Robert Barclay

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Robert Barclay graduated from the University of Toronto in 1975 with an Honours Degree in Fine Arts. He has worked at the Canadian Conservation institute in Ottowa since graduating, specializing in the care and preservation of musical Instruments. His trumpet-making activities combined a life-long love affair with the trumpet with a fondness of making thins out of metal. He has been making reproductions of historical trumpets for more than 15 years and has made intensive studies of the original techniques of manufacture.
Robert Barclay

Born: 1946, London, England

Pseudonym: Fecit

Nationality: English

Genre(s): Music

Personal
Born July 17, 1946, in London, England; married Janet Mair Fenwick (a craftsperson), January 24, 1971; children: Anne, David, Heather, Ian.

Education
University of Toronto, B.A. (with honors), 1975.

Career
Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, senior conservator of ethnology, 1975--. Trumpet-maker and instructor in brass-instrume making; conservator of museum artifacts, specializing in musical instruments.

Memberships
International Institute for Conservation, International Council of Museums, Canadian Association of Professional Conservators, Historic Brass Society.

Sidelights
Robert Barclay told CA: "I work at the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa, Canada, specializing in the care and preservation of musical instruments. I taught summer courses in Toronto for several years on the making of brass instruments, including trombones, trumpets, and slide trumpets. Aside from professional museum work, I have been a trumpet-maker for more than fifteen years and have made an intensive study of the traditional techniques of natural trumpet manufacture in the city of Nuremburg, Germany. I have produced more than twenty-five baroque trumpets based on a Nuremburg instrument of 1632, many of which are in the possession of trumpet players in Europe, Canada, and the United States.

"I am now researching tone formation in historic instruments made in Nuremburg to establish criteria for assessing the playing quality of the originals compared with that of accurate copies. My particular concern is in authentic instrumentation as used in performances of Baroque music. The natural trumpet of the Baroque period is particularly in need of revival as a working instrument for both live performance and recordings. Information derived from this research may result in more players finding the natural trumpet an acceptable instrument for virtuoso performance.

"I am also the contributor of a regular column on museum conservation and the editor of a journal, both of which look at the lighter side of the conservation profession."

Information provided under copyright by Gale Research.


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