Acknowledgments

This book has grown from yearslong collaborative efforts, based at the Linnaeus University Centre for Intermedial and Multimodal Studies (IMS) in Växjö, Sweden. We would like to thank IMS for ongoing support in the form of seminars, informal discussions, and Crafoord Foundation funding that has made our project possible under the title Instruments of Repair. This support in the form of a postdoctoral fellowship allowed Heidi Hart to work closely with Beate Schirrmacher in Sweden during the seminal period of research and writing. We extend particular thanks to IMS colleagues Jørgen Bruhn, for suggesting that we broaden the project’s scope from an article to a book; Alexandra Huang-Kokina, for sharing insights about embodied piano performance; Nafiseh Mousavi, for calling our attention to examples of authoritarian instrument destruction; and seminar participants across disciplines who have provided invaluable feedback in bringing this book to fruition. We would also like to thank the musicology departments at both Linnaeus University and Lund University for inviting us to present in their seminars, and to Torbjörn Carlsson and Magnus Rydnér from the department of media and journalism at Linnaeus University for creating a public-outreach film about the project. We thank Linnaeus University Library and IMS for financial support of Open Access publication.

Many individuals have contributed to this book’s formation as well: visual and performance artist Julia Adzuki, whose Resonant Bodies instrument is important to our concepts of instruments’ materiality and who led a 2023 workshop as part of the Instruments of Repair project; organist Susan Bates, harpist Catharine DeLong, and piano technician Bill Huesman for their technical expertise in instrumental structure and sound; artist-musicians Katt Hernandez, Anna Orlikowska, Sarina Scheidegger, and Sabine Vogel for sharing their practices with unconventional tunings and outdoor instruments; Brandon LaBelle and the 2024 Listening Academy in Berlin for providing deeper insights into environmental sounding and response; Golnoosh Heshmati for including Heidi Hart’s sound recordings of a decaying harp and harpsichord in a politically nuanced tapestry of sound-making; visual artist Paul Travis Phillips for sharing his practice of autodestructive art through the medium of rust; and musicologists Brian Gilliam and Lawrence Kramer for conversations that have revealed that even long-established artistic practices of instrument destruction can still come as a shock. Thanks also to the 2024 Natural Resonance Festival for including this book’s artistic-research component, Harp Transplant, in an online lecture performance.

Special thanks to this book’s editor, Pieter Martin, for careful reading and clear guidance in the publication process, and to series editors Giovanni Aloi and Caroline Picard for additional feedback and support. Finally, we would like to thank our families for their gifts of listening and time, and John Halverson in particular for his efforts in transplanting a harp outdoors.