The History of Musical Instruments

This first comprehensive history of musical instruments ranges from prehistoric times to the twentieth century. It traverses five continents and every stage of evolution, from primitive rattles and bull-roarers to the electric organ. Author Curt Sachs, one of the world's most distinguished musicologists, combines rich scholarship with personal insight in a remarkable fusion of music, anthropology, and the fine arts.
Beginning with the earlest manifestat of rhythm, Sachs explores the association of sound with primitive rites of fertility, life, death, and rebirth. He traces the evolution of folk and ritual instruments to tools of entertainment and art, the rise of a professional class of singers and musicians, and the musical revolution that flowered during the Renaissance. Sachs chronicles the foundation of the modern orchestra during the baroque period and its subsequent development, concluding with the modern-day risa of electricc and jazz instruments.
A pleasure to read as well as a valuable resource, this classic work is enhanced with 24 plates and 167 illustrations.

CONTENIDO:

Fist Part: The Primitive and Prehistoric Epoch
1. Early Intruments
2. The Chronology of Early Instruments

Second Part: Antiquity
3. Sumer and Babylonia
4. Egypt
5. Israel
6. Greece, Rome and Etruria
7. India
8. The Far East
9. America

Third Part: The Middle Ages
10. The Far East
11. India
12. Southeast Asia
13. The Near East
14. Europe

Fourth Part: The Modern Occident
15. The Renaissance (1400-1600)
16. The Baroque (1600-1750)
17. Romanticism (1750-1900)
Epilogue: The Twentieth Century

Terminology
References
Index