The Encyclopedia of Music: Musical Instruments and the Art of Music-Making

by Max ; Thompson Wade-Matthews, Fully Illustrated (Illustrator)

Synopsis A Comprehensive encyclopedia of musical instruments, covering all sections of the strings, woodwind and brass, percussion, keyboards and the voice, as well as historical, rare and non-Western instruments An authoritative guide to over 100 of the most famous classical composers, from Bach to Xenakis, encompassing all styles of composition from medieval times to the present day The text features at-a-glance fact boxes that summarize key information about instruments, performers and composers' work Fully illustrated with over 1,000 photographs and illustrations of musical instruments and composers, the places where they lived and worked, scenes from their ballets or operas, and examples of their original manuscripts

Genres: Music, Reference, Nonfiction, History

512 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2011

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the difficulties that a book like this must have. It is supposed to be a rather comprehensive look at musical instruments and music making. It does a good job of discussing instruments and musical ensembles of Western music, especially western art music, but it doesn't do much exploration of world instruments (there are notable exceptions to be sure). The section on music making and composition is almost totally West-centric, though.

I felt that folk instruments, even instruments developed and used in the West, got short shrift. Take the harmonica, for example: "...the instrument has always been considered more of a toy than a serious instrument." (pg 182) Who? Who has always considered the harmonica more of a toy than a serious instrument? Never mind that the next sentence seems to contradict that: "Since World War II, however, several symphonic composers scored for it." So these composers were scoring for an instrument everyone always considered a toy? What about the importance of the harmonica in, I don't know, BLUES? Little Walter was playing an amplified toy? Guess what, this article on the harmonica, in a supposed encyclopedia of musical instruments and music making, doesn't even mention the blues! It does show a picture of a musician using a harmonica. Bob Dylan. The purpose of the photo seems to be to show Dylan uses a harp rack so that he can have his hands free to play his guitar. It also claims that a diatonic harmonica can only be played in one key. I'm not a very good harmonica player but I can play in three different keys on a C harp...
This same article also mis-identifies a picture of a soprano melodica (calls it a piano melodica--but oddly, describes the two instruments accurately in the text).

I think the authors, and certainly this reader, would have been better served if the scope of the instrument section had been limited to the writers' area of expertise, which seems to be Western orchestral and brass band pieces.

I would still recommend the book, though.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

The short biographies of the composers in the second half of the book are quite informative.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of mine favorite books. It talks about musicians that I have never heard of before. This is enjoyable for anyone who wants to learn more about music.

[Vincent Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covers a broad range of topics including instruments, composition, history, composers. Informative, but lighter on the details.

[Phil West · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully produced with some lovely photographs but v little regarding modern music and a rather turgid prose style