Schola Cantorum Basiliensis

A very exciting project in which we were allowed to work. The goal was to build an instrument that has the same sound as the original through a faithful reproduction. The biggest problem was the manufacture of the drum shells. In the case of the 1689 drum, these consist of a single wooden plate with a length of 190 cm and a width of 46 cm, and this with a thickness of only 5 mm. Since the wood of the Zaeslin drum could not be clearly determined by endoscope, and several sources speak of oak wood, this was our first choice. Inquiries at various wood dealers and sawmills quickly made it clear that it would be very difficult to get such boards in the required width without stress cracks. If you were to saw a board from the center of a tree, you would have rift wood (with vertical annual rings), but you would have the very unstable core area in the center of the board. As soon as you move out of the center of the tree, the annual rings lie more obliquely overall, the center of the board is more stable, but the overall diameter of the tree must still be larger. Thus, a board 50 cm wide would require a tree at least 80 cm in diameter (including sapwood, the softer wood just below the bark). Trees with such a diameter, with straight growth and without cracks or diseases in the core area, are very rare today. In the 17th and 18th centuries, however, according to information from the Dendrolabor Zurich, there were still healthy oaks with diameters of over 120 cm. Thus, at that time it was possible to use only half of a board sawn from the center of the tree, which could then be dried without cracking.