Microsoft Musical Instruments

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The opening title screen of this "interactive journey into the world of musical instruments" is followed by a "Contents" window that groups information in four partitions: 1. Families of Instruments, 2. Musical Ensembles, 3. Instruments of the World, consisting of maps showing simplistically where various instruments can be found, and 4. A-Z of Instruments, which provides for either straight alphabetical or random access traversal of the individual instruments on the CD. The Families of Instruments section is oddly divided into Brass, Strings, Woodwinds, Keyboards, and Percussion, and the concept of instrument families is expanded here to refer to any cluster or grouping of instruments that has a similar appearance or similar mechanical or acoustical design. This is an unusual premise for musicians, but it could be potentially useful to the casual observer. A tighter linkage between this family concept and the more traditional Sachs/Hornbostel classification system would improve the package.

The Musical Ensembles section is divided into Orchestras, Wind Bands, Jazz Bands, Steel Bands, Gamelans, Chamber Groups, and Rock Bands. Some of the information in the "Orchestras" subsection is problematic. The diagram for the baroque orchestra matches few contemporaneous seating diagrams found in the treatises and didactic manuals, …