{"id":5314,"date":"2024-02-21T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T14:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/?p=5314"},"modified":"2025-03-27T12:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T16:12:10","slug":"arachnophonia-instruments-in-the-history-of-western-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/2024\/02\/arachnophonia-instruments-in-the-history-of-western-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Arachnophonia: Instruments in the History of Western Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Arachnophonia<\/a> (\u201cArachno\u201d = spider \/ \u201c-phonia\u201d = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library<\/a>\u2018s collection.<\/p>\n

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question<\/a> or to additional relevant<\/a> information from<\/a> around the web<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s installment of Arachnophonia<\/a> is by student manager Esther (class of 2025) and features a book about the history of musical instruments<\/a>. Thanks, Esther!<\/em><\/p>\n

Instruments in the History of Western Music<\/em> by Karl Geiringer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Instruments<\/a><\/p>\n

We have often affectionately labeled music as the “universal language” throughout the years, though our reference is typically rooted in Western notation<\/a>, which is familiar to the majority. During my time at the University of Richmond, I discovered that while music shares many characteristics with languages, it isn’t truly universal. Even within the Western music domain, the evolution of music has taken diverse and transformative paths.<\/p>\n

In Karl Geiringer<\/a>‘s book, Instruments in the History of Western Music<\/a><\/em>, he delves into the history of musical instruments spanning about 25,000 years. My interest in this book was piqued after discussions about the distinct standards composers adhered to in the Baroque<\/a>, Romantic<\/a>, and Classical<\/a> Eras. After understanding how these standards influenced compositional styles, audience perspectives, and society’s notions of a musical “genius,” it became apparent that the evolution of instruments was also inevitable.<\/p>\n

Dr. Geiringer’s book<\/a> stood out to me for his approach to illuminating the cultural and historical contexts of the instruments. This methodology provides readers with a solid foundation, enabling a deeper understanding of how instruments have genuinely evolved, mirroring the values held during each era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Arachnophonia (\u201cArachno\u201d = spider \/ \u201c-phonia\u201d = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library\u2018s collection. All links included in these … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[231704,15223,15242],"tags":[61217,230860,206842,231185,231186,207054,231184,92834],"class_list":["post-5314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arachnophonia-arachnophonia","category-collection","category-promotional","tag-arachnophonia","tag-arachnophonia-23-24","tag-esther","tag-instruments-in-the-history-of-western-music","tag-karl-geiringer","tag-music-history","tag-musical-insturments","tag-musicology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgMV3E-1nI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5314"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5319,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5314\/revisions\/5319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}