The Bottom Line
Pros
- In-depth, masterful examination of an incredibly wide range of ceramic musical instruments.
- The CD is outstanding in demonstrating various passages within the written text.
- Very well done demonstrations given to build five different instruments.
- Illustrations are excellent and show a wide range of instruments to peek creativity.
Cons
- May be overwhelming to some readers, and may not be to every potter's taste.
- Although there are how-to descriptions, this is not a book to take into the studio.
Description
- Hardbound, 8.5" x 11", 259 pages, fully illustrated. Published by the American Ceramic Society.
- Written by Barry Hall, a well-respected designer and builder of a wide variety of ceramic musical instruments.
- Ten chapters cover five broad instrument classifications, technical issues, and more. An accompanying CD contains 43 tracks.
Guide Review - Review of "From Mud to Music"
This is an absolutely fascinating look (and listen) at how clay has and can be used to create a vast number and types of musical instruments. Through clay and music, Hall introduces us to aspects of a variety of cultures. That is the stepping stone to understanding various instruments, how they developed in the past, how they are used at present, and how they are changing. Modern ceramic instruments can be fantastically modeled and objects of very real beauty, even before being sounded.
Hall includes a valuable chapter on technical issues of making clay instruments. Topics covered include the selection of clay, decorating and glazing, tuning and shrinkage, and making repairs. He also includes very concrete, fully illustrated demonstrations on how to make five specific instruments: a side-hole pot drum, an ocarina, a goblet drum, a side-blown flute, and a whistle flute.
The book comes with a CD, which contains 43 tracks of ceramic instrumental music. Some tracks are less "musical" than others, but all of them are fascinating. Several are wonderful pieces of music, including a rendition of Vivaldi's La Primavera performed on Budrio ocarinas. The CD really demonstrates the scope that clay has in the music world. It is also very much a part of the book, as passages reference specific tracks so that you can hear an example of what is being discussed.
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.