In order to play many stringed instruments, you use a bow. Professional quality bows are made by hand, using a remarkably small set of materials. Today’s Democrat & Chronicle talks about a local bow maker and his fight to preserve the trees that supply the only wood used in the process.
Reinfeld didn’t realize exactly how much the quality of a bow could affect a player until his students at the University of Arkansas in the 1970s were toughing it out with poorly maintained bows. “If the hair wasn’t properly set in the bows, beginning students just couldn’t do anything,” he said. Bows have three main parts: the string, which is made of horsehair; the frog, which is what the musician holds; and the stick, which is the long wooden part, usually made of pernambuco.
He went to local string shops to learn minor repair skills. Rehairing student bows, a routine repair for most string players, made all the difference for the young musicians.
His new skill turned into a secondary career in bow repairs, starting commercially in 1973.
Impressed with his work, colleagues along the way suggested he try his hand at making a bow from scratch. Learning from a top bow maker in New York City, Reinfeld now runs a bow repair shop in Rochester, where he has made bows for students and fellow RPO members. His handmade bows sell for up to $1,900.
Little did he know that this unexpected twist in his professional life would mark his involvement in the much larger international issue surrounding pernambuco wood, also known as Brazilwood or pau-brasil. This red-tinted tree from Brazil’s Mata Atlântica (the Atlantic rain forest), originally traded by Europeans in the 1500s as a red dye for clothes, is responsible for the country’s name.
It’s been used since the advent of the modern bow in the 18th century. While inexpensive student bows can be made with other materials, including fiberglass and carbon fiber, professionals have found no match for pernambuco wood. Nearly all professional string players around the world use bows made from pernambuco.
The International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative, a not-for-profit organization, was started seven years ago by bow makers around the world to preserve their careers. Starting an initiative called the Programma Pau-Brasil in 2004, they created a community outreach program with roundtable discussions in Brazil to educate politicians and communities, and they helped set up scientific study of the trees.
Part of the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative program includes planting pernambuco seedlings on private land. Eventually, the seedlings will help shade light-sensitive cocoa trees, another major natural resource in Brazil, and they are being planted on school grounds to help educate Brazilian children on their country’s national tree. Corporations responsible for destroying the rain forest won’t be able to touch these trees — and neither can bow makers right now.
