Musical Bodies

Name: Musical Bodies
Price: 82.95 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781588398130

E. Bradley Strauchen-Scherer

$82.95

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Metropolitan Museum of Art
26 May 2026

Decorative arts; Exhibition catalogues & specific collections; Human figures depicted in art; Musical instruments & instrumental ensembles

Musical instruments and their connection to the body as reflected in art, popular culture, and the human condition, from ancient ceremony to rock and roll

Musical Bodies explores the overlapping worlds and blurred boundaries between bodies and instruments across 5,000 years of art and music history. Whether we are tapping, clapping, vocalizing, or whistling, our bodies are musical instruments, and, in return, many instruments derive their form and decoration from the human body. Acting as powerful vehicles of identity, these objects complicate the notion of where bodies end and instrumental music-making begins. This interdisciplinary publication features some 130 musical instruments and related works of art, including paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, manuscripts, and costumes. Instruments considered range from Ancient Egyptian sistra and Renaissance figural fiddles to Tipu Sultan's mechanical organ in the shape of a tiger mauling a European soldier and the ""symbol"" guitar played by Prince.

E. Bradley Strauchen-Scherer conceives of instruments as bodies and beings, first establishing the ways bodies and instruments interact and entwine and then exploring how instruments reflect identity, sex, death, and the afterlife. Drawing on musicology, organology, anthropology, art, literature, religion, pop culture, and mythology, Musical Bodies is a fascinating exploration of music, art, and the human condition.

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press

By: E. Bradley Strauchen-Scherer
Imprint: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 267mm, Width: 229mm,
ISBN: 9781588398130
ISBN 10: 1588398137
Pages: 228
Publication Date: 26 May 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

E. Bradley Strauchen-Scherer is curator in the Department of Musical Instruments, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.