Marie-Gabrielle Durier’s thesis (2019-2021), under the supervision of C. Hatté and S. Vaiedelich (Musée de la Musique)
PATRIMA Foundation
The aim of this thesis is to remove the scientific hurdles associated with the chronological positioning of musical instruments by adding 14C dating to the range of approaches traditionally used, which are often inadequate. As well as continuing to build a history of musical use and the maintenance, repair and restoration practices that are applied to musical instruments, this will consolidate the emergence of historically documented concerts. Geochemistry (mainly 13C and Sr) will provide information on the sources of the materials used.
The originality of the project lies in the involvement of museology, materials characterisation, chemistry, physical measurement and Bayesian statistics. The expected contribution is therefore both methodological and experimental. The corpus of instruments on which the work will be carried out will be selected from the national collection of the Musée de la Musique. There are two main types of instrument: antique bows and small instruments (violins and similar instruments, lutes and guitars), chosen because of their long history of use and the large number of restorations that have been carried out on them. Finally, by developing a new methodology, we hope to encourage future interest in this approach in other areas of cultural heritage, such as furniture.