Handbook of Materials for Percussion Musical Instruments

This book describes the properties of materials used for making percussion instruments for classical music played by a symphony orchestra in which the instruments could be played as a soloist instrument or as a group or several groups of instruments, as they are included into a musical work. A chapter is devoted to the bells. The scope of this book is primarily confined to percussion instruments of symphony orchestras taking into account the centuries of musical art and tradition. This book bridges the gap in the technical literature on describing the properties of materials for percussion instruments—timpani, other drums, marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, gong, cymbal, triangle, celesta, castanets.

Handbook of materials for percussion instruments

Chapter 0 Preface

PART 1 Percussion instruments, their classification and their sound

Chapter 1 Introduction                                                                                                                 

Chapter 2 Organology of percussion instruments and patents                                                             

Chapter 3 About the sound of percussion instruments                                                                          

Chapter 4 Experimental methodology for acoustical properties of percussion instruments             

PART 2 Structural parts of the Instruments

Chapter 5 The membranophones - timpani, drums, tambourine                                                           

Chapter 6 The Idiophones made of wood played with mallets – marimba, xylophone                                 

Chapter 7 The metallic idiophones played with mallets- vibraphone, glockenspiel                          

Chapter 8 The struck idiophones played with mallets -gong, tam-tam, cymbal, chimes, triangle, plate

Chapter 9 The mallets                                                                                                                                      

Chapter 10 Other Struck idiophone- the church bell, carillon                                                                     

Chapter 11 Idiophones with keyboard – celesta                                                                                           

Chapter 12 The Concussion Idiophones - castanets, woodblocks                                                     

Chapter 13 New Percussion instruments                                                                                                      

PART 3 Properties of Materials

Chapter 14 Properties of wood for percussion instruments                                                                       

Chapter 15 Properties of metallic alloys for percussion instruments                                                                     

Chapter 16 Properties of leather for percussion instruments                                                

Chapter 17 Properties of new materials for percussion instruments                                                                     

PART 4 Maintenance and conservation of percussion instruments

Chapter 18 Care and maintenance of percussion instruments                     

Chapter 19 Conservation of percussion instrument                                       

Chapter 20 Patents

Dr. Voichita Bucur, currently an 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 today named Institut  Superieur de Mecanique de 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 was awarded the 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 received the distinguish award at 15th International Symposium on Non-destructive Testing of wood, Duluth, Minessota, USA, for contribution to the development of non-destructive techniques for wood and wood-based composites