Jeremy Montagu is former curator of the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments and lecturer at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, University of Oxford. He is also the president of the Galpin Society, the premier international society for the study of musical instruments. He is the author of a variety of books on musical instruments, including Musical Instruments of the Bible (Scarecrow Press, 2001), Origins and Development of Musical Instruments (Scarecrow Press, 2007), and Horns and Trumpets of the World (Rowman and Littlefield, 2014). A resident of Oxford, England, he has blown the shofar in synagogues since the early 1960s and is a regular worshipper in the synagogue there.

A distinguished scholar of musical instruments, Montagu combines, in his inimitable way, minutely researched scholarship with personal anecdotes and humor. Only he could have written this volume on the shofar, the ancient instrument used in Jewish religious practices. Drawing on his own collection of musical instruments, his experience as a blower of the shofar, and his deep knowledge of Jewish thought, Montagu presents a typology of 16 varieties of shofar, plus instructions on how to choose one, how to make one, how to play it, and who may play it. The most important use of the shofar is for Rosh Hashanah—when it is ‘not a musical instrument [but] instead, a voice, a call from heaven’—but Montagu includes a chapter on its secular use, noting its survival as ‘the oldest musical instrument in written history that is still in use.’ More than 30 instruments are described, their inscriptions cataloged, the theological sources plumbed deeply. This little book will become ‘the’ book on the shofar. And praise is due the publisher for laminating the would-be dust jacket to the covers, thus preserving the photos that would have otherwise been lost in shelving the book in a library. All books should be published this way. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

• List of IllustrationsList of Musical ExamplesTransliterationAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Description and Preliminary HistoryChapter 2: Liturgical UseChapter 3: The Sounding of the ShofarChapter 4: Who can Blow and on WhatChapter 5: The Secular Uses of the ShofarChapter 6: Making a ShofarChapter 7: How to Choose and How to Blow a ShofarChapter 8: Shofar Typology, Old and NewChapter 9: The Shofar and its Meaning Chapter 10: Biblical, Talmudic, and Post Talmudic SourcesAppendix 1: Shofar InscriptionsAppendix 2: Details of all the Shofars IllustratedBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Jeremy Montagu is former curator of the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments and lecturer at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, University of Oxford. He is also the president of the Galpin Society, the premier international society for the study of musical instruments. He is the author of a variety of books on musical instruments, including Musical Instruments of the Bible (Scarecrow Press, 2001), Origins and Development of Musical Instruments (Scarecrow Press, 2007), and Horns and Trumpets of the World (Rowman and Littlefield, 2014). A resident of Oxford, England, he has blown the shofar in synagogues since the early 1960s and is a regular worshipper in the synagogue there.

A distinguished scholar of musical instruments, Montagu combines, in his inimitable way, minutely researched scholarship with personal anecdotes and humor. Only he could have written this volume on the shofar, the ancient instrument used in Jewish religious practices. Drawing on his own collection of musical instruments, his experience as a blower of the shofar, and his deep knowledge of Jewish thought, Montagu presents a typology of 16 varieties of shofar, plus instructions on how to choose one, how to make one, how to play it, and who may play it. The most important use of the shofar is for Rosh Hashanah—when it is ‘not a musical instrument [but] instead, a voice, a call from heaven’—but Montagu includes a chapter on its secular use, noting its survival as ‘the oldest musical instrument in written history that is still in use.’ More than 30 instruments are described, their inscriptions cataloged, the theological sources plumbed deeply. This little book will become ‘the’ book on the shofar. And praise is due the publisher for laminating the would-be dust jacket to the covers, thus preserving the photos that would have otherwise been lost in shelving the book in a library. All books should be published this way. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

• List of IllustrationsList of Musical ExamplesTransliterationAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Description and Preliminary HistoryChapter 2: Liturgical UseChapter 3: The Sounding of the ShofarChapter 4: Who can Blow and on WhatChapter 5: The Secular Uses of the ShofarChapter 6: Making a ShofarChapter 7: How to Choose and How to Blow a ShofarChapter 8: Shofar Typology, Old and NewChapter 9: The Shofar and its Meaning Chapter 10: Biblical, Talmudic, and Post Talmudic SourcesAppendix 1: Shofar InscriptionsAppendix 2: Details of all the Shofars IllustratedBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Jeremy Montagu is former curator of the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments and lecturer at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, University of Oxford. He is also the president of the Galpin Society, the premier international society for the study of musical instruments. He is the author of a variety of books on musical instruments, including Musical Instruments of the Bible (Scarecrow Press, 2001), Origins and Development of Musical Instruments (Scarecrow Press, 2007), and Horns and Trumpets of the World (Rowman and Littlefield, 2014). A resident of Oxford, England, he has blown the shofar in synagogues since the early 1960s and is a regular worshipper in the synagogue there.

A distinguished scholar of musical instruments, Montagu combines, in his inimitable way, minutely researched scholarship with personal anecdotes and humor. Only he could have written this volume on the shofar, the ancient instrument used in Jewish religious practices. Drawing on his own collection of musical instruments, his experience as a blower of the shofar, and his deep knowledge of Jewish thought, Montagu presents a typology of 16 varieties of shofar, plus instructions on how to choose one, how to make one, how to play it, and who may play it. The most important use of the shofar is for Rosh Hashanah—when it is ‘not a musical instrument [but] instead, a voice, a call from heaven’—but Montagu includes a chapter on its secular use, noting its survival as ‘the oldest musical instrument in written history that is still in use.’ More than 30 instruments are described, their inscriptions cataloged, the theological sources plumbed deeply. This little book will become ‘the’ book on the shofar. And praise is due the publisher for laminating the would-be dust jacket to the covers, thus preserving the photos that would have otherwise been lost in shelving the book in a library. All books should be published this way. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

• List of IllustrationsList of Musical ExamplesTransliterationAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Description and Preliminary HistoryChapter 2: Liturgical UseChapter 3: The Sounding of the ShofarChapter 4: Who can Blow and on WhatChapter 5: The Secular Uses of the ShofarChapter 6: Making a ShofarChapter 7: How to Choose and How to Blow a ShofarChapter 8: Shofar Typology, Old and NewChapter 9: The Shofar and its Meaning Chapter 10: Biblical, Talmudic, and Post Talmudic SourcesAppendix 1: Shofar InscriptionsAppendix 2: Details of all the Shofars IllustratedBibliographyIndexAbout the Author