Musical instruments
Musical instruments are the tools used to make music; due to differences in musical instruments, similar musical ideas can sound different. Some acoustic instruments, such as drums and flutes, have existed since prehistoric times, but in the last few hundred years the number of instruments has grown to a multitude, and they have been supplemented by a variety of electronic instruments since the 19th century. This travel topic mentions destinations related to musical instruments.
Understand
| “ | I have a song here which, I realize, should be accompanied on a folk instrument, in which category the piano does not, alas, qualify. So imagine, if you will, that I am playing an 88-string guitar! | ” |
—Tom Lehrer | ||
There are a few instruments that, in various forms, have existed in various forms and seem to be international: forms of the flute, harp, and drums all have long histories (and for the flute and percussion instruments, prehistories) as instruments, and may appear under other names in ancient works like the Bible and Indian music theory treatises and lots of iconography from ancient Egypt, China and many other civilizations. Many other instruments have been developed since then. The Industrial Revolution helped spur additional musical inventions and controversial technical improvements that made it possible to play louder, higher and lower but gave up some subtleties in exchange. Electronics have added a wide variety of additional scopes to even the concept of musical instruments: for example, a computer can itself be a musical instrument. In addition, many innovative techniques have been introduced, probably since time immemorial, but this is documented since at least the turn of the 17th century in Western music. However, alongside all the change and innovation, many traditional instruments have remained in more or less their traditional forms and some performance styles have even remained broadly similar for centuries or more, while other old instruments have enjoyed revivals.
In short, while many musical instruments have gone out of fashion, this is nevertheless probably the time in history with the largest variety of instruments to see and hear. This topic hopes to give you just a little direction in such a potentially inexhaustible quest; the rest is up to you.
Instrument-related destinations
Flute
Flute is one of the most ancient instruments, with flutes made of bone having been found in digs well into prehistory. Today, instruments of the flute/recorder family are widespread and found in many varieties around the world.
- China is one country where traditional flutes (dizi) are for sale. As with anything else there, be careful about quality, as wooden flutes can crack, for example.
Guitar
The town of Paracho in Michoacan, Mexico calls itself the "guitar capital of the world". More than 200 workshops specialize in guitars, some call themselves luthiers, others prefer the term guitarerros.
Violin
- Cremona is where the famous maker of violins and other string instruments, Stradivari, had his workshop.
Piano
- Steinway has factories in Astoria, Queens, New York and Hamburg, Germany. You can tour these factories and also buy pianos there.
Drums
- West African countries are great places to find drums. Brazil is also an excellent source, in that case of Afro-Brazilian percussion instruments among others.
Museums
Many national and regional museums have a small selection of local musical instruments. Some more specialist museums are listed here.
- 1 National Film and Sound Archive, Acton, Canberra. Not specific to "musical instruments", but this museum preserves over 3 million items relating to archives of films, television, radio and sound recordings, video games, new media and related documents and artifacts, and musical instruments too.
- 2 Australian Jazz Museum, South-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Established to preserve the jazz history of Australia and has several jazz instruments on display.
- 3 Musical Instruments Museum (Musée des Instruments de Musique or Muziekinstrumentenmuseum), Pentagon, Brussels. The museum houses more than 7000 instruments, from all times and all over the world. The museum’s reputation is built on its extraordinary collection. The exhibits are displayed on four floors featuring a wide range of instruments from all time periods and areas of the world. An infrared headphone
- 4 Museum for Oriental Musical Instruments (东方乐器博物馆) (Xuhui District, Shanghai). A museum run by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. It has a collection of around 800 musical instruments from over 40 countries.
Gulangyu is an island in Xiamen, China that is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, mainly for fine architecture from a period of European occupation 1840s-1930s. It has both a piano museum and an organ museum.
- 5 Gulangyu Piano Museum. This museum was built by a wealthy Taiwanese businessman who fled to Xiamen when Japan took over Taiwan in 1895.
- Gulangyu Organ Museum. This museum was built much later but has some fine old instruments, some from European churches.
- 6 Museo del Acordeón, Valledupar. Small regional museum dedicated to accordions in general, and their use in vallenato music in particular. Two tours per day (more during the annual Valledupar Vallenato Festival), advance reservations requested.
- 7 Berlin Musical Instrument Museum, Mitte Berlin. Museum established in 1888, with a collection of 3,500 instruments.
- 8 Museum of Greek Popular Musical Instruments, Athens. A very interesting museum which includes exhibits of traditional Greek musical instruments, with recordings of most of them.
- 11 Palacio de la Musica, Mérida. Large state-of-the-art museum that chronicles the story of Mexican music from the oldest Mesoamerican indigenous societies through the varied regional genres of today's music scene in Mexico. Most exhibits and descriptions are in Spanish only. Large collection of musical instruments.
- 12 Casa Museo de la Marimba Nandayapa, Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas. Small cultural museum with five galleries explaining the history, manufacture, and cultural traditions surrounding the marimba.
- 13 Whittaker's Music Museum, Waiheke Island. Collection of accordions, pianos, organs and the like. Learn their history and the period they were made for.
- 14 Music Museum, Basel. The museum is part of the Basel Historical Museum, and has a collection of 650 instruments including a drum dating from 1571.
- 15 Gurminj Museum of Musical Instruments (Gurminj Museum, Музей музыкальных инструментов), Dushanbe. This small museum has an interesting variety of Central Asian musical instruments as string instruments example: rubab, Pamiri rubab, tanbur, dutor, setor, qashqar, and ghizhak. There are also number of drums such as tabl, daf, and doyra. That alone is worth a peek if you like instruments, but better still is to go when a musical or cultural event is being held, or hope to catch the folk musicians who practice there and can demo many of the instruments in the collection.
- 16 Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, Oxford. Museum with a collection of 2000 instruments, run by the University of Oxford. The collection focuses on orchestral instruments. free.
- 17 Royal College of Music, South Kensington, London, info@rcm.ac.uk. The free museum houses instruments dating back to the 15th century with several unusual pieces. Performances by students, professors or visitors are often free.
- 18 The Musical Museum, West London. Something of an undiscovered gem. The museum houses a vast collection of working automatic musical instruments, from barrel organs to player pianos and beyond. Tours are highly recommended, as is the opportunity to listen to the Mighty Wurlitzer. The venue also hosts occasional cinema screenings of classic films (preceded by music from the Mighty Wurlitzer, or - in the case of silent film - accompanied by it). Among the unusual (and hard-to-find) items usually available in the gift shop are clocks made from 78 rpm shellac discs, and original Welte Mignon Reproducing Piano Rolls.
- 19 St Cecilia's Hall - Concert Room and Music Museum, Edinburgh Old Town. St Cecilia's Hall is Scotland's oldest purpose-built concert hall. It opened in 1763 and has the University of Edinburgh collection of historic musical instruments (16th to 20th century) that focuses mostly on instruments no longer in use today. Concerts and other events take place in the concert room.
- 20 The Museum of Piping, Glasgow. The home of the bagpipes shows 300 years of piping history, mainly showing Scottish bagpipes, but also showing Northumbrian pipes and some from Poland, Hungary, Italy and Spain, and teaches piping.
- 21 American Banjo Museum, Downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. A world class museum dedicated to celebrating the music and heritage of the banjo. See the largest collection of banjos on public display in the world and witness the history of the banjo from its African roots, throughout its heyday during the Roaring 20s to its present day voice in bluegrass, folk and world music.
- 22 DeBence Antique Music World, Franklin, Pennsylvania. A museum dedicated to antiques related to music, such as phonographs, organs, and player pianos. Not only do visitors get to learn about the music-makers, you also get to hear all of them played.
- 23 Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), Central Park, Manhattan. Its large and varied Music Department contains historical instruments from many parts of the world. One highlight is a beautiful, ornately decorated fortepiano made by Bartolomeo Cristofori, the man credited with the invention of the piano c. 1700. Some of the historical instruments are used in performances at the museum, or if you're a professional musician, you may be able to get permission to play one; email ahead to inquire.
- 24 Musical Instrument Museum (MIM), Phoenix, Arizona. Has many exhibits where you can see and hear the history of music from around the world. There's also a room for kids of all ages to try out instruments.
- 25 National Music Museum (NMM), Vermillion (South Dakota). The NMM's renowned collections, which include more than 15,000 American, European, and non-Western instruments from all cultures and historical periods, are among the world's most inclusive. They include many of the earliest, best preserved, and historically most important instruments known to survive.
- 26 Yale Collection of Musical Instruments, New Haven, Connecticut. Collection established in 1900, with later additions.