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Jérôme Lejeune. A Guide to Period Instruments-Guide des instruments anciens-Leitfaden durch die historischen Instrumente; A Guide to Musical Instruments vol II, 1800-1950, Belgium: Ricercar; 2 vols, I: RIC 103, 2009, 200 pp. booklet, many ills. some in color, 8 CDs; II: RIC 104, 2013, 154 pp booklet, many illus., some in color, 8 CDs. EUR 49, www .outhere-music.com.
Have you wondered what a Geigenwerk is or how a csakan is played? Perhaps you want to hear the difference between valved cornets and keyed trumpets or to learn about the origins of the viol family. Are you curious to know how Ravel's Tzigane would sound with luthéal or Hinde - mith's Langsames Stück und Rondo played on a trautonium? Perhaps you want to compare Landowska playing Rameau on a Pleyel with a perfor - mance on an eighteenth-century harpsichord or note the differences between the violoncello piccolo and viola da spalla? The two-volume Guide to Musical Instruments on the Belgian Ricercar label can satisfy your curiosity and more. From the oliphant and Cantigas de Santa Maria to prepared piano and Ravel's Boléro, this two-volume audio anthology with accompanying text contains a wealth of material covering the full gamut of Western musical instruments.
The lavishly illustrated booklets by Ricercar's founder and the project coordinator Jérôme Lejeune, musicologist at the University of Liège, serves as a brief history of musical instruments. Organized systematically by instrument family, Lejeune provides an excellent overview, but given space limitations, glosses over many of the complications of nomenclature. Volume I was printed in three languages and, even though slightly larger, contains less information than the second volume produced in separate single-language versions. French was the original language, and accuracy is occasionally compromised in translation. Take basson, which in French is used to designate not only what in English is called bassoon, but also the dulcian (or curtal). This leads to the dubious statement in the English translation that "in true Renaissance spirit, the bassoon was also built in versions for the higher ranges." Lejeune also conflates dulcian and douçaine (a medieval cylindrical-bored shawm). Illustrations from historical sources and photographs of museum specimens clarify the situation, and dulcians are also heard on the recordings. In addition to a magnificent rendition of a four-part...