The World of Mediaeval and Renaissance Musical Instruments (1980)

Second-Hand (Hardcover)

Excellent condition

Jeremy Montagu, a leading authority on the history of musical instruments, introduces this comprehensive and well-researched account of the evolution of instruments and the role of the musician through the ages by first describing and illustrating those instruments bequeathed to us by the civilizations of Greece and Rome.

Then, through the dark ages and on to the successive stages which show the gradual changes in the instruments, how they were played and the music of the era.

The first section deals with the Early Middle Ages, when musicians were still dependent on the legacy of the past for their instruments.

The second, the time of the Crusades, saw many new instruments being imported from the ricker cultures of the Middle East.

The third period is the time of the Hundred Years War, when we were developing our own instruments and improving on those that had been imported.