About the Tonewood Project

The Tonewood Project tells the story of the tree species used to create musical instruments, and their uncertain fate amid the forces of climate change, human disturbance, and cultural fragmentation.

When considering a story of the relationships between forests, trees, instrument making, and global change, the biggest question is where to start. I will attempt to dodge that question by starting with any and all of them, letting the reader and listener navigate between the threads of natural history and climate change, land-based livelihoods and global economies, artisanal and advanced manufacturing, and the interplay between musicians, composers and embodiments of sound.

Really, though, one of the most beautiful things is that we all can bring music into being no matter the instrument, whether it has a pedigree, or even whether one has the physical strength to conjure a note. These topics will be covered in due time.

Right now, this site just looks like a newsletter or blog, and it is, but eventually you will start to notice how new material interacts with old, and how data and text will tell the stories I aim to tell.

This will not be a biography of the great instrument makers or performers, but their stories will necessarily become part of the whole. I will also point to other writers who have covered these topics. Rather, I want to approach the work as a story of the dialogue between people and living matter, how the luthier's senses give us the means to create artistic works of beauty and terror from physical objects, and the role of materials and technique in the evolution of methods, tastes, and culture. There are many stories to tell.

I also want to do my part to ensure that people can continue to craft these wonderful instruments for as long as we occupy this world.

I plan to leave it to the reader to figure out how to navigate through this site, though I hope it will be easily tractable. This is a work in progress, though, and I invite constructive, especially evidenced-based, comments from readers on data viz and UX issues. I am especially interested in helpful advice on making the site accessible to everyone.

Follow me here or on the socials; these days it's mostly Bluesky or (on the business side) LinkedIn . Thanks for reading!

Site background Photo credit:

Drone image down on new tower

Photo by Sung-Ching Lee, UBC Geography Part of album Buckley Bay Flux Tower

(CCBY2.0)