This second volume of the Guide to Musical/Period/Early Instruments explores the history of musical instruments in the period from 1800 to 1950. Its purpose is both to discuss improvements and transformations of instruments dating from before 1800 and to investigate all the novelties thought up by instrument makers during this era.

All these developments took place in a context in which the process of instrument making moved from artisans’ workshops to commercial firms which became veritable factories, typical of the ‘age of industrialisation’. The majority of the musical examples are recordings of individual instruments that allow us to hear timbres often lost under the weight of the orchestral mass.This second volume of the Guide follows the same principles as the first. The text by Jérôme Lejeune is illustrated by numerous photos of instruments and other iconographic sources; a set of eight CDs, arranged in thematic programmes (‘The orchestra of Berlioz’, ‘Salon music’, ‘Vienna in the time of Beethoven’, ‘Wagner and instrumental innovations’, ‘The Sax workshop’, etc.), illustrates all these instrumental discoveries in sound.

Unlike the first Guide, this second volume will be released in two versions, one in French, the other in English. Merely developed the instruments of Beethoven’s orchestra will be surprised to discover an incredible number of instruments that enjoyed only a short lease of life, but also many that brought new colours to the orchestra.