Perfectly timed for Mountaineer Week, the WVU Press released "Finding the Singing Spruce," a book that explores the complexities and contradictions of musical instrument-making in profiles of three craftspeople on the mountain forests of Appalachia, today (Nov. 1).
Find out how the craft of musical instrument-making can help reconnect people to place and re-enchant work in Appalachia, and how the sonic search for musical tone changes relationships with trees and forests.
Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth's work is deeply rooted in mountain forests and expressive traditions, but also engaged with global processes of production and consumption. Using historical narratives and sensory ethnography, among other approaches, he finds that the craft of lutherie speaks to the past, present and future of the region’s work and nature.