Preserving the Ephemeral: Issues in Music Conservation

Image: Oberholster Venita on Pixabay

Aside from the text or images that might be written, printed, or drawn on a piece of paper, there can be much more to the historical narrative paper can convey. For example, in the image above, my text is superimposed on the image but otherwise there is no text there. Yet, what do I know about how this piece of paper was used? As you can likely guess, at least the two rings in the upper left corner indicate the person using this paper was likely a coffee drinker. The other drops would need to be tested, but they appear to be ink. It may be difficult to detect in this image, but there is a vertical and horizontal crease line in the page that indicates the paper has been folded. The additional facts related to the paper’s use may or may not become important to a future researcher, but removing this evidence through conservation treatment would deny the researcher an opportunity to consider them at all. 

The conservator may not always know which aspects of damage to an item are important parts of its narrative, the story of how it was used, for the researcher. For this reason, the curator of a collection and the conservator must collaborate in treatment decisions. "Factors involved in the decision-making process for Special Collections include but are not limited to the department’s collection development policy and resulting priorities, internal budget and staffing, high researcher demand, special funding from donors or grants, physical considerations such as format, storage problems, fragility, and administrative decisions based on external university relationships. It should also be noted that many of these areas overlap and some treatment decisions are governed by multiple criteria.” (Seo & Zanish-Belcher, 2006) This collaborative relationship happens behind the scenes in special collections and archives but is integral to a patron’s experience of an artifact. The curator’s insight into research value and future use is critical to the decision making process of the conservator. For example, if a military uniform has a hole in it and blood stains, to remove the stains and mend the hole would deny a researcher the crucial information that the uniform’s owner was at least wounded if not killed while wearing the uniform. As a conservator, I am not always qualified to make those decisions, so I rely on our curators and archivists to consult about any treatments. 

Image: Performer's notations on a music score. Courtesy of Stacey Krim and Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives. 

Stacey Krim, Curator of Manuscripts at Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives, wrote “Music, like all of the performing arts, is ephemeral in nature. You can never hear how a piece of music sounds when it originates in the composer’s mind. Musical notation, especially prior to audio recording, is the best system we have for historically documenting sound. The standardized body of symbols is like a language, informing the person who can read it with a wealth of information such as how fast or slow, or how low or high a sound is… But, there is another creative layer to this piece of sheet music, and that is the annotations of the performer. Unless you are physically present for a performance, you will never really grasp the powerful, but momentary shared experience of how a performer intellectually, emotionally, and physically interprets and communicates a particular composer’s work to an audience.” 

Image: From SCUA's Bernard Greenhouse collection.
A score can demonstrate how often it was played.

This is precisely why it is critical that the conservator and curator talk through a prospective treatment before it is performed. It is helpful for the conservator to know how the piece will be used in the future. Will it be displayed in an exhibition, handled as part of a class presentation, studied by a researcher, or is it likely to be used very little? As a conservator, my considerations are how much time I should invest, whether the item is a priority for treatment, its research value, and how much stabilization it may need. 

Primary resources, like these music scores, can be duplicated or digitized to enhance access to the items, but it is impossible to fully replicate the experience of studying an artifact in person - a fact that has been discussed regularly over the course of the last year as many archives have been closed or providing only virtual services due to COVID-19. The materiality of the object becomes part of its story. Paper can serve as evidence for how it is used and, in this case, as a witness to the life of the musician using it. Part of the paper’s purpose is activating history as it tells a broader story than just which notes to play. 

Image: Candle wax on a music score. What
might this tell you about the musician using it?

Krim explains, “When a musician is performing from sheet music, there are two critical elements required. The first is that the pages must be flat enough for the musician to easily read, so that any breeze caused by the musician’s movement does not blow over a page. The second is that the musician must be able to easily turn the page, sometimes very quickly, as you have to stop playing your instrument to make a turn.” Often sheet music can be loose leaves of paper, but in many cases we must treat bound copies of scores. If the spine of a bound score is damaged, and it is going to be used for research or a class, then the spine may continue to decompose or crumble. It is important that any treatment performed does not interfere with or impede the function of the object - such as a score that must be opened widely to be viewed and handled. 

Often, musicians get creative in finding their own solutions to the problems of how a score functions. In the image below, cellist Lubomir Georgiev (1951-2005) taped the pages together to facilitate his page turns. It is not the way I might have solved the problem, but thanks to my conversations with Krim, I now appreciate the importance of how paper functions for the musician. 

Image: Courtesy of Stacy Krim.
Georgiev's creative solution.

“Sheet music, with its personalized modifications, can also be viewed as an artifact in which the physical damage imbues the piece with greater meaning beyond the music,” wrote Krim. She continued, “Luigi Silva (1903-1961) was one of the great Italian cellists of the 20th century. As the story goes, when he was young, his father took him to meet several of the great cellists of the early 1900s, including the legendary Pablo Casals, hoping to have Silva taken on as a student. When he met Casals, Silva was told his hands were too small to ever allow him to be a great cellist. Silva dedicated his life to demonstrating Casals incorrect, becoming a renowned teacher, performer, and recording artist. This dirty hand print on the back of a score in his collection is believed to be Silva’s. [Krim's] hand is the hand in the comparison, and as you can see Silva’s hand was a little smaller than [Krim's]. Given the importance of hand size in Silva’s life, this print is something we want conserved.” 

Image: Courstesy of Stacey Krim. Luigi Silva's
handprint next to Stacey Krim's hand

It may be possible to remove, or at least lighten, the hand print or similar markings, but that is one of the decisions that must be made in consultation with the curator. In the case of Silva’s hand print, it is a physical reminder of his ability to overcome the challenge of having small hands to become a gifted musician and teacher. Paper is uniquely suited for recording information quickly in the moment that we want access to for the long term. It is easily transported, can be manufactured almost anywhere in the world, and it is absorbent. We don’t have to carve into stone or etch into metal plates, we simply mark the surface with ink or graphite. That type of notation can communicate the artistry of a master to a budding cellist many years later in a way that a recording of the same music cannot. And, it is due to the collaborative relationship of curator and conservator that the ephemeral, such as a scribbled notation or a hand print, will be protected and preserved.

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References: 

Sawyer, S. M. & Krim, S. (2021, April). Preserving the Ephemeral: Issues in Music Conservation [Conference presentation]. Society of North Carolina Archivists Annual Meeting, Virtual. 

Seo, H., & Zanish-Belcher, T. (2006). Pitfalls, progress, and partnership. Collection Management, 30(3), 3–19.

Too Much Mending, Too Little Time

L: Bound cello music score, R: Detail of damaged cover

This 1917 volume of bound scores, from the collection of Luigi Silva (1903-1961), is part of the Cello Music Collection in the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives at UNC Greensboro. It is part of a set of several works bound together under the handwritten title Pezzi repertorio II (Repertoire Pieces II). This volume contains parts for a violin or violoncello and piano. The score also contains handwritten performance notes by Luigi Silva. Silva was a renowned musician as well as a teacher and scholar of the violoncello. To learn more about Luigi Silva, please visit the Luigi Silva Musical Score Collection and Personal Papers.

Damage to the cover on left and to the pages on right

Often, when we receive a damaged item in Preservation Services, we do not know the exact cause of the damage. This score is one such example. The front cover had been punctured by a sharp object, which caused damage through the cover and into the first 20-25 pages of the bound score. Because so many pages had been damaged, it was going to be a time-consuming task to mend the same hole or loss on all of the 20 or so damaged pages. 

Mending this type of damage requires careful consideration of materials. Though the score is unlikely to be used in performance any longer, it was necessary to ensure that the mend would remain flexible as the pages are turned by researchers or perhaps when the book is shared with a class. Mending tissues are often selected based on the type, age, and condition of the paper being mended. For example, a very brittle paper mended with a thick piece of Japanese paper would simply break again next to the mend, as the mend would be stronger than the paper itself.

L: Hole as it appears on one of the first pages, vs.
R: Hole as it appears on the last damaged page

The paper in this score was relatively stable in condition, so brittleness was not a concern. However, adding a Japanese tissue mend to each of the 20 or so damaged pages would quickly build up thickness in that one area that could be problematic in the function of the book. For that reason, a thin Japanese paper was used along with rice starch paste to mend each of the holes.

Another consideration in completing this type of mending is how much time is involved. Often in Preservation Services, we are able to go beyond basic repair and even restore a damaged item to close to its original condition. However, we must balance how and how often the item will be used in the future with how much time we can invest in its repair. Not every item warrants a full restoration.

L: The hole being repaired, R: Applying pasted tissue to the hole

In this case, the item may be used in the future by researchers, in a class, or in an exhibition, so it was necessary to spend more time in the conservation process rather than simply providing a protective enclosure for storage. To that end, in projects such as this one it becomes necessary to save time whenever possible as there are so many conservation projects in the queue. Not only do we conserve items in Special Collections and University Archives, but we are also tasked with preserving materials in the general circulating collections of Jackson Library as well as those in the Harold Schiffman Music Library on campus.

When time and space are not as much of a concern, or when working on a flat item such as a letterpress printed broadside, it would be common to allow each mend to dry under blotter and weight while working on another project at the same time. In the case of repairing this bound score, a quicker method was employed. A small travel iron on a very low heat setting was used to quickly dry each mend before moving on to the next one. So, mending more than 20 pages took a fraction of the time it might have. Applying heat is not always ideal, so the conservator must consider the type of materials being mended and what impact heat may have on the item.

L: Ironing mend to dry it quickly, R: Finished mend

For each mend, a substrate is placed under the page being mended. It consists of a piece of release paper (like parchment paper you might use in baking), which is layered over a cotton blotter on top of a scrap of book board. Rice starch paste is applied to a thin piece of Japanese paper torn to size and applied to the area of the page needing repair. A Teflon folder is used to press and smooth the tissue onto the paper being mended. Then, another piece of release paper is layered on top of the mend and the iron is used to apply heat to quickly dry the paste. The blotter underneath helps to absorb the moisture from the paste. In this way, 20 or more pages can be mended in a fraction of the time. Likewise, because a very thin tissue was used, the "stack" of mends did not build up into a thickness that might have impeded the cover from closing completely. So, the problem of too many mends and too little time was easily resolved.

As you see pictured below, the cover was also mended with a black Japanese paper. Two years ago, we posted another blog entry about mending the corner of a cello music score much like this one. Please click HERE to read about that repair.

Detail of repaired cover

Restoration of a Collection of String Quartet Compositions

Prioritizing our work can be challenging as we provide services to the general circulating collection in Walter Clinton Jackson Library, the collections of the Harold Schiffman Music Library, as well as the various collections of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives. Part of our consideration of how to devote our time depends on how an item will be used, such as in an exhibition, with a class, or for a scheduled researcher appointment. The curator of each collection makes those decisions and the work falls into our work queue according to how soon it will be needed and for what purpose it will be used.

The cello music collections at UNCG constitute the largest single holding of archival cello music-related materials in the world. Stacey Krim manages the collection. One of her many duties is identifying items needing conservation and/or restoration (what's the difference?) so that they may be used by researchers or in classes, stabilized for storage, or handled for digitization purposes. 

Four volumes before treatment

This set of four volumes was bound by one of its previous owners and contains the instrumental parts for a variety of string quartet compositions written by variety of composers and published by different publishing houses between 1780 and 1809. The set was donated to the UNCG Cello Music Collection as part of the Bernard Greenhouse Collection. Krim identified the items as a priority for conservation and transferred them to Preservation Services. We determined that due to their intended use with classes and researchers, both repair and restoration would be necessary.

Left to Right: Quarter Leather, Half Leather, and Full Leather Bindings

The binding style of these four volumes is referred to as half leather. A book with all leather or all book cloth as its covering material is referred to as full leather or full cloth respectively. A book with leather or cloth at the spine and fore edge corners (or sometimes there is a strip of leather or cloth all along the fore edge instead of just at the corners) with an alternate material for the rest of the cover is half leather or half cloth. And, a book with leather or cloth just at the spine with a different material, such as cloth or paper, covering the remainder of the book is referred to as quarter leather or quarter cloth. Quarter and Half bindings were developed as a way to minimize use of the more expensive binding materials by covering the rest of the book cover in a more economical material such as cloth or paper.

Bound volumes with missing or detached spines

Three of the bound music scores were missing the spine all together and one book had a detached spine. The leather at the spines and fore edge corners was dry and brittle. In some cases, the leather had worn away to reveal the book board underneath. 

Tail edge of damaged volume before treatment

Mended pages during the treatment process

After restoration treatment

The paper sides, in this case blue paste paper, were also damaged and worn, particularly at the edges. The text block pages were in fairly good condition, but there were some tears and losses, including insect damage in a few places.

The interior pages were mended with Japanese paper and wheat starch paste. The covering material required several steps of treatment. The leather was treated with Klucel-G, a consolidant that also helps prevent the leather from burning (darkening) during the mending process as it is exposed to the moisture of the paste.
 

Worn leather fore edge corner with damaged board underneath

Rebuilding the board with linen cord remnants and adhesive

The book board was consolidated as well, and in some cases it was rebuilt where it was too damaged or was missing parts. 

During treatment - Japanese paper applied, then toned to match

After treatment - corners fully restored

Toned Japanese paper was applied over the exposed book board and then further toned with watercolor to more closely resemble the original covering material of either leather or paste paper. A coat of Klucel-G was applied over the newly attached Japanese paper and watercolor to further seal and protect the Japanese paper and to match the sheen of the original leather.

Spines during treatment

Spine reattached and secured with toned Japanese paper

The new spines were created with Japanese paper laminated to Irish linen to lend strength, then attached to the books. The one remaining original spine was reattached over the laminated Japanese paper and Irish linen.

Four volumes after treatment

Not all of the books we treat receive full restoration such as these. For example, the priority for a book in the generally circulating collection is to return it to service quickly having been repaired in a method that can withstand the use of many patrons over a long period of time. Though we make every effort to create a tidy, attractive repair, the priority is the strength and speed of the repair. Though the restoration of the four volumes of cello music provides a functional and aesthetically pleasing solution, it required a much more time-consuming process and is perhaps not capable of receiving the regular handling as a book in the general collection.

Nonetheless, it is a treat for us to do restoration work as it is a change of pace and often provides such satisfying results, though more challenging work to do.

The Conservation and Restoration of a Unique Item

Last week we finished the conservation treatment of a very special volume. Méthode Elémentaire de Violoncelle: Suivie de 92 Études: Oeuvre 60 by Friedrich August Kummer and Adolphe Le Dhuy (translater).  It is part of our Cello Music Collection of Janos Scholz, dating back to the second quarter of the XIX century. We are one of two OCLC libraries worldwide to have this particular edition in our collection.

The book arrived with the original cover in a very poor condition. It was bound in a quarter leather and decorative papers, the textblock was still holding the freshness of the first years of life. There were losses on the spine, boards splitting at the fore edge and bottom, the decorative papers were badly damaged with missing parts, as we can see in the photos below. There was no trace of the original label. The leather on the cover was very brittle and already affected by red rot. Like any organic material, leather through the years can lose it is primary component, colagen, the fibers once elastic start to break and those affected areas become very powdery. 

Front cover

Back cover

The cover was in such a bad condition that I thought twice about rebinding the book per original . At the same time, I could still see the beauty behind the damage of this volume. I knew it was going to take more work and time but the simple fact that the book is part of our Cello Music Collection makes it worth the effort.  I persevered on the conservation and restoration, working hard to save the original cover to make it functional for the use of any scholar researching in our library. The following pictures speak for themselves:

Front cover during treatment

Back cover during treatment

For the large missing area on the decorative paper at the back, we used a digital solution. A photo of the pattern was taken and printed on a Japanese Paper Moriki, which was then consolidated with Klucel G to assure permanence of the toner ink. After the restoration of the area, the printed Japanese Paper was placed with starch paste.

Below part of the book corner and the Japanese Paper Moriki with the printed pattern we photographed.

 

The finished book after conservation treatment.

THE BEFORE AND AFTER OF A CELLO MUSIC BOOK

The Cello Music Collections constitute the largest single holding of cello music-related materials in the world and is a part of Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives at UNCG. From this collection we received several books to be treated at the UNCG Preservation Services, some with minor repairs and others requiring a full conservation and restoration treatment.

The variety of types of bindings and materials from this collection is broad, but here you can have a glimpse of a three-quarter-bound leather with decorative paper on the cover. The restoration took place following all the precepts of a conservation point of view, achieving a result that meets both functionality and aesthetics. 

Before

After

Before

After

Cello Music Collections webpage

http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/collections/cello/index.aspx