| Sumario: | Analysis on how musical instruments embody global processes from the early modern period to today. European instruments were crafted from materials sourced through colonial trade networks—such as South American hardwoods, ivory, ebony, and tortoiseshell—revealing deep entanglements between music, empire, and commerce. Decorative programs, including the allegorical harpsichord lid preserved at the Rijksmuseum, projected images of global power and exchange. The essay also traces the transcontinental circulation and transformation of instruments such as the banjo, charango, and sheng, highlighting cultural encounters shaped by slavery, migration, and adaptation to local resources. Irving emphasizes recent shifts in organology toward global history, environmental awareness, and sustainability, engaging debates on the Anthropocene and resource exploitation. Musical instruments thus emerge not merely as sound-producing objects but as material witnesses to interconnected histories of extraction, inequality, creativity, and globalization.
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