The orchestra a chronicle of the human collective

"The history of the orchestra is like the chronicle of an old family, or, more correctly, the story of a conflict between many old families, who finally put aside their differences and unite in front of the common goal: the governance of the state. Today's orchestra appears to us as a perfectly normal combination of various instruments and families of instruments: strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion. It took more than a century and a half, however, until these instruments were selected from among a vast number of others, and until it was made clear what their place would be, so that each would perform a specific function within the whole. (. . .) (FROM THE PRESENTATION ON THE BACK COVER OF THE BOOK)