"What singles this book out is the sheer diversity of instruments covered this is a very welcome book. It is fair to say that the science of percussion instruments would not have advanced anywhere near so far without the tireless enthusiasm and passion of Rossing and his students."Nature, 2001"It forms a very nice survey work on an entire class of musical instruments I recommend it to anyone interested in acoustics and the physics of musical instruments."American Journal of Physics, Sept 2001

This generously illustrated book records the story of Russia's bells--the thousands of awe inspiring instruments that gave voice to the visual splendors of Russian Orthodoxy and to the political aspirations of the tsars. Originally published in 1986. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The fascinating history of bell music The carillon, the world’s largest musical instrument, originated in the 16th century when inhabitants of the Low Countries started to produce music on bells in church and city towers. Today, carillon music still fills the soundscape of cities in Belgium and the Netherlands. Since the First World War, carillon music has become popular in the United States, where it adds a spiritual dimension to public parks and university campuses. Singing Bronze opens up the fascinating world of the carillon to the reader. It tells the great stories of European and American carillon history: the quest for the perfect musical bell, the fate of carillons in times of revolt and war, the role of patrons such as John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Herbert Hoover in the development of American carillon culture, and the battle between singing bronze and carillon electronics. Richly illustrated with original photographs and etchings, Singing Bronzetells how people developed, played, and enjoyed bell music. With this book, a fascinating history that is yet little known is made available for a wide public.

The history of musical instruments is nearly as old as the history of civilization itself, and the aesthetic principles upon which judgments of musical quality are based are intimately connected with the whole culture within which the instruments have evolved. An educated modem Western player or listener can make critical judgments about particular instruments or particular per formances but, to be valid, those judgments must be made within the appro priate cultural context. The compass of our book is much less sweeping than the first paragraph might imply, and indeed our discussion is primarily confined to Western musical instruments in current use, but even here we must take account of centuries of tradition. A musical instrument is designed and built for the playing of music of a particular type and, conversely, music is written to be performed on particular instruments. There is no such thing as an "ideal" instrument, even in concept, and indeed the unbounded possibilities of modem digital sound-synthesis really require the composer or performer to define a whole set of instruments if the result is to have any musical coherence. Thus, for example, the sound and response of a violin are judged against a mental image of a perfect violin built up from experience of violins playing music written for them over the centuries. A new instrument may be richer in sound quality and superior in responsiveness, but if it does not fit that image then it is not a better violin.