Experimental Musical Instrument Making as a Method of Organology
Experimental Musical Instrument Making as a Method of Organology

Summary/Abstract: Experimental musical instrument making with the use of period tools and techniques seems to be one of many possible methods for researching the development of musical instruments. This is especially important for the study of those instruments where the customary use and transfer of techniques in traditional forms, i.e. from the maker - teacher to the learner, were interrupted. This is not only useful when researchng folk music instruments, but also when documenting musical instruments in extinct cultures or musical instruments vanished in previous eras. The output resulting from experimental making extends our knowledge of the development of particular musical instruments and explains their functional, aesthetical and structural features by elucidating the course of their making. In this way, it is possible to discover the inputs (cost, time, knowledge and material) required to make musical instruments. It is always necessary to be aware of the fact that experimental making is an interpretation based on the experience of those who participated in the project, and the documents that have survived from the time when the researched musical instrument was a vivid part of the music culture; more general results can be reached only if the procedure is repeated many times.

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