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Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic pictures
Review: This book is an exploration of 16th century Mughal paintings that include musicians and instruments. Much of the book is devoted to explaining the stories behind the paintings, starting with who was Akbar the Great? Wade elucidates the history of Akbar's family, and how they came to rule India. She relates the chronicles to scenes depicted in specific historical paintings. Each of the paintings includes musicians in some form, and Wade describes in detail the instruments that the musicians are playing and the reason for their inclusion in the work. The paintings themselves are exquisite, with 165 plates reproduced in black and white and 20 in full color. The book also includes family trees of the Mughals, maps, and a glossary of musical terms.Although the book is extraordinarily well done, it wasn't quite what I was looking for. From the title of the book, I had expected Wade to focus the text on the music of the Mughals rather than on their general history. I had expected more of the book to consider questions such as which instruments were played in Mughal times, how the instruments changed from then until now, and more generally, how much we can learn about the history of music by examining contemporary visual art works. Nevertheless, the book exemplifies excellent scholarship and it is, in itself, a magnificent work of art.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic pictures
Review: This book is an exploration of 16th century Mughal paintings that include musicians and instruments. Much of the book is devoted to explaining the stories behind the paintings, starting with who was Akbar the Great? Wade elucidates the history of Akbar's family, and how they came to rule India. She relates the chronicles to scenes depicted in specific historical paintings. Each of the paintings includes musicians in some form, and Wade describes in detail the instruments that the musicians are playing and the reason for their inclusion in the work. The paintings themselves are exquisite, with 165 plates reproduced in black and white and 20 in full color. The book also includes family trees of the Mughals, maps, and a glossary of musical terms. Although the book is extraordinarily well done, it wasn't quite what I was looking for. From the title of the book, I had expected Wade to focus the text on the music of the Mughals rather than on their general history. I had expected more of the book to consider questions such as which instruments were played in Mughal times, how the instruments changed from then until now, and more generally, how much we can learn about the history of music by examining contemporary visual art works. Nevertheless, the book exemplifies excellent scholarship and it is, in itself, a magnificent work of art.
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