The invention of the metal-wound string — the technology that lets a relatively thin, flexible string produce a rich, low note - has now been traced to a 17th-century Polish-Lithuanian nobleman named Olbrycht Górecki.
Although the invention spread across Europe during the 18th century, its creator remained a mystery for centuries until Emily Peppers, a musicologist at the University of Warsaw, solved the puzzle having combed archives across Europe, Poland’s PAP news agency reported on Sunday.
The clue that cracked the case sat in plain sight for centuries: a 1659 entry by Oxford chemist Robert Boyle crediting the wound lute string to a mysterious "Goretsky."
"Almost all modern stringed instruments use wound strings," Peppers said, explaining that wrapping a light gut core with metal wire increases its density while preserving the flexibility needed for good vibration and tone without relying on the thick, cumbersome gut strings previously required.
Górecki turns out to have been a genuinely remarkable figure — a Calvinist polyglot and polymath who eventually settled in Britain after likely fleeing religious persecution at home.
Górecki died in Oxford, leaving behind instruments, books, and a mysterious toolbox Peppers says she'd love to open — if it still existed.
Peppers' peer-reviewed monograph on Górecki is due from Brill later this year.
Until then, an exhibition at the University of Warsaw — running through August 6 — lets visitors see, and touch, strings spanning the instrument's 300-year evolution.
(mo)
Source: PAP