Reviews
Paraphrasing the title of a by-gone bestseller, in this weighty yet lofty volume, you will find everything you ever wanted to know about enharmonics and have never dared ask … It is an authoritative concentrate, a collection of studies based on new documents and rare finds, demonstrating the level of maturity and excellence achieved by Italian research.
PIER PAOLO DONATI, Informazione Organistica, December 2008 (transl.)For once one can confidently venture an opinion that there is a book that will never be better or more reliably done in its area of expertise. … a major part was played in Italy by theorists, mathematicians and instrument-builders that, as Barbieri clearly implies, scholars and performers of Italian Renaissance music need to arm themselves with a grasp of what this spectacular culture understood of the notes of music.
PETER WILLIAMS, Musical Times, Spring 2009It will fascinate and stimulate not only many early-music performers but also a growing number of composers interested in microtonalism and/or just intonation. Every respectable musicological library should buy it.
MARK LINDLEY, Early Music, August 2009The scope, breath and detail of this fine study should ensure that it will remain the definitive work on this fascinating subject for the foreseeable future, and conceivably for ever.
DAVID HUMPHREYS, The Organ Yearbook, 2009Barbieri’s style of writing is derived from the sciences: brief and succint and quickly going from the premises to the conclusions. … Enharmonic instruments and music is certainly a book to be possessed, to be consulted and to be read by all those interested in the history of enharmonic instruments. One cannot say or write something about enharmonic instruments or enharmonic music any more without first referring to the information contained in Barbieri’s book.
RUDOLF RASCH, Thirty-one. The Journal of the Huygens-Fokker Foundation, Summer 2009A remarkable summing-up of nearly thirty years of research by Barbieri, Enharmonic Instruments is crammed full of minutely detailed information on enharmonicism.... Formulae, tables, charts, and mathematical explanations abound; but the material is accessible, and although not an easy read, it represents an exhaustive discussion of this arcane corner of our tonal system.
EDWARD L. KOTTICK, Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, 2009This book is a breathtaking study in its scope, and depth, of scholarship. As a result it is a ‘must’ for students of enharmonicity and temperament, and at Euro 60 it is remarkably good value.
CHARLES MOULD, The Galpin Society Journal, 2010Barbieri’s book is impressive and very thorough. It should be available in every academic music library and will be rewarding to musicians and composers interested in the intricacies of intonation and micro-intervals, ancient and modern. The book is a most welcome contribution to the history of instruments and tuning theory.
JESPER JERKERT, Svensk Tidskrift för Musikforskning (Swedish Journal of Musicology), 2010