Musical Instruments (Mfa Highlights)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 256 pages
• Published by: MFA Publications July 2, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0878466746
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0878466740
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.2 x 0.4 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

Product Review
this is a sample review (Sharon Gallagher )

Product Description
Musical instruments are among the most meaningful artifacts produced by humankind, a marriage of technology, artistry, symbolism, religion, and entertainment. Musical Instruments presents over 100 examples from the MFA's world-renowned collection, spanning a breadth of centuries and cultures, offering a brilliant array of instruments as producers of both aural and visual delight. The pieces shown here--which range from an ancient Greek trumpet to a modern lap steel guitar, from earthenware panpipes to the phenomenally complex Indonesian gamelan--are remarkable not only for the myriad sounds they produce, but also for their attractive, at times breathtaking, extraordinarily varied physical aspects. As objects of both cultural expression and sculptural craft, these are among the most exquisite and intriguing instruments ever created. More than a mere picture book, however, this latest title in the MFA Highlights series offers, as do its companion volumes, an accessible introduction to the genre, bringing to the fore the full richness, artistry, and significance of musical instruments around the world.

Reader Reviews
Strongly recommended, especially for music school and community library Music History Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists, Musical Instruments, author Darcy Kuronen showcases more than one hundred examples of drawn from the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) collection exemplifying musical instruments down through the centuries and across a diversity of cultures both ancient and contemporary. The pieces range from an ancient Greek Trumpet to a modern lap steel guitar, from simple earthenware panpipes to the exotic and sophisticatedly complex Indonesian gamelan. Superbly enhanced with 120 full color illustrations, Musical Instruments provides the reader with a full and comprehensive introduction highlighting the artistry and significance of musical instruments and their impact upon human civilizations.