Musical Instrument Museum - Phoenix

[Ken_Coles]

Hi all,

 

Time to report on a visit to the Musical Instrument Museum. I hadn't heard of it; turns out it opened in the spring of 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona. My wife and I visited on Nov. 30 and ended up spending 5 hours. More on the free reeds after a note that it is a good place to see all the many forms of the sheng/khaen and other ancestors of our favorite instruments!

 

The web site gives you a feel for the museum here. Instruments are not always displayed in the country of origin: I could not spot a harmonium in the displays for India, but there was one in the South America gallery, where they are used in Indian-derived music.

 

When I finally got to the Europe gallery, I spotted this at "Ireland:"

 

 

A close look will reveal that this Lachenal is resting on its top.

 

Nearby is the display for England, Scotland, Wales, where I saw this:

 

 

Next to the Harry Potter fiddle we see...a Wheatstone EC with the pinkie rests at the top and the thumbstraps (what survives of them) at the bottom.

 

Around the corner is a great free reed display:

 

 

Yup, that's the air button you can see near the left "bottom" (as displayed) of a Lachenal/Vickers anglo. Usually it is at the the top right, yes? That's where it is in the video of John Williams playing a Jeffries anglo in the video at the same display. Is there a pattern here?

 

Finally, in the North America gallery we see a masterpiece!:

 

 

["Wheatstone" on the display label may refer to the fingering layout? Frank can probably tell us.] While this one is not quite upside down, I would certainly rotate it for display.

 

I am sending a note to the museum congratulating them and saying I will encourage everyone I know to visit (and I do encourage you to do so, if you love music). And I will gently chide them about concertinas down under. [if you are viewing the displays from Australia they are all right side up, of course!] The accordions, by the way, were at least randomly oriented, many right side up and a only a few inverted. Or are lots of people playing concertina the other way round? Gee I never knew!

 

Ken

[Jim Besser]

I was there last year; it's an amazing place, well worth a visit.

[Frank Edgley]

Yes, it is a Wheatstone-fingered concertina made by myself. The really don't know how to display them do they?

[Peter Laban]

Ah yes, that's the museum that went on a marketing offensive a few years ago declaring on all sorts of websites they were the first and only museum in the world dedicated to musical instruments. I never worked out if that was hubris or ignorance.

 

The other, much older and ironically bearing the same name, MIM in Brussels is worth seeing too : MIM Brussels

[Ken_Coles]

The short history they give states that their founder was inspired by a visit to Brussels.

 

Ken

[Peter Laban]

I saw that.

 

Looks like a nice place to look around.

Edited December 4, 2011 by Peter Laban

[Daniel Hersh]

Ah yes, that's the museum that went on a marketing offensive a few years ago declaring on all sorts of websites they were the first and only museum in the world dedicated to musical instruments. I never worked out if that was hubris or ignorance.

 

The other, much older and ironically bearing the same name, MIM in Brussels is worth seeing too : MIM Brussels

There's another one in the US too, in South Dakota.