Musical Instruments: MFA Highlights

Enhanced with twenty-five audio and twenty-three video clips of expert musicians performing on rare and historical instruments, this e-book edition of Musical Instruments brings the world-renowned collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, to life. Musical instruments are among the most meaningful artifacts produced by humankind, a marriage of technology, artistry, symbolism, religion, and entertainment. This title in the MFA Highlights series presents more than a hundred examples, spanning a breadth of centuries and cultures, to invite readers to experience a brilliant array of instruments as producers of both aural and visual delight. The pieces included here — which range from an ancient Greek trumpet to a modern lap steel guitar, and from earthenware panpipes to the complex Indonesian gamelan — are remarkable not only for the myriad sounds they produce, but also for their varied and often extraordinarily beautiful appearance. Musical Instruments offers a vivid encounter with a rich collection, enhanced to provide an accessible and fascinating introduction to the artistry and significance of musical instruments around the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Darcy Kuronen is Department Head and Pappalardo Curator of Musical Instruments at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.