Listening for Musical Tonewood in the Appalachian and Carpathian Mountains Cover Image

Listening for Musical Tonewood in the Appalachian and Carpathian Mountains
Listening for Musical Tonewood in the Appalachian and Carpathian Mountains

Author(s): Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, John Preston
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Philology
Published by: Editura Universitatii Transilvania din Brasov
Keywords: Musical instruments; forests; Appalachia; global mountain regions; craft;

Summary/Abstract: This paper introduces the trade and practice of cutting tonewood, wood used in the production of musical instruments, in both the Appalachian Mountains of the United States and the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. As a work of collaborative ethnography, this work combines the first-person narrative of John Preston, a tonewood cutter in West Virginia and Transylvania, and contextual framing and analysis by Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth. Through the text we explore how the production of tonewood creates global, affective connections between mountain regions and reveals unique challenges to the global forests of the Appalachian and Carpathian Mountains.

  • Issue Year: 12/2019
  • Issue No: Suppl
  • Page Range: 141-150
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: English
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