This 1956 educational compilation was edited by famed German musicologist Curt Sachs (1881-1959). Sachs was a co-creator of the Sachs-Hornbostel system of musical instrument classification, which the album showcases using examples from previous Folkways recordings. The album begins with the most basic percussion, foot-stamping and hand-clapping. It continues with various membranophones (skin-sounders), idiophones (self-sounders), aerophones (wind instruments), and chordophones (stringed instruments), and finishes with various examples of orchestral combinations of them all. The liner notes include an introductory essay by Sachs along with photographs and a discography of the source material used.