World Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments

Rating:
Summary: Glaring Omissions!
Review: I saw this book bound with another as the Encyclopedia of Music with Wendy Thompson in the US marked down to a mere ... I think I know why it was marked down.

As I picked it up and naturally went to the strings section. Two items stood out as very poor research, not to mention bad fact-checking!

(1) There was no mention of the mountain dulcimer! Thousands upon thousands play this loved instrument in the U.S. and Canada. That's a pretty glaring ommission!

(2) There was a picture of a hammered dulcimer, simply called a dulcimer. The caption said the hammered dulcimer was _restricted_ to Switzerland and Austria?? Again, a LOT of people (thousands) in the U.S. and Canada play this instrument.

Let's face it, in today's world just going to Amazon.com and searching would have gotten more dulcimer facts. There are thousands of dulcimer recordings to find with minimal effort.

I play both of these, and for a self-proclaimed "Encyclopedia" to have any credibility, it at least needs to try to be complete.

This represents a poor effort at best.

Rating:
Summary: Glaring Omissions!
Review: I saw this book bound with another as the Encyclopedia of Music with Wendy Thompson in the US marked down to a mere ... I think I know why it was marked down.

As I picked it up and naturally went to the strings section. Two items stood out as very poor research, not to mention bad fact-checking!

(1) There was no mention of the mountain dulcimer! Thousands upon thousands play this loved instrument in the U.S. and Canada. That's a pretty glaring ommission!

(2) There was a picture of a hammered dulcimer, simply called a dulcimer. The caption said the hammered dulcimer was _restricted_ to Switzerland and Austria?? Again, a LOT of people (thousands) in the U.S. and Canada play this instrument.

Let's face it, in today's world just going to Amazon.com and searching would have gotten more dulcimer facts. There are thousands of dulcimer recordings to find with minimal effort.

I play both of these, and for a self-proclaimed "Encyclopedia" to have any credibility, it at least needs to try to be complete.

This represents a poor effort at best.