Description
The course examines musical instruments primarily within their historical context and development, rather than through a conventional organological approach, while also considering their role in contemporary musical practice. It focuses mainly on instruments of Western European art music, including those of the symphony orchestra, solo instruments, and ensemble instruments, as well as historical instruments revived in historically informed performance practice.
The course introduces the fundamentals of acoustics and sound production, followed by an overview of the history, dissemination, and classification of musical instruments into chordophones, aerophones, membranophones, and idiophones. It then provides a brief historical overview of Western European instrumental music before examining individual instrument families and types, including plucked and bowed chordophones, wind instruments, brass instruments, keyboard instruments, membranophones, and idiophones. Teaching is supported by recorded musical examples, visual material, and demonstrations of instruments and their use.
The main objective is to provide students with a solid understanding of the history and development of European musical instruments as a fundamental field within historical and systematic musicology.