What would you think of a 1-string violin with a metal horn attached? Odd indeed! The Stroh fiddle was once such instrument. The instrument was made of mahogany with a metal horn attached to a diaphragm to make the instrument

Musical instruments have been the stuff of poetry forever. But, poets being poets, they don’t always agree. Here’s some samples of their thoughts – which side do you come down on?

In 1716, Filippo Bonanni presented the first edition of his Gabinetto Armonico, or Showcase of Musical Instruments. It was revised and expanded in 1723 to include 523 different musical instruments from all over the world. It remained the most comprehensive

Would you believe that instrument cases have a history as long as the violins they contained? Instrument owners of yesterday, especially royal proprietors, saw fit to envelope their precious violins in ornate packaging. You wouldn’t dream of putting your priceless

Musical instruments in China were traditionally classified into 8 groups delineated by the material used in the instrument: Silk, Bamboo, Wood, Stone, Metal, Clay, Gourd and Hide. We will look at selected instruments in six of these groups in this

A cynic was once defined as somebody “whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.” Truth be told, having sat through hundreds of uninspiring, unimaginative and downright insulting performances of classical music, it’s getting

It’s often a puzzle for us how to hear very familiar music with new ears. When you’ve heard countless blah recordings of the Vivaldi this or the Bach that, it’s hard to get them back into our ears to being

Virtuoso, musicologist, distinguished author, a woman who was, “in love with her audience,” Wanda Landowska’s dynamic and powerful playing single-handedly revived interest in the harpsichord. Her performance of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations at New York’s Town Hall, in 1942 was