Books by Jeremy Montagu

In The Shofar: Its History and Use, Jeremy Montagu offers a detailed study of the ram's horn of the Bible, describing its history and use, both ritual and secular, from biblical times to the present day. Because most of those who hear--and use--the shofar hear the same blower each year during the Jewish high holidays, few are aware of the wide differences among communities around the world in which the shofar-blowing tradition exists, the varying points in the Jewish liturgical service when the shofar is blown, what sound combinations and even possibilities exist, and the many varieties extant. This is an ideal work for Jews and Christians, scholars of religion and musicologists, and even practicing musicians seeking to understand the critical role played by this instrument in the life of a people.

The Montagu Collection, of worldwide coverage and all types of instruments, began to take shape in the early 1960s when what had been a small and very random collection was then rapidly expanded to illustrate lectures and to provide material for research on all aspects of organology.

A history of percussion instruments from the Old Stone Age to the present day. Jeremy Montagu, a performer, historian, and curator of musical instruments, discusses common and uncommon percussion instruments from all parts of the world, tracing their development and use through the ages.

Humanity has blown horns and trumpets of various makes and models, lengths and diameters since prehistoric times. In Horns and Trumpets of the World, the eminent scholar Jeremy Montagu surveys the vast range in time and type of this instrument that has accompanied everything in human history from the war cry to the formal symphony, from the hunting call to the modern jazz performance. No work on this topic offers as much detail or so many illustrations-over 150, in fact-of this remarkable instrument. Montagu's examination looks at horns constructed from seaweed, cane, bamboo, shell, wood, ivory, and metal and encompasses instruments of the Bible, from the Bronze and Iron Ages, the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods, and, following the Industrial Revolution, the modern era.

Origins and Development of Musical Instruments describes the creation, use, and development of musical instruments from the Old Stone Age to the present day. Musical instruments, from the simplest whistles to the most complex organs, conch trumpets to sousaphones, archers' and musical bows to violins and pianos, the most basic straw reeds to the modern MIDI systems, and pairs of stones struck together to synthesizers, are all described here by instrument collector and expert Jeremy Montagu. Montagu speculates on how these instruments originated in the earliest days of humanity and relates how they moved from one culture to another through history, all the while changing and developing until they became the instruments we know today. The book also surveys the present uses of instruments throughout the world. Each chapter is devoted to a different type of instrument. Intervals and additional sections enhance the volume with information on musicians, the Medieval Renaissance, the ideal accompaniment, archaeology, symbiotic and newly created instruments, classification of instruments, scales and music, and some of the problems of acoustics. This comprehensive volume is illustrated with over 120 photos capturing several hundred instruments from all over the world; many of them from the author's own collection of over 2,500 instruments. A copious bibliography of sources, three indexes, and a series of maps make this a priceless resource.

For everyone who's read the Bible and wondered what David's harp, or Nebuchadnezzar's sackbut and cornett really were, Jeremy Montagu, retired curator of Oxford's Bate Collection of Historical Instruments, has composed an astoundingly thorough investigation and explanation of the musical instruments that pepper the pages of Western Civilization's most holy book. This is a detailed study of all the musical instruments mentioned in the Bible, using the resources of linguistics, organology, and ethnomusicology to identify and describe them. Every reference to an instrument is noted and all the misconceptions of translation are corrected. The Bible, as we know it in English, is a translation, and the history of biblical translations into Aramaic, Greek, Latin and other languages is one of guesswork. The substitution of the musical instruments from the translator's era for those of the original author is as common as it is overlooked. Jubal did not have an organ, nor David a harp. This book uses all the resources available to establish what each instrument really was, what it looked like, and how it was played and is arranged in the same order as the King James Bible, with explanation where this differs from other versions in English. As well as a full bibliography, there are three indexes. The first is of Biblical Citations so that readers may check every mention in the Bible from its chapter and verse. The second is a quadrilingual parallel citation in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, so that each reference can be crosschecked. The third is a general index. The four biblical languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin, are used to the full, and the original texts are cited frequently. There are 18 illustrations, some of which are archeological remains, some ethnographic parallels, and one is of the sole biblical instrument still in regular use: the ram's horn which brought down the walls of Jericho. Musical Instruments of the Bible is perfect for university theology and comparative religion depa