually replaced with nylon-wrapped steel.
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2015 WWD Culture Tour in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey - Music of Wood - Mbeng N'tam
Mbeng N’tam” means beauty and prosperity. This troupe consisting of traditional dancers aims to preserve the rituals and traditions of Gabon. In order to communicate this message of balance among the human being, the invisible world of ancestors and the nature, they have established an association, KOOL D’AYELE, which lends an outlook to the ancestral traditions through their dances. They have started spreading the Gabonese culture worldwide since 1998.
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2015 WWD Culture Tour in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey - Music of Wood - Enrique Males & Patricia Gutierrez
Enrique Males performs ancestral music, expressing harmony that enriches the spirit and fertilize the country. Through ancient sounds, spiritual songs and dances, such as warrior movements and tender moves that represent fertility, their performances express the spiritual strength of the motherland - Pacha Mama. Patricia Gutierrez represents the woman land of Latin America.
The creative work of Enrique and Patricia is authentic and meaningful. Through their artistic production, people get closer to their own spirit and heart, and further to reflect on themselves and strengthen their identity.
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2015 WWD Culture Tour in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey - Music of Wood - John Butler& Barnaby Walters
John Butler has been playing the uilleann pipes since the age of 16 when he heard them for the first time on the radio and was immediately captivated by their sound. In 2010, Butler decided to set up his own uilleann pipemaking workshop, called “Ceol Pipes”, on Achill Island off the west coast of Ireland.
Barnaby Walters builds and plays the Hurdy Gurdy, a European instrument of ancient origin. The gurdy works like a mechanical violin, with the strings being constantly bowed by a wheel, and shortened in length by a keyboard. Barnaby mainly plays traditional European dance music, as well as modern compositions in a similar style, and a variety of early music.
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2015 WWD Culture Tour in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey - Music of Wood - L'École de Musique de Kirina
Created in 2010, the Ecole de Musique de Kirina Band is composed of 6 professional musicians who are teaching traditional instruments at the music school in kirina. They are all from famous families of musicians. Among them, Kora teacher Ladji Diabate, is brother of Toumani Diabate, the world best Kora player who has won Grammy Award. Other members include troupe director Mahamadou Diabate, Balafon teacher Karounga Diabate, Djembe performer Seydou Kone, dancer teacher Oumou Mariko, and also dundun teacher Karim Diabate.
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2015 WWD Culture Tour in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey - Music of Wood - Tony Brazelton
Tony Brazelton is the founder of North American Alphorn Retreat, and Salzburger Echo. Salzburger Echo, which brings the Alps to their audiences, playing old world and contemporary folk music from the alpine regions of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The band regularly plays some of the largest Oktoberfests in the nation as well as having performed at hundreds of elementary schools across the nation to help teach children about the origin of the music and about the music itself. Tony was the third place finisher at the 2008 international alphorn competition in Nendaz, Switzerland.
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2015 WWD Culture Tour in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey - Music of Wood - Manolis Skoutelis & John Dafermos
Manolis Skoutelis is the third generation of musicians in his family after his father and his grandfather. After completing music studies, he started to act professionally as traditional Cretan music player. Skoutelis is a very famous lyra player and singer around the island of Crete. In addition, he participates in music festivals and social events such as weddings and baptizes. He is also a very good traditional instrument maker. He can play four musical instruments: "lyra," "mandolin," "askombantoura" and "Cretan lute." Some of those musical instruments are very popular in many Mediterranean cultures.
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2015 WWD Culture Tour in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey - Music of Wood - Mez-Me
MEZ-ME is the result of more than 40 years of evolution. All of their presentations and melodies are composed of ancestral instruments such as huēhuētl, teponaztli, tlapitzalli, ayoyote, quena and more. As a music group, they try to revive their language, usage of ancient instruments, dances, poetry and in some ways their ancestors' philosophy through music.
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2015 WWD Culture Tour in ?i?li, Istanbul, Turkey - Music of Wood - Siqinbillge & Mongolian Girl's Hoomii Troupe
Mongolian Girl’s Hoomii Troupe was founded in 2013 and composed of five Mongolian girls: Narengaowa, Chana, Chaolemenggerile, Tunala and Suerge. They specialize in Mongolian’s primitive and ethno music, especially hoomii (a type of throat singing, also known as Khoomei), long tone and traditional musical instruments like morin khuur and tobshuur. The troupe has been taking part in various domestic and international music events since it's founded. Siqinbilige, who performs along with the troupe, is a renowned Mongolian singer who has won several awards of ethno singing competitions.
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RETURN - Maker of Native American Style Flutes
Dennis Stubbs, the Arizona woodturner that was once a fervent collector of flutes, enjoys playing his handmade flute while strolling in the woods. It is all around his studio and house that a variety of fine flutes can be seen as he has been long drawn into the sound of them. Dennis becomes keen to make Native American style flutes—as a result of his wife’s suggestion. He crafts his works with meticulous hands in a way that is environmentally responsible, turning tree waste into recycled materials. Self-effacing as he is, the IWCS crew could literally feel his passion for wood during the filming.
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Five-Hundred and Three and Counting
Five-hundred and three guitars on, Jonny Kinkead continues to pursue his craft with a seemingly undulled fervour. A self-taught luthier, his guitars rank amongst the most prestigious currently being produced. During a career that's spanned forty years, Jonny has witnessed the decline and rising cost of quality timbers, meaning a resourceful approach is essential in maintaing his exceptionally high standards.
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The video gives a short overview of small kannel, a traditional plucked string instrument of the dulcimer and zither family native to Baltic-Finnic and Baltic people. It is estimated to be at least 2000 years old, some say even 3000. For almost a hundred years, especially in the Soviet time, it was out of favour, but regained its popularity in the last decade. Mart Aardam is the small kannel maker from Saaremaa portrayed in the video, who has made ca 150 small kannels.
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Okkyum Kim is an award-winning violin maker who believes that he creates new life with each violin, viola, and cello that he makes.
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How Wood is transformed into Music, one of the highest expressions of Human Soul: the special relationship between a Violinmaker and his Wood.
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Please meet Kurt Reichmann. He is a hurdy gurdy maker from Frankfurt, Germany. His passion to build this instrument and promoting it have brought him a Federal Cross of Merit and a Musical Instrument Museum which has the largest number of bagpipes and hurdy gurdies. Moreover, he sees himself as a promoter of cultural and musical history. It is very important to him to connect people from different heritage. It was an absolute pleasure to talk to him and be able to get a little impression of what he does and has been doing. Enjoy watching the film!
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Archtop guitar builder Dale Unger explains why wood is so important to the making of fine instruments.
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The Italian Violin Makers Vettori Family
Upholding the philosophy of “small production but high quality,” Italian violin workshop Paolo Vettori & Sons has practiced its craft for three generations. Paolo Vettori is profoundly influenced by his father, Dario Vettori, on the techniques, structure and style of violin-making. Now, his children, Dario II, Lapo, and Sofia are working together to continue the tradition established by their grandfather Dario Vettori in 1935.
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Concert Held to Celebrate 2015 World Wood Day in Switzerland
The concert held in Kulturhof- Schloss Könizon on March 22nd offered a great experience for local people to enjoy the beauty of wood music and to learn more about the cultural background of each instrument. The rich programs were brought forth by Alphorn group Stock Horner, Dulcimer Nayan, Quintet Quair, Zapjevala, and Alphorn Experience.
More information on World Wood Day.
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Oud is an ancient string instrument that can be prevalently found in the Arabic world. It is the origin of guitar and is also known as "the prince of Arabic instruments". Mr. Nazih Ghadban is not only an oud luthier but also a performer. He has been trying and experimenting various types of wood in the world in order to make his oud to be qualified as the melodious sound and fell into the category of the aesthetics at the same time.
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A Pueblo Drum Maker - Red Bird
Drum is a crucial element in the American Native culture; they communicate with the nature, ancestors, and spirits through music flow, drum beat, dance and sincere prayers. Therefore, drum-making is exceptionally rigorous, from timber selection to the thickness of drum shell are all variables that would affect the sound quality of the drum. Red Bird, a drum-maker from Pueblo tribe shares the life of American Indian people and the role of drum in its culture, and explains details and basic knowledge of how to make an outstanding drum.
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Florence is famous for its history of being the financial center during the medieval period. It is also considered as the birthplace of Renaissance, the cultural movement has strongly influenced the rest of the Europe and then to the world up to the present day. In Florence, there are many famous churches built with wooden roof; Basilica of the Holy Cross and St. Miniato are two of these examples where the interior wooden structure is painted with patterns and colors.
Apart from architectures, music is another essential element that enriches the culture of Florence. The traditional music instrument, mandolin, is a member of the lute family. It is constructed of several different wood species, including spruce, maple, rosewood and ebony, according to the need in function and the property of wood.
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Laboratorio di Restauro del Fortepiano
Hidden behind a small grey door is a not-so-ordinary workshop run by three craftswomen. This is where fortepiano being restored. Since its invention around the year 1700 by the Italian instruments maker, Bartolomeo Cristofori, piano has gone through an evolution as time passes. Yet, these artists still exerted all their strengths to preserve its original beauty with their skills and knowledge.
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Bucheli and Chlefeli are two charming wooden instruments that are not widely known, and rarely played and manufactured nowadays. Although they are simple and easy to play, the unique sound features enabled them to accompany well with other musical instruments.
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Schwyz is the capital of canton Schwyz, which is located in the central Switzerland. It has an area of 53.3 square kilometers and a population of 14,331. German is the main spoken language within the region.
People in Schwyz still preserve many traditional ways of wood use, and musical instrument is one of the examples. Büchel, also known as Alphorn’s brother, looks like a trumpet but has brighter tone, is a handmade instrument mostly made of fine spruce. Chlefeli is another traditional wooden instrument, which is only played during Lent, is a clapping instrument that could only be found in the area of Schwyz.
Apart from instruments, other noteworthy crafts such as armbrust and sledge are also traditional woodcrafts that are still manufactured within the region.
In addition to handicrafts, there are a lot of wooden houses that have stood for centuries in Schwyz, and the oldest among these is the House of Bethlehem. Built in 1287, the house is well preserved and opened to the public as a museum today.
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