Free Talk | Music Wood Beyond Clarinets

Join us for this special talk by visiting adjunct professor of Murdoch University, Western Australia, Dr. A B (Tony) Cunningham.

Dr. Cunningham is an ethnobotanist with 38 years of field research in Africa and Asia, with a particular interest in natural dye use for basketry and textiles. He has worked with Threads of Life in Bali for almost 15 years, and in 2016 received a lifetime achievement award from the Society for Economic Botany. To learn more about his work, please visit www.tonysartandnature.com.

Talk summary:

Music Wood Beyond Clarinets: 4,400 Years of the African Blackwood Trade

African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon) is one of the most desired and valuable timbers traded for the making of musical instruments – commanding US$14,000 – $20,000 per cubic metre. With its extremely dense, close-grained wood (1,200 kg/m3), it’s the premier wood for oboes, clarinets, and bag-pipe wood. Prized by Egyptian pharoahs, the wood was traded from the Horn of Africa from 2400 BC. A number of factors are now causing stocks to decline rapidly. We invite you to this fascinating discussion of wood beyond instruments and its link to culture and nature.

TAEC Museum
Wednesday, 4 December 2019
4:30pm – 5:30pm

This is a free event and a museum entry ticket is not required.

Explore more music and musical instruments in Laos on our website – https://www.taeclaos.org/music-resources.