Contribution short abstract:

Drawing on my fieldwork with violin makers and "tonewood" trees in Germany and Brazil, my contribution presents listening practices as ways of knowing the more-than-human other. Furthermore, it explores how colonial sound aesthetics are connected to environmental exploitation in Brazil.

Contribution long abstract:

Instruments of the violin family are predominately made of the wood of two trees: Sycamore maple (acer pseudoplatanus) and European spruce (picea abies). Whilst these species are comparatively common in Europe, it is far from every tree that has the necessary affordances to become an instrument. Rather, particular properties that equip the wood with good resonating qualities are required to make the cut. In the selection of these woods and the crafting of the instruments, listening to trees and to wood is an essential method used by tonewood farmers, violin makers, and finally by musicians choosing their instrument.

Through the use of Pernambuco (paubrasilia echinata), a threatened tree endemic to the Brazil Atlantic Rainforest that is the main resource from which violin bows are made, these contexts are furthermore linked to Brazilian colonial ecologies and land rights concerns. Exploring how colonial sound aesthetics are connected to environmental exploitation in Brazil, I address different forms of listening here: to the voices of indigenous environmental activists, to the absences and presences in the soundscapes of one of the world's most threatened habitat, to the sound of the violin bows, which is at the core of a variety of social and environmental conflicts.

This contribution draws on fieldwork conducted at both sites, with a focus on the more-than-human listening practices that are part of violin making. It also addresses some benefits and downsides of using audio technology as part of a multispecies ethnographic methodology.