Quill & Quire, the Canadian book industry magazine, reports today that The Conservation, Restoration and Repair of Stringed Instruments and Their Bows, edited by Tom Wilder and Aurèle Parisien under the auspices of IPCI-Canada, is one of three Canadian books to have won an international design award at the Leipzig Book Fair, in Germany.
The most interesting bit of news is that ex-Torontonian Wilder, co-founder of Wilder & Davis Luthiers in Montreal (with a branch in Banff), took on the book project personally, investing countless hours and $1.2 million dollars of his own money to make sure the three illustrated volumes — totalling 1,600 pages — would see the light of day.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
As Sue Carter Flinn writes on the Quill & Quire blog, the art of making and repairing violins, violas, cellos and bows is made up of closely guarded secrets that are passed along selectively from generation to generation.
Wilder’s project throws the doors open and sheds public light for the first time in history on the complex techniques, secrets and recipes behind the luthier’s craft.
The whole project started as a fundraiser for IPCI — the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative, a charity that is trying to ensure the survival of the trees that provide wood for the world’s instrument bows.
Flinn writes:
While one volume is dedicated exclusively to conservation theory, the other two provide instructions for specific repairs, like recipes in a cookbook. Drafts often came back with missing or disordered steps and inconsistent terminology. Some repairs even had to be recreated in Wilder’s studio for photographs. With an editorial team of more than 25 people, plus 121 writers, Wilder admits the process became difficult to control.
It was like making an opera. It took a lot of different skills from a lot of different people,” says Aurèle Parisien, a former McGill-Queen’s University Press editor whom Wilder brought on, six years in, as director of publishing and executive editor. Parisien established formal editorial processes and organized the final 150 articles, which were at various stages of completion.
The cover price of the three-volume set is $1,400 — which means that institutions who want to get a copy of it have had to organize fundraisers of their own.
For the complete Quill & Quire article, click here.
For all the details on the book, click here.
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The Wilder & Davis shop includes a gallery space. In looking to see what’s on view these days, I was struck by the beauty and texture of this monotype by artist Mouna Abed, on display until May 11:
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
