Vienna Musical Instrument Museum Facing Closure

[adrian brown]

I have just heard this afternoon that there are plans afoot to close the Musical Instrument Department (SAM) of the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum. I realise this may have little relevance to the concertina community, since there are not many free reed instruments there. However, the Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente in Vienna is probably the most important collection of western musical instruments in the world, and closure would be a huge loss to both the musical community and European culture. It also comes on the back of recent similar closures in Den Haag (Gemeentemuseum) and London (V&A). So if you are interested in the history of musical instruments in general, please sign and forward (the petition is in German):

https://www.change.org/p/bundespr%C3%A4sident-der-republik-%C3%B6sterreich-dr-heinz-fischer-in-der-wiener-hofburg-droht-der-sammlung-alter-musikinstrumente-das-aus-stimmen-sie-f%C3%BCr-den-erhalt-dieser-international-renommierten-ausstellung

Adrian

[Chris Drinkwater]

I have just heard this afternoon that there are plans afoot to close the Musical Instrument Department (SAM) of the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum. I realise this may have little relevance to the concertina community, since there are not many free reed instruments there. However, the Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente in Vienna is probably the most important collection of western musical instruments in the world, and closure would be a huge loss to both the musical community and European culture. It also comes on the back of recent similar closures in Den Haag (Gemeentemuseum) and London (V&A). So if you are interested in the history of musical instruments in general, please sign and forward (the petition is in German):

 

https://www.change.org/p/bundespr%C3%A4sident-der-republik-%C3%B6sterreich-dr-heinz-fischer-in-der-wiener-hofburg-droht-der-sammlung-alter-musikinstrumente-das-aus-stimmen-sie-f%C3%BCr-den-erhalt-dieser-international-renommierten-ausstellung

 

Adrian

 

Thanks for alerting us to this thoughtless action to close their collection, Adrian. Whatever the reason, it's absolutely disgraceful and will do considerable damage to our music culture and heritage, past, present and future. Signed!

 

Chris

[Geoff Wooff]

Many of the instruments on which I base my work as a maker are housed in museums, but because those instruments are often rare beyond worth there are plenty of musicians who deplore what they view as the locking up and silencing of those special voices from our past. I am not of that mind however and see these precious collections as 'information larders' without which we researchers would have an almost impossible task and the availability of new instruments would be all the poorer.

 

Thanks Adrian.

 

Geoff.

Edited March 17, 2015 by Geoff Wooff

[adrian brown]

 

 

Thanks for alerting us to this thoughtless action to close their collection, Adrian. Whatever the reason, it's absolutely disgraceful and will do considerable damage to our music culture and heritage, past, present and future. Signed!

 

Chris

 

And when you think Chris, of how shamelessly Vienna markets itself on its musical heritage....

 

Many of the instruments on which I base my work as a maker are housed in museums, but because those instruments are often rare beyond worth there are plenty of musicians who deplore what they view as the locking up and silencing of those special voices from our past. I am not of that mind however and see these precious collections as 'information larders' without which we researchers would have an almost impossible task and the availability of new instruments would be all the poorer.

 

Thanks Adrian.

 

Geoff.

"Information larders" is a great term Geoff, which cuts to the heart of the restoration/conservation debate. In the 20th century, some terrible things were done to historical instruments in museum collections before a distinction was made between the two, often causing irreparable damage and the loss of vital information to an instrument's original state. To their credit, the Kunsthistorisches Museum's rather draconian access policies have meant their collection is today in a more healthy and better preserved state than in many other museums. With an 'information larder', you at least hope that subsequent generations of makers and players will have the possibility of learning more from these artefacts using their improved technology. For example, I was lucky enough to work on compiling the museum's renaissance recorder catalogue between 2000-2 and used a specially made digital internal calliper to measure the bores. At the time, this was the 'bees knees' in terms of non-intrusive measurement, allowing me to go in from the "small end" and measure to an accuracy of 0.05mm. However a mere 8 years later, when they came to do the same for the cornettos and serpents, increased access to CAT technology meant they were able to make CAT scans of the instruments and mouthpieces giving detail and accuracy, unimaginable only a few years earlier. Surviving numbers of concertinas and other 19th century free reeds are of course in a completely different league from the relatively few surviving renaissance woodwinds. But still the rate at which our generation restores them, I'm quite happy for a representative selection of concertinas to be conserved in museums, for the benefit of our successors …

 

Adrian

[JimLucas]

I ... see these precious collections as 'information larders' without which we researchers would have an almost impossible task and the availability of new instruments would be all the poorer.

 

Musical "gene banks"?

[Geoff Wooff]

 

I ... see these precious collections as 'information larders' without which we researchers would have an almost impossible task and the availability of new instruments would be all the poorer.

 

Musical "gene banks"?

 

Who ? .

 

Seriously though; see the instrument I am strapped into in my portrait (top left)... it is one of only two completely original sets of Pipes by one of the most renowned early 19th century makers ( that are currently known) .... we only know of nine or ten surviving examples and only one now in a museum ( after two others were stolen from museums in England... which perhaps shows how desperate some people were to use those classic sounds.

 

There are other famous maker's instruments from that period which can be studied but the number of good survivors are very few.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Geoff Wooff