FROM THESE COMES MUSIC

Subtitled Instrument of the Hand and Orchestra here is a wonderful collection of instruments by classes- strings, winds and percussions- that describes the instruments themselves as to history, how they are played, their tonal place in the orchestra, and when, in the annals of musicology, their functions have been especially noteworthy. That bagpipes speak as one, that Berlioz was responsible for the full use of the trombone, that Koussevitzky toured as a bass soloist before he was a conductor -- are a pinpoint gathering of the many very readably chronicled facts. An extensive book that will please older music lovers too.