The Cimbalom: Reference Guide for Performers and Composers

The cimbalom is one of the most fascinating instruments to have entered Western classical music: ancient in its ancestry, unmistakably Central European in its modern form, and yet still largely unknown to many performers and composers.

In The Cimbalom: Reference Guide for Performers and Composers, Luigi Gaggero brings together decades of experience as a cimbalom player, conductor, teacher, and collaborator with leading contemporary composers to offer a comprehensive exploration of the instrument.

The book begins with the history and development of the modern Hungarian cimbalom before examining its construction, range, tuning, pedal system, note layout, mallets, notation, and the practical problems involved in writing for it. A substantial section is devoted to traditional and extended playing techniques, illustrated with musical examples and detailed explanations drawn from both the classical repertoire and contemporary music.

But The Cimbalom goes beyond organology and technique. Its final part addresses the deeper questions of instrumental performance: the relationship between musical gesture and physical movement, phrasing and breath, articulation, rhythm and metre, sound production, teaching, and the development of an instrumental technique that arises from musical intention rather than from mechanical movement.

The volume also includes practical diagrams, photographs, examples from the repertoire, a selected list of works for cimbalom, and supplementary material designed to make it a working reference for composers as well as performers.

With a preface by composer Alessandro Solbiati, The Cimbalom is intended for cimbalom players, composers, percussionists, conductors, teachers, students, and anyone interested in the encounter between instrumental technique and musical thought.