Woodwind Instruments and their History

Widely acclaimed for its scholarship, comprehensiveness, and originality, this superior study by a leading authority is considered the definitive work on woodwind instruments. Author Anthony Baines — musicologist, conductor, instrumentalist, and curator of the Bate Collection of Historical Wind Instruments at Oxford University — combines a discussion of design and construction with a detailed history of the evolution of woodwinds from earliest times to the present.

Part One introduces the woodwinds, describing their basic components, construction, variations, and idiosyncrasies as well as playing technique, matters of acoustics and pitch, and types of reeds. Part Two traces a variety of technical changes, particularly in terms of recent processes of mechanization. This profusely illustrated survey features 75 photographs and drawings, 25 musical examples, and 16 fingering charts.