Musical Instruments
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This 308-Year-Old Violin Could Become the Most Expensive Ever Sold
The “da Vinci, ex-Seidel” instrument's estimated worth is $20 Million
The World's Skinniest Skyscraper Has a Storied Musical Past
At 1,428 feet tall and just 60 feet wide, Steinway Tower is so slender that its top floors may sway in the wind
Each Guitar Reuben Forsland Makes Tells a Story
The Canadian luthier builds custom instruments from unique materials that deliver impeccable sound
The Legend of the Music Tree
Exotic lumber salvaged from a remote forest in Belize is the world’s most coveted tonewood
The Multiple Arts and Artistries of the Inimitable Laurie Anderson
A Hirshhorn retrospective opens with ten new works from the pioneering artist, composer, poet and musician
Why a String Quartet Set Sail on a Giant Violin in Venice's Grand Canal
Local artist Livio De Marchi views the wooden replica as a symbol of the Italian city's rebirth following Covid-19
At an Old Juke Joint in Mississippi, the Blues Are Alive
Jimmy Holmes is the last in a line of music legends as he seeks to keep a singular American art form thriving
How Does the West African Talking Drum Accurately Mimic Human Speech?
A new study explores how the dùndún replicates tones and patterns of the Yorùbá language
Researchers Turn Spider Webs Into Music
The eerie compositions offer humans an approximation of how spiders experience their surroundings through vibrations
Listen to the First Song Ever Recorded on This Ancient, Harp-Like Instrument
Tharun Sekar, a luthier based in southern India, has painstakingly recreated the long-lost yazh
A Brief History of the Harmonica
How the world’s handiest instrument took over American music
A Quest to Return the Banjo to Its African Roots
The Black Banjo Reclamation Project aims to put banjos into the hands of everyday people
Hear the Musical Sounds of an 18,000-Year-Old Giant Conch
The shell was played for the first time in millennia after being rediscovered in the collections of a French museum
Kid Ory Finally Gets the Encore He Deserves
The childhood home of the musician who put New Orleans jazz on the map will soon open to the public
The State of American Craft Has Never Been Stronger
Today’s craft renaissance is more than just an antidote to our over-automated world. It renews a way of life that made us who we are
How Young America Came to Love Beethoven
On the 250th anniversary of the famous composer’s birth, the story of how his music first took hold across the Atlantic
Inside the Monumental Effort to Restore Notre-Dame's Grand Organ
Workers spent four months painstakingly dismantling the musical instrument, which is only set to sound again in 2024
The Soviet Spy Who Invented the First Major Electronic Instrument
Created by a Russian engineer, the theremin has delighted and confounded audiences since 1920
Eddie Van Halen on How Necessity Drives Innovation
The rock star, who died on October 6 at age 65, said that perfection is boring and mistakes are the "most exciting element of music"
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