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World Archaeology
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The archaeology of musical instruments:


Editorial note
a
Vencent Megaw
a
AdelaideLondon
Published online: 15 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: Vencent Megaw (1981) The archaeology of musical instruments: Editorial note, World
Archaeology, 12:3, 231-232, DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1981.9979797

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1981.9979797

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The archaeology of musical instruments
Editorial note
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The expression 'the limitations of archaeological inference' has these days almost a pre-
historic ring about it; themes treated in previous issues of World Archaeology have been
instrumental in no small way in pioneering and publicizing approaches to problems
which less than a generation ago would have been considered not so much inappropriate
for discussion as the type of territory but rarely traversed by most archaeologists in
most archaeological situations.
It is indeed a sign of the wealth of palaeo-organological material waiting not only for
identification but practical and replicative study that no single monograph is currently
available which adequately surveys the total and actually extant scope of the archaeo-
logy of musical instruments. There are of course the various multi-volume histories and
encyclopaedias, most useful for the archaeologist and ethnographer arguably being Blume
(1949-68; 1973-) and the splendidly illustrated volumes in the Musikgeschichte in
Bildern series (e.g. Hickmann 1961; Wegner 1962; Fleischhauer 1964; Collaer 1965;
Marti 1970); there are also 'classics', both new and old which emphasize the material
evidence for the early history of musical instruments (e.g. Sachs 1942; Baines 1961;
Marcuse 1975).
There are, however, still too few modern detailed studies of individual classes of
prehistoric and early musical instruments such as archaeologists are belatedly
becoming aware may well form a significant category of the material record of past
cultural activity (cf. Coles 1963; Brade 1974). The late Friedrich Behn's twenty-five-
year-old survey, despite its limited geographical range particularly as far as black Africa
and Asia is concerned (Behn 1954) - a lack fortuitously shared by the present volume
though now available to those with the necessary linguistic skills (cf. Malm 1967;
Sadokov 1970) - remains not so much without a replacement as a monument to an out-
moded concept.
The following articles, whether regional or chronological surveys, experimental or
analytical, have been contributed by musicologists, performers, archaeologists and
ethnographers - including some who have a fair claim to all four titles - to demonstrate
the variety of the evidence available from prehistoric through to post-medieval, from the
ethno-archaeological to the experimental or, in the words of the publishers of World
Archaeology, to demonstrate 'a lack of commitment to particular place, period or special-

World Archaeology Volume 12 No. 3 Musical instruments


R.K.P. 1981 0043-8243/81/1203-0231 $1.50/1
232 Editorial note

ization' while hoping not only to open up new areas of interest and awareness but to play
'an important role in breaking down artificial barriers between branches of the discipline'.
JVSM
19.ix.1980 Adelaide-London

References
Baines, A. (ed.). 1961. Musical Instruments through the Ages. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Behn, F. 1954. Musikleben im Altertum und frhen Mittelalter. Stuttgart: Hiersemann.
Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 20:55 07 March 2015

Blume, F. (ed.). 1949-68, 1973-. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart 1-14 and Supps.
Kassel: Brenreiter.
Brade, Ch. 1974. Die mittelalterlichen Kernspaltflten Mittel- und Nordeuropas = Gttinger
Schriften zur Vor- und Frhg. 14. Neumnster: Karl Wachholtz.
Coles, J. M. 1963. Irish Bronze Age horns and their relations with northern Europe. Proc.
Prehist. Soc. 29:326-56.
Collaer, P. 1965. Ozeanien=Musikgeschichte in Bildern. 1 (1) Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag
fr Musik.
Fleischhauer, G. 1964. Etrurien und Rom=Musikgeschichte in Bildern. 2 (5). Leipzig: VEB
Deutscher Verlag fr Musik.
Hickmann, H. 1961. gypten=Musikgeschichte in Bildern. 2 (1). Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Ver-
lag fr Musik.
Marcuse, S. 1975. A Survey of Musical Instruments. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.
Marti, S. 1970. Alt-Amerika =Musikgeschichte in Bildern. 2 (7). Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag
fr Musik.
Malm, W. P. 1967. Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East, and Asia. Englewood Cliffs,
N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Sachs, C. 1942. The History of Musical Instruments. London: Dent.
Sadokov, R. L. 1970. Musikal'naia Kultura Drevnego: Moscow: Izdatel'stvo 'Nauka'.
Wegner, M. 1962. Griechenland=Musikgeschichte in Bildern. 2 (4). Leipzig: VEB Deutscher
Verlag fr Musik.

Explanatory note
In the following articles the musical convention is followed whereby 'middle c'=c', a'=440
c.p.s., etc.

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