European and American Musical Instruments - Hardcover

Anthony Baines

9780713407525: European and American Musical Instruments

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713407522 ISBN 13: 9780713407525

Publisher: Viking Studio, 1966

A "pictorial museum" is Anthony Baines's description of this lavish publication. There are upwards of 830 photographs, exactly captioned and identified - representative of the non-keyboard instruments of the western world from 1450 to 1900. With these pictures the musician, collector, museum curator, or dealer will be able to identify and date many unfamiliar instruments. Although regional folk instruments are not excluded, the main emphasis has been on the products of professional workshops. The classic models of successive periods are given most prominence, but space has also been found for unusual and even unique specimens. While the most immediately striking feature of the book is its pictures, the introduction provides a summary of musical history from the highly significant instrumental point of view. Anthony Cuthbert Baines (1912-1997) was an English musicologist, conductor, and bassoonist. During his years at Westminster School his musical talents became evident, but in 1930 he went to Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with honours in chemistry. The award of an open scholarship to the RCM changed the direction of his career and after two years' study he joined the LPO as third bassoon and double bassoon in 1935. This appointment (interrupted by six years' army service) continued until 1948 and led to his election as assistant conductor in 1949. Between 1955 and 1965, Baines taught wind instruments at Uppingham School and later Dean Close. During this period his musicological activities expanded greatly and he travelled extensively studying both folk and art instruments. From 1970 to 1980 he was a lecturer in music at Oxford and curator of the Bate Collection of Wind Instruments there. By his retirement in 1982 he had enlarged its scope and content and created a centre for the study of musical instruments of all periods. A founder-member of the Galpin Society, he edited its journal from 1956 to 1963, and again from 1970 to 1984.

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