About Pernambuco
Caesalpinia echinata, a Brazilian tree commonly known as pernambuco or pau-brasil, is a slow-growing, medium-sized tree of the Leguminosae family. Its distribution corresponds essentially to that of the Mata Atlantica or Brazilian Atlantic forest.
The growth rate of pernambuco depends on several factors, including the soil composition, the climate, and the geographical location. While the sapwood predominates in young trees, the heartwood, which is the part suitable for bow-making, only becomes dominant after twenty years.
A reforestation program in the state of Pernambuco has shown that a properly pruned and cared-for tree will produce heartwood suitable for bow-making in thirty to thirty-five years as opposed to the eighty to one hundred years required for a tree in the wild.
The Material for Bow-Making
Imported into Europe for dye-making until about 1850, pernambuco was first used for bow-making in the late seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century the exceptional qualities of this wood were recognized by the renowned bow-maker François Xavier Tourte.
Previously, lighter-density European woods or other tropical woods had been used by bow-makers. Some of the tropical woods, such as massaranduba, snakewood, and Swartzia, were referred to as “ironwoods” owing to their remarkable density and hardness.
Within a short time, pernambuco replaced all these other woods because the quality of sound it produced was much favoured by musicians and because its physical qualities make it an ideal material for crafting cambered bow-sticks.
Two hundred and fifty years after Tourte made its use popular, no comparable substitute for pernambuco is known to bow-makers or musicians. Its combination of rigidity, flexibility, density, and beauty, and its ability to hold a fixed curve, makes pernambuco a unique material for bow-making.
Conservation Concerns
According to some estimates, the Mata Atlantica covers only 5% to 10% of the area it covered in pre-Colombian times. In recent years, this decline has mainly been due to the progressive conversion of land to farming and to urban development.
In the absence of accurate surveys, and despite recent discoveries of previously unknown populations of pernambuco, it is generally accepted that the reduction in the natural habitat is leading to the decline of pernambuco and other species of trees.
For more information on pernambuco, please see Russ Rymer's "Saving the Music Tree", Smithsonian, April 2004