Customer Reviews

The Art of the Trumpet-Maker: The Materials, Tools, and Techniques of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in Nuremberg (Oxford Early Music)

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Robert Barclay surveys the processes and methods that went into the making of 16th, 17th and 18th century trumpets, mostly by German and Austrian makers. There is a great deal of information about the early metallurgy of brass as well as some detail on the actual construction techniques used by the early builders. Reproductions of illustrations from Agricola, Diderot, and Weigel are most welcome.

Don't expect this book to be a "how to build your own trumpet" guide, however--fully half the book surveys early metallurgy and tools and only the last half skims over construction techniques.

However, for a paperback of 186 pages, this book is very much overpriced. At $55, one would expect high-quality graphics, but instead what is delivered is blurry, low-contrast black-and white photographs. In addition, several pages in my copy were all but unreadable due to dropouts in the printing process.

In balance, this is an interesting read, but poor production and high price detract from this book's appeal.