A pernambuco tree in flower. Photo by Juliana Neves. Inset: Bow tip using pernambuco wood. Photo courtesy of L’atelier d’Arthur.
In Wednesday’s (11/19) Economist (U.K.), an unbylined article states that 200 years ago, “François Xavier Tourte was among the first to make consistent use of a raw material that is still prized today for the best bows: pernambuco, or brazilwood. A modern orchestra is a thicket of brazilwood sticks. And that’s a problem…. The number of wild trees has dropped by four-fifths in less than a century. CITES, an international agreement, has restricted trade in brazilwood products since 2007. But Brazil’s government wants CITES to list the wood among the most endangered species, giving it the highest protection; a CITES meeting in Samarkand that starts on November 24th will decide whether to do so…. The protection upgrade Brazil wants would make life difficult for [instrument makers] and for musicians. Any bow, even one of Tourte’s, would require a certificate to cross borders…. It should be possible to save both brazilwood and bows. Around 3m trees have been planted since the early 1970s, some with the help of bow-makers. Some of these could be harvested after 30-40 years of growth to make bows as the existing stocks of brazilwood run out. Wild trees need better protection, and governments and musicians can do better at registering existing stocks of brazilwood and keeping track of bows. If that can happen, there is a chance to save a remarkable tree without silencing the music.”
Read Symphony’s most recent coverage of the situation, “Conserving Pernambuco, Supporting Music,” at https://symphony.org/features/conserving-pernambuco-supporting-music/.
