3D Printing in the Museum: Perceptual Discrimination between a Hotteterre Traverso Facsimile and its Printed Copies
Claudia Fritz, Marguerite Jossic, Corto Bastien, Lidia Chang, Mina Jang, Stéphane Vaiedelich, Elsa Lambert · Music & Science · 2025
The playing of historical woodwind instruments poses challenges for museum conservation practices due to the hygroscopic stress introduced by musicians during performance. To mitigate this, many music museums produce playable facsimiles for use in concerts and cultural events. This article explores the potential of 3D printing to create flute copies suitable for historically informed performance. The study focuses on a traverso attributed to Jacques Martin Hotteterre (c. 1707–1727), from the collection of the Musée de la Musique in Paris. While a wooden facsimile was traditionally crafted by a contemporary maker in 2001, the museum began investigating 3D printing in 2020 as an innovative method for producing copies using polymer materials. This approach raises important questions about the fidelity of 3D-printed replicas in terms of timbre, playability, and other musical characteristics. Our study seeks to inform this discussion by characterising perceptual differences between the wooden facsimile and its 3D-printed copies through playing and listening tests.