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Musical Instruments

Specialized information on musical instruments for performers and listeners alike

Historical Instruments

Historical Strings

Performance Practice (General Subject Search: Performance Practice (Music) )

  • Style and Performance for Bowed String Instruments in French Baroque Music, by Mary Cyr
    ML497.2 .C97 2012
  • The Early Violin and Viola: A Practical Guide, by Robin Stowell
    ML855 .S79 2001

Plucked Instruments

  • The Classic Image: European History and Manufacture of the Lyre
    Guitar, 850-1840, by Stephen Bonner
    ML1015.L9 B65  Archives & Special Collections (2nd Floor)
  • Stringed Instruments of Ancient Greece, by Martha Maas
    ML169 .M2 1989
  • Performance on Lute, Guitar, and Vihuela: Historical Practice and Modern Interpretation
    ML1003 .P47 1997
  • Kinyras: The Divine Lyre, by John Franklin
  • ML169 .F73 2015

Bowed Instruments

The Viol / Viola da Gamba

  • The Viol: History of an Instrument, by Annette Otterstedt
    ML927 .V5 O8813 2002
  • Early History of the Viol, by Ian Woodfield
    ML760 .V55 W66 1984
  • Play the Viol, by Alison Crum with Sonia Jackson
    MT338 .C93 1989
  • Performance Practice and Technique in Marin Maris'
    Pièces de viole, by Deborah Teplow
    MT145 .M37 T4 1986
  • A Handbook of French Baroque Viol Technique, by John Hsu
    MT338 .H78
  • Published Music for the Viola da Gamba and Other Viols, by Robin De Smet
    ML128 .S7 D48 (Music Collection Reference)
  • The Viola Da Gamba: Its Origin and History,
    Its Technique and Musical Resources, by Nathalie Dolmetsch
    ML760 .D64 1968

Historical Woodwinds

Selected Books

  • 4900 Historical Woodwind Instruments: An Inventory of
    200 Makers in Internaitonal Collections, by Phillip Young
    ML931 .Y68 1993
  • From Renaissance to Baroque: Change in Instruments and
    Instrumental Music in the Seventeenth Century, by the National
    Early Music Association Conference
    ML467 .N18 2005
  • Baroque Woodwind Instruments: A Guide to their History, Repertoire, and
    Basic Technique, by Paul Carroll
    ML931 .C37 1999

Flute

  • The Flute: A Study of Its History, Development and
    Construction, by Philip Bate
    ML935 .B25
  • On Playing the Flute, by Johann Quantz, trans. Reilly, 2nd ed.
    MT342 .Q313 2001
  • Michel Corrette and Flute-Playing in the Eighteenth Century, by Carol Reglin Farrar
    MT342 .C813
  • The Keyed Flute, by Johann Tromlitz, tran. Ardal Powell
    MT342 .T7313 1996

Oboe

  • The Oboe, by Geoffrey Burgess and Bruce Haynes
    ML940 .B87 2004
  • The Oboe: An Outline of its History, Development, and
    Construction, 3rd ed. by Philip Bate
    ML940 .B37 1975

Bassoon

Recorder

  • Recorder article from Grove Music Online
  • American Recorder Society site
  • Recorder Technique, by Anthony Rowland-Jones
    MT340 .R67 1969

Historical Brass

  • The Keyed Trumpet and Its Greatest Virtuoso, Anton Weidinger, by Reine Dahlqvist
    ML960 .D25
  • History of the Trumpet of Bach and Handel, by Werner Menke
    ML960 .M45 1972
  • The Music and History of the Baroque Trumpet
    Before 1721, 2nd. ed. by Don Smithers
    ML960 .S63 1988
  • The Last Trumpet: A History of the English Slide Trumpet,
    by James Brownlow
    ML960 .B76 1996
  • The Wagner Tuba: A History
    ML955 .M45 2008
  • The Early Horn: A Practical Guide, by John Humphries
    ML955 .H86 2000
  • The Horn in Early Eighteenth-Century Dresden: The Players and their Repertory, by Thomas Hiebert
    ML955 .H53 1989A
  • The Horn and Horn-Playing, and the Austro-Bohemian Tradition from 1680-1830
    ML955 .F58

Historical Organs

Medieval & Renaissance

The Organ in Western Culture, 750 - 1250

Baroque Era

The Organs of J.S. Bach: A Handbook, by Christoph Wolff

Bach's Feet: The Organ Pedals in European Culture, by David Yearsley

The Evolution of Organ Music in the 17th Century: A Study of European Styles

The Registration of Baroque Organ Music, by Barbara Owen

The Keyboard in Baroque Europe, by Christopher Hogwood

Playing Bach on the Keyboard: A Practical Guide, by Richard Troeger

19th - 21st Centuries

Twentieth-Century Organ Music, by Christopher Anderson

National and Regional Traditions

The History of the English Organ, by Stephen Bicknell

French Organ Music in the Reign of Louis XIV, by David Ponsford

The Language of the Classical French Organ: A Musical Tradition Before 1800,
by Fenner Douglass

The Organ and Its Music in German-Jewish Culture, by Tina Frühauf

Tuning and Temperament

Modern keyboard instruments have standardized tuning, with an equal number of sound vibrations (megaherz) per half-step.  This is called equal temperament.  Before this method was developed, keyboard instruments were tuned by their maker, in the case of organs, or by the player, in the case of clavichord and harpsichord.  The builder or player used one of many systems to tune their instruments.

Oxford Music Online has these useful articles on temperament (Log in required from off campus):

"Temperaments" in New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd. ed., by Mark Lindley

"Equal Temperament," in New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd. ed., by Mark Lindley

Books in the Music Collection

A Guide to Musical Temperament, by Thomas Donahue

Tuning the Historical Temperaments by Ear A Manual of Eighty-Nine Methods for
Tuning Fifty-One Scales on the Harpsichord, Piano, and Other Keyboard
Instruments, by Owen Jorgensen

Interlibrary Loan

Users are encouraged to search for items beyond University Libraries' catalog via RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and WorldCat. Materials not available in print or online may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Please allow up to seven days for electronic delivery and up to fourteen days for delivery of physical items.