abstracts
The 2009 CIMCIM conference will be articulated in three sessions of papers
(20 min. + 5 min. for discussion) trying to offer a critical
perspective as wide as possible of the present role of musical
instruments in the idea
of national heritage. To this aim the sessions will deal with public
display, preservation and legal protection
of musical instruments.
A fourth session will be dedicated to free posters (15 min. +
5 min. for discussion) where speakers can illustrate the present
state of ongoing projects, recent or planned exhibitions and
publications relevant to the field
of musical instrument museums and collections.
Abstracts of the accepted papers of the Galpin / AMIS
sessions organized in Rome on Thursday, September 10th can be viewed
at
www.galpinsociety.org/gxrt.html
Abstracts of the accepted papers of the Historic Brass Society
sessions organized in Rome on Friday, September 11th are in this
page, at the end of CIMCIM sessions abstracts.
CIMCIM SESSIONS
1)
new museums and innovative presentation
of musical instruments
Key Paper: Renato Meucci (University of Milan and
Conservatory of Music of Novara)
The renewal of the permanent exhibition of the Musée de
la musique de Paris. New tools for a museography open to all publics.
Thierry Maniguet (curator, Musée de la musique, Paris)
While keeping the general aesthetics of the museum and the
principles of the museography that were successful, the display of
the permanent collections evolves substantially to evocate musical
repertoires little represented until now, mostly those of the 20th
and 21st . Also, a bigger place is given to the music of the
extra-western cultures.
New audio tour and multimedia devices offer a putting in context -
musical, social and historic - considerably enriched: musical
samples allow the public to listen to instruments from the
collection and to appreciate the musical environment of a particular
place or of a specific period. About forty films come to enhance
this putting in context by handing over to
composers, musicians, musicologists or instrument makers.
A special attention has been given to adapt the visit to various
public: parents and children have a personalized audio tour and
specific tools for the visit (exhibition panels, guidebook, booklet…).
Furthermore, special equipments have been developed for disabled
visitors (people with reduced mobility, hearing-impaired,
partially-sighted or blind persons)
A Tale of Two Museums.
Darryl Martin (University of
Edinburgh)
The public display of musical instruments at the University of Edinburgh
is divided between two separate buildings - the Reid Concert Hall,
built in 1869 in which the present
display space was part of the building's original design,
and St Cecilia's Hall, built as a concert hall in
1763 and opened to house the keyboard instrument collection in 1968.
In 2005 the lower public room at St Cecilia's Hall - the Laigh Room
- was fitted with state-of-the-art display cases to house plucked
string instruments which were formerly at the Reid Concert Hall.
The Reid Concert Hall is the oldest surviving musical
instrument museum building still in use (although some other
collections are, of course, older) and is therefore, to some extent,
a "museum of a museum". While it is possible to change the
exhibits it is not possible to change the actual showcase layout or
placement. The new display at St Cecilia's Hall, on the other
hand, was designed with no such constraints, the brief being to
create a display that could be adapted to changing demands of the
public.
This paper will discuss the issues relating to these two
museums (and, more widely, the buildings in which they
are housed) and the three display spaces within them (including the
keyboard instruments). The drawbacks of plural sites, both
which have other (albeit musical) uses will be considered, as well
as some of the advantages and unique selling points which have
arisen.
In Search Of Sustainable Climate Conditioning.
Alfons Huber (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien)
In the last decades most of the European Museums,
including those of musical instruments, underwent profound
reconstructions and refurbishments. In search of the ideal climate
control system many house-technique concepts were based on technical
air conditioning. But AC is a very expensive technology and moreover
requires a lot of space, maintenance and servicing. But often enough
it does not keep what planers and technicians promised. Already in
the 1990ies the Museums and Galleries Commission in
London
has shown in a study that AC is not necessarily the best but in any
case the most expensive solution. The study proved, that the
constancy as well as the range of temperature and relative humidity
(RH) in buildings with natural ventilation, controlled air exchange
and simple humidifying in many cases are significantly better than
technically sophisticated modern installations. Realizing these
facts, the inherent qualities of historical museum buildings of the
19th and early 20th century were revaluated. This coincides with my
own experience in the last 26 years, when I rediscovered the
cleverly designed, but during WW2
inactivated original ventilation system of the Neue Hofburg in Vienna, where the collection of Ancient
Musical Instruments is situated since 1965. In this climatisation concept the enormous
mass of the 60-90cm thick brick-stone walls served as a climate
buffer, causing extremely stable indoor temperature and relative
humidity values. After having encountered severe problems with
climate control in the exhibition rooms since 1983, (which have been
wrongly attributed to the unsuitabilty of the building), I more and
more suspected the failure within the later changings and
installations and the unsuitable consumer behaviour. After several
years of experiments with shading systems and preventive concepts I
was entrusted in 2008 by the executive
director with the task to find possibilities to reactivate the old
system, to find ways of sustainable maintenance and low energy
concepts for a museum of the 21. century according to the Kyoto
Protocol . This paper will present a first report of my endeavours
in this matter and insights into the building physics of this
fascinating edifice.
How real is reality? – The
presentation of musical instrument makers’ workshops.
Frank P. Baer (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuernberg)
Since 1999 the Germanisches Nationalmuseum is
undertaking a technical and thematic redesign of the entire
exhibition area comprising about 20.000 m2. Musical
instruments will be integrated to a higher degree in period-oriented
exhibitions, but will also keep an exhibition area of their own.
Several aspects of musical instruments’ history will be addressed
there, amongst them musical instrument makers’ workshops for
woodwind instruments, piano string production, violin and violin bow
making.
As some of the workshops are rather complete while others are
represented by fragments only, the question arises how to present
them in the future. The challenge in presenting fragments is to help
the visitor imagine their context, i.e. for which purpose and how
they were used. The challenge in presenting an (almost) complete
workshop is to keep the visitor aware of up to which point this
reconstruction stands for historical facts, and where are its
limits.
The paper discusses aspects of this question and invites to
discussion, rather than proposing a definitive solution.
Hypothesises are supported by a visitors’ survey on the actual
presentation of the Graeßel-workshop lead by the museum’s didactic
services.
Virtual or Actual.
Bengu Gun (M.A. in Anatolian Civilizations and
Cultural Heritage Management - Istanbul, Turkey)
As the positive and constructive impacts of music
are undeniable, it is crucial to conserve and convey the musical
heritage to future generations. With this motivation of providing
people tangible and intangible cultural heritage, musical instrument
museums work as a mediator between people and musical heritage, and
preserve this heritage. In
Turkey, nevertheless, there has
been little consensus about how to achieve these results. Besides
the private and small public
collections, there is not even an advanced music museum serving
these purposes. Therefore, there is a need for an advanced music
museum that communicates the evolution of music in Anatolia and neighboring lands, and that indicates how
music and musical instruments are affected by the social, political
and economic environment. Regarding this need, this paper is thus
concerned with why such a music museum does not actually exist in Turkey. First, the musical
instruments museums in other countries are studied to have a
comprehensive knowledge of the concept. Then, the attempts to launch
a music museum in Turkey
are discussed including the virtual museum established as the first
step to launch an actual music museum. Finally, the problems faced
during the design process of the new museum are analyzed. The utmost
importance is given to the bureaucratic and technical difficulties
faced during this process and the divergence between virtual and
actual concepts.
2)
New methods of scientific analysis aimed
at the preservation
and conservation of musical instruments
Key Paper: Marco Fioravanti (University of Florence,
Dep. of Wood Technology)
New methods of scientific analysis
aimed at the preservation and conservation of musical instruments.
Scientific analysis conservation and preservation: some aspect of
research made ins the musée de la musique since 5 years.
Stéphane Vaidelich
(Musée de la musique, Paris)
The Musée de la musique in
Paris
is in charge of the conservation of several thousands of musical
instruments. It includes a laboratory which develops scientific
approaches and carries out active researches dealing with the
preservation of instruments. These matters take a particular relief
when dealing with instruments kept in playing conditions or during
the making of a copy.
Three principal axes will be presented in this paper:
chemical aspect of coating and
varnish instruments, non invasive technical and choice of sample;
scientific investigation of wood and other
materials; scientific accompaniment of
restorations and accompaniment of the fac-simile.
On the Application of 3D-X-Ray
Computer Tomography in the Field of Documentation and Measurement of
Historic Wind Instruments. Beatrix
Darmstaedter (curator,
Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien)
In September 2006 a forward-looking
research project on 27 wind instruments of the Collection of
Historic Musical Instruments (Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente,
SAM, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien) was authorized and funded
by the Austrian Science Fund (Fonds zur Förderung der
wissenschaftlichen Forschung, FWF). The aims of this
scientific project are to measure the Rauschpfeife,
cornetti, serpent and crumhorns preserved in the Viennese collection
extensively and to document their conservational condition.
Some of these Renaissance instruments, like the Rauschpfeife
(SAM 177) are partially in a critical status as far as the
conservation is concerned, suggesting the avoidance of any
conventional manual measurement. Other instruments, like the curved
cornetti, have irregular inner bores excluding any exact manual
end-to-end measurement. Trials to get the relevant organological and
conservational information with less expensive examination methods,
like the magnetic resonance imaging tomography mainly applied in
medicine, proved insufficient because of the distortion of the inner
bore parameters virtually reproduced in 2D-slices. With the 3D-x-ray
computer tomography the whole art object is scanned and reproduced
in voxel (volumetric pixel) ensuring all information in a 3D-format.
In 2007 the research team had to deal with
the design and development of algorithmic measuring software and
worked on optimizing the visual display of the 3D-simulacra.
This project is the first serial examination including an
extensive measuring of historic musical instruments. Since 2007/2008
several measuring results are available - some of them are quite
spectacular, like the data files of the serpent (SAM 237) or the
findings on the unconventionally made crumhorn "MILLA" (SAM 203),
others give a substantial insight into the conservational condition
of the museum's objects. The tables with newly generated
measurements offer today's instrument makers all information
necessary for copying the instruments and help the conservators to
manipulate the objects at minimum risk.
The lecture will focus on the presentation of the advantages
of the 3D-x-ray computer tomography in comparison to conventional
measuring methods and the magnetic resonance imaging tomography, on
the discussion of the generated measurement data and virtual
measuring methods. Moreover new modes of visualization will be
introduced and - of course - the most interesting recent
organological findings will be presented.
Conservation of Musical
Instruments at The Metropolitan
Museum
of Art.
Susana Caldeira (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
The conservation of Musical Instruments and the
position for the conservator have always been attached
to the curatorial department since the collection of musical
instruments exists at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, up
to the past year. Many people have worked there; many respected
professionals developed their work of conservation of musical
instruments using the best of their knowledge, following the
understanding and ethics currents. Since
2008 the position for conservation of musical instruments was moved
to the Department of Objects Conservation, where a team composed by
experts on many fields of conservation, work together with
Scientific Research. This brought changes to both Musical
Instruments and Objects Conservation Departments and the way they
articulate, also with Scientific Research, and how conservation
projects are developed. Some examples of this
work are the systematization of data, conservation plans for
Todini’s Galleria Harmonica, CT scans of some instruments and some
scientific analysis.
A musical instrument will always find its specific place within a
department of objects conservation, and the team work is
contributing to understand what those specifications are and which
rule a conservator of musical instruments can play.
"A butterfly on a
wheel" Neutron imaging of a Renaissance trumpet.
Martin Kirnbauer (Director of the Musikmuseum of the Historical
Museum Basel)
Various new techniques of screening musical instruments were
developed within the last years (beside the traditional X-ray e.g.
computed tomography). In the course of a research of two most
precious trumpets (the so-called Steiger trumpets, dated Basle 1578)
the Historic Museum Basle choose a new technique, a so-called
Neutron imaging at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Villigen,
Switzerland. Neutron imaging offers radiography as well as
tomography using cold neutrons. A big advantage is in the higher
contrast in images (especially useful for light materials as well as
for metal objects, even very small ones). Neutron imaging was
especially valuable because the original mouthpiece of one the
trumpets is made in a sophisticated procedure assembling different
metal sheets together.
The paper describes the technique and the results of the
investigations.
3)
legal status and protection of musical
instruments
Key Paper: Gabriele Rossi-Rognoni (Curator,
Galleria dell'Accademia, Dep. of Musical Instruments, Florence)
Database of Musical Historical
Instruments in
Portugal
– a project. Patricia Lopes Bastos (Lisbon)
The profusion of music instrument collections has
led to the publication of lists of institutions and catalogues, and
this effort has been expanded to non specialised museums. The
diversity of collection types is incalculable, and the quantity and
quality of the objects can vary enormously. Understanding the scope
and relevance of this work, we are promoting the creation of a
relational database about musical instruments and their
representation (musical iconography) in the collections existing in
Portugal. After an initial survey,
we are developing a descriptive and analytical guide (bilingual)
that includes terminology and measuring standardization in
Portuguese, setting a systematic procedure to be applied in the
database construction. We have been observing the efforts of several
institutions in the improvement of organological research, and this
project can be considered as a contribution to the massive European
work to provide a search engine that will offer updated and
scientific data on all objects from European museological
collections, namely the CIMCIM’s MIMO (Musical Instrument Museums
Online) and Europeana (www.europeana.eu).
Organology is to be recognised of particular importance in the
treatment of the cultural and artistic patrimony. We intend, with
this project, to combine the scattered work done in
Portugal
in the past and to advance a national coherent, dynamic, and
innovative organological structure. In this meeting, we would like
to present the methodological approach and the guide-book of this
project for discussion.
Online access for
musical instruments from French museums: a French national musical
instruments directory on the web. Patrice Verrier
(Musée de la musique, Paris)
At the end of 2009, on the Mediathèque de la La Cité de la Musique portal,
the Musée de la Musique will offer a common access to its
Catalogue and its
records as well as the photographs of musical instruments stored and
exhibited in 218 other French museums. The French
Ministry of Culture partially financed the photographic campaign of
the collections. The Musée de la musique has already imported the records of the first Directory
made by Frédéric de La Grandville between 1984 and 1989 into a
specific part of its catalogue. Putting on-line such data implies
that several problems must be resolved beforehand:
each museum should update its data, 3 000 new records must be
created for the instruments that have been acquired since 1989, the
legal issues regarding the publication of photography must be
addressed, a uniform data format for the records and the numeric
files must be adopted. And finally, a scientific audit of the
information must be conducted. Otherwise, a reflection has been
engaged on an ergonomic and convivial access the data. This project
takes part in larger initiatives:
enlargement to other large national French collections and
harvesting of data for Europeana, the European numeric library.
posters
The current and future Cremona role in observance of its
hand-made
production and preservation of
stringed instruments.
Paola Carlomagno
In Italy, as far as the production, promotion and
conservation of musical instruments is concerned, Cremona represents a particularly varied
reality. Thanks to the direct participation of local bodies - public
and private - today we have the Scuola Internazionale di Liuteria
(which in 2008 celebrated its 70 years of activity), about 60
instrument makers which are united under the Consorzio “Antonio
Stradivari” Cremona (born in 1996 to guarantee a hand-made
production of stringed instruments, certified by the brand Cremona
Liuteria) and another 40 violin and bow-makers who operate
independently.
In Cremona there are also two permanent collections of
stringed instruments, one of historical instruments which can be
found at the Town Hall (with exemplars of Amati, Stradivari and
Guarneri del Gesù) and another of modern instruments exhibited at
the Fondazione “Antonio Stradivari” (with instruments which have
each won one of the numerous editions of the annual Concorso di
Liuteria). To these we must add the approximately 700 pieces (among
tools and models) coming from Antonio Stradivari’s workshop, which,
kept permanently in the museum dedicated to his works, represent an
essential document for the knowledge and study of
his personal method.
Last but not least, the staging of thematic exhibitions of
historical stringed instruments (promoted by the Fondazione “Antonio
Stradivari”) and Mondomusica stands (International fair of hand-made
musical instruments) which every year animate the autumn season in
Cremona.
An extraordinarily lively situation which could be soon
enlarged by opening of the Scuola internazionale del Restauro
(International School of Restoration), with the cooperation and the
professional advice of the prestigious Opificio delle pietre dure in
Florence.
Museo degli Strumenti Musicali Giovanni
Ciuffreda in Viareggio (Lucca).
A presentation
of the museum and associated pathways.
Giorgio Spugnesi (Director of Centro Studi Musicali G. Ciuffreda,
Viareggio - Lucca)
The Museo degli Strumenti Musicali
Giovanni Ciuffreda was opened to the public in May 2001 and
exhibits instruments collected throughout 50 years by
Professor Giovanni Ciuffreda, medical doctor by profession,
music-lover and, along with his wife Mari Moggia, tireless
traveller. In 1994 the instruments were donated to the Comune
di Viareggio. Ciuffreda dreamed of a museum in the historic
Villa Paolina and contributed to its
development with the Amici della Musica Viareggio Versilia, an
association of which he was one of the founders.
Ciuffreda’s dream is now a reality:
Villa Paolina, summer residence of Paolina Bonaparte, built
for her by composer Giovanni Pacini, is an ideal showcase for some
of the instruments (of which there are over 400), collected from all
around the world, including a pochette XVII sec., a
Burmese harp, a salterio XVIII sec., a guitar by G. Fabricatore
(1810), a mandolino XVIII sec., a violoncello by
C. F. Landolfi (1746). This collection of musical instruments
represents a variety of European and extra European cultures.
By visiting the Museum, it’s possible to trace various
pathways: historical, didactic, anthropological.
The historical pathway emphasises the importance of some
precious pieces and the evolution that some families of instruments
have undergone over time; the educational pathway takes the visitor,
especially the youngest, through the discovery of “sound objects”,
of their similarities and differences, of various ways to produce
sounds. The anthropological pathway, finally, helps to understand
that the expression of the human soul through music is extremely
similar between cultures both historically and geographically
distant.
The Civico Museo del Paesaggio Sonoro
of Riva presso Chieri. Cristina Ghirardini, Guido Raschieri
and Dino
Tron.
The Civico Museo del Paesaggio Sonoro was
founded in Riva presso Chieri (a few kilometres far from
Torino) in 2005. Its origins
can be traced back to
the private collection of Domenico Torta, a musician and teacher who
gathered a huge documentation about folk music in Riva presso Chieri
and its neighbourhoods, including musical
instruments such as accordions, brass and woodwind instruments used
by the “musicanti” who played music for dance, toy instruments,
hunting calls, whistles, noise makers and so on.
The collection reveals a deep reflection on how music and
sound in general were conceived in the particular cultural context
of Riva presso Chieri during the 20th century, that is why the word
“soundscape” appears in the name of the museum. The richness of data
gathered by Domenico Torta, the variety of typologies of instruments
exhibited and the philosophy of the Museum (that aims to a wide
understanding of the relationships between sound and social and
human experience) make this collection particularly important for
ethnomusicological research.
The use and construction of hunting calls tell about the deep
experience that man had of the environment and about the ability not
only to imitate but also to communicate with birds. The
documentation about torototela (a
musical bow or even a bowed stick zither with a bladder resonator)
bring to light a burlesque character, also called
torototela
(attested in Riva in the XIX century), who played during marriages
and whose gestures and theatrical attitude in the performance were
as important as sound. Moreover,
the importance of gesture is evident in a friction idiophone, called
froja: it is also documented
in Riva and it is made of a friction stick with pellet bells. The
centrality of the sound experience is fundamental in the ritual
noise making during the Holy Week, in the ability displayed by
creating musical instruments of bark in spring, and in the practise
of making noise to stop the hiving off. Voice disguisers made of
gourd are played by “musicanti” in Riva as if they were brass and
woodwind instruments. The techniques of playing the keyboard for
bells are well attested in the Museum, too. The paper will briefly
show the collection of musical instruments and will then illustrate
the field research that the Museum is doing together with the
University of Torino. Then it will explain how the ensemble of the “Musicanti
di Riva presso Chieri” contributes in getting the Museum’s idea of
Riva’s soundscape across to the public.
A harpsichord by the Florentine maker
Vincenzio Sodi returns to Italy. Maria
Virginia Rolfo
(National
Music
Museum,
Vermillion,
SD)
Vincenzio Sodi, a key figure in the
transitional period from harpsichord to fortepiano, was active in
his native city during the second half of the eighteenth century.
Seven instruments by him are extant in public and private
collections
in Europe and the
United States.
The above-mentioned harpsichord was
recently purchased by the speaker from the estate of Rose Augustine
in New York. Her husband,
Albert Augustine, had purchased it
early
in the twentieth century.
Despite
the present impossibility of placing Sodi’s instruments in an exact
chronological order because of conflicting dates within individual
instruments and because of interventions
done in the workshop of the Florentine dealer Leopoldo Franciolini, this harpsichord can
be regarded as the earliest instrument by Sodi known to survive
today. In addition, it is only the second instrument by Sodi now to
be found in Italy.
After an overview
of Vincenzio Sodi’s life and work, the product of an ongoing
research being conducted at several Florentine archives, this
presentation will describe the above-mentioned instrument which will
be especially displayed during the session.
In order to better illustrate the places where Sodi lived and
worked, the speaker will offer a “tour” through his home
town. This will be a unique occasion to better understand the life
of a mayor figure the history of keyboard instruments.
Jacob Denner clarinets in the Berlin Musical Instruments
Museum and their mouthpieces. Heike Freike (Berlin)
Only three clarinets of Jacob Denner have
survived in European collections. They are
thought to be the earliest clarinets and were models for numerous
copies. The clarinet in the Nuremberg collection has probably a wrong mouthpiece, but
the specimen in Brussels and Berlin are considered to have original
mouthpieces. The Berlin
one does NOT have an original mouthpiece as comparisons of
photographies from the Snoeck collection and Oscar Kroll as well as
measurements and descriptions of Curt Sachs will show. The
mouthpiece that is now mounted on the Berlin Denner clarinet
originally came with the Oberlender clarinet aquired from the
Snoeck-collecrtion in the late 19th century. It was probably was
confused after worldwar II.
An Original Collection of Automatic Musical
Instruments from Romania. Monica Nanescu
The ʺStefan Procopiuʺ Science and
Technical Museum of Iasi, Romania, hoards a precious and valuable
collection of musical instruments. The collection of music automata
was initiated in 1958 by the acquisition of a polyphone (Germany,
end of the 19th century). Ever since, the collection has
continuously increased by donations or acquisitions of new items.
Due to an ongoing increase of the collection, a permanent exhibition
was opened in 1966 in a small space,
followed by the opening, in 1972, of a museum section in a space of 350 square meters.
Collection exhibits have been acquired mainly through acquisitions
done by the museum and, to a lesser extent, through donations.
Objects have been purchased from people of
Romania, and represent
entertainment sources for several generations and a delight for the
contemporary public. Even though most of the exhibits have been
manufactured in countries with a long tradition in manufacturing
musical apparata and automata, such as Germany, Switzerland, France,
Austria, Belgium, England and the USA, the Romanian’s
appeal for music and beauty made possible the acquisition and
preservation of such instruments in their own homes and, afterwards,
the museum has become the beneficiary of this collection unique in
Romania.
Music automata displayed in the exhibition are grouped
according to the recording support, which contains the programmed
melody: pin cylinders (musical boxes, street organs, orchestrions),
disks (symphonions, polyphones), perforated cards (mechanical
pianos) or tapes (pianolas), wax cylinders (phonographs), ebonite
disks (gramophones), magnetic tape. The recording support determines
the functioning of acoustic elements, such as bells, vibrating
blades and strings, acoustic pipes etc. The museum’s exhibits
have been manufactured by famous international companies such as:
Fabrik Lochmannscher Musikwerke A.G., Polyphon, Ludwig Hupfeld A.G.,
Aeolian Company, Edison Phonograph Company, Pathée Fréres, American
Graphophone Company, Victor Talking Machine, Columbia Graphophone
Company etc..
As of the beginning of April, our museum’s doors will
be closed to the public for three years due to the beginning of a
long restoration process, caused by the precarious state of the
building. During this period, one of our main responsibilities is to
elaborate themes for the musical instrument section. The museum has
continued to acquire new exhibits and specialists have planned to
examine the collection instruments and to organize temporary
exhibitions.
Our participation in the 2009 CIMCIM Annual Meeting, the Free
Posters session, will give us the opportunity to present our
main activities for promoting the musical instrument collection in
the international museum network and to establish relations with
other members attending the conference.
A forgotten Italian tradition:
stringed-instruments making in Sicily (1500-1900c.)
Giovanni Paolo Di Stefano (University of
Palermo, Music
Department)
It is well known that Naples was an important area in
Southern Italy for the production of musical instruments. But almost
nothing is known about the musical instrument makers who worked in
Sicily, the Southernmost Italian region. At least from the first
half of the sixteenth century, a wide number of unknown string
instruments-makers were active in Sicily. As a result of this early
tradition, at the end of the nineteenth century Sicily became one of
the main centres in Italy for the production of stringed instruments.
Big manufactures were established in Palermo and Catania. This last
probably became the most active centre in Italy for the production
of mandolins (especially of the Neapolitan type) that were exported
all over Italy, to Europe, Euroasian countries and the United States
of America. The mandolins made in Catania were even sent to Naples
where they were often labelled by Neapolitan makers and sold as a
Neapolitan product. This paper intends to bring to light several
unknown information about Sicilian stringed instruments making and
describe some early instruments kept in private and public
collections.
HISTORIC BRASS SOCIETY SESSIONS
1)
innovation and new technologies in the study and cataloguing of
brass musical instruments
The use of
Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry in the Curatorial
and Conservation Care of ‘Brass’ Wind Musical Instruments.
Louise Bacon (Horniman Museum, London)
Curatorial and conservation issues can arise when trying to
understand the reasons for changes to a brass wind instrument and
when this was likely to have happened. Specific crucial questions
can be answered non-destructively without the need to dismantle or
intervene significantly into the structure of the instrument. This
paper aims to give a brief overview of results arising out of a
technical study carried out for a doctoral thesis on ‘brass’ wind
musical instruments (from1651 to 1867) utilizing energy dispersive
x-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF) and in particular focusing
on several case studies. This research developed the methodology
needed to investigate the extent to which non-destructive EDXRF
could be useful in the curatorial and conservation care of musical
instruments. It has produced a new body of data on the primary
materials of ‘brass’ wind musical instruments and one aspect of the
study has shown that the method can provide results of sufficient
quality to indicate changes in metal technology and, particularly
with early instruments, patches, repairs and alterations are
recognisable.
The latest Version of BIAS (Brass Instrument Analysis
System), and its Use for Historical Musical Instrument Collections.
Gregor Widholm (Institut für Wiener Klangstil, Vienna) and Sabine
Klaus (National Music Museum, Vermillion, SD)
BIAS, a computer-based Brass Instrument Analysis System
developed by the Institut für Wiener Klangstil in Vienna has been in
use in some musical instrument museums and collections for the last
ten years. It is a tool for testing the acoustical behavior of brass
musical instruments in their current state by displaying impedance
curves that show the inherent intonation and response behavior for
each partial. Since 2006, when this system was first introduced at
the AMIS/CIMCIM/Galpin Society meeting in Vermillion, SD, a revised
version has become available. This new version is better adapted to
the use for historical instruments, and these improvements will be
the focus of this paper. Tested instruments from the Utley
Collection at The National Music Museum, The University of South
Dakota, will exemplify how BIAS can contribute to our understanding
of the acoustical behavior of various instrument designs, such as
different bell-flares and bore-profiles, and the influence of holes
in keyed instruments.
What We Can Learn from Measuring Instruments.
Eugenia Mitroulia and Arnold Myers (University of Edinburgh)
Organologists have a long tradition of measuring the
instruments they describe. These measurements range in level of
detail from simple overall lengths and bell diameters (which give an
idea of scale) to the extremely detailed data required to make a
copy of an instrument. Other measurements can be useful in comparing
the characteristics of different makers or regions of origin. This
presentation shows how the physical measurement of a brass
instrument at an intermediate level of detail can yield bore
geometry data which reflect its acoustical character, and can place
an instrument in a taxonomy or an evolutionary scheme. The level of
detail required is comparable to the level of data an instrument
maker uses in the "recipe" for an instrument model, often stored in
mandrels, templates and diagrams. The measurement techniques and the
unsophisticated tools can be employed by organologists and players.
The workshop to be held on Saturday 12th September will give
hands-on training in bore profile measurement: this presentation
will rather demonstrate how the bore profile measurements can be
used to give graphical and numerical representations of important
properties of instruments, and be used in comparisons of historical
and present-day brasswind designs. The authors have measured over
1000 instruments in museums and private collections, and will share
some of the findings made possible by physical measurement.
The Geometrical Documentation of Historical Musical
Instruments. Hannes Vereecke (University of Vienna)
The geometrical documentation of historical brasswind instruments
poses many challenges. Preservation concerns in museums restrict the
use of certain measuring tools that could potentially harm the
objects. These restrictions have a severe impact on the measuring
methods that can be used and subsequently on the accuracy of the
results. In general, the commonly used conventional measuring
methods provide data on an intermediate level, suitable for taxonomy
or classification. However, for an accurate copy or detailed
acoustical studies, these conventional methods are insufficient.
An ideal method for measuring brasswind instruments should be
accurate, portable, non destructive, capable of measuring large,
shiny objects, and able to provide three-dimensional geometrical
data. Such a device is the three-dimensional laser scanner. The data
provided by this scanner may be used to build a three dimensional
model with the aid of CAD/CAM software. The model traces the
original with an accuracy of up to 0.01mm.
In my paper I will present this laser technology and its
potentials for measuring historical brasswind musical instruments,
and I will illustrate it with detailed measurements of the 1557
Neuschel trombone, preserved at the
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
for which I created a three-dimensional model.
2)
free papers
Additional
evidence "On the early history of the trumpet in Italy".
Renato Meucci (University of Milan and Conservatory of Music of
Novara)
Since the original publication of my article quoted in the
title (1991), several other sources emerged in reference to the
early trumpet in Italy. Among them, a 13th-century illumination from
Padua showing the workshop of two trumpet-makers together with one
straight and one S-shaped instrument (possibly a trumpet/clarino
evidence); Ferrarese documents of the late 14th century, mentioning
four 'great' trumpets of silver with golden coat-of-arms on the bell
garlands; reports from Mantua (1486) and Brescia (early 16th century)
dealing with snake-shaped 'trombette'; iconographic evidence of
slide-trumpets from Siena (1503) and Ferrara (1508); silver trumpets
ordered in Padua and Venice by Francis I, King of France; a trumpet
made in 1589 by Lissandro Milanese in Genua, preserved in a wrecked
Dutch ship; records on 12 trumpets, made by Adam Chirsver of Vienna
for the court of Ferrara (1597), together with 6 ordinary, and 2 'great'
trombones made in Nuremberg for the same court; an early
seventeenth-century mention of the 'new' Paris-made trumpets (admittedly
French looped horns). Some comments will be added on the Italian
ancient terminology, with reference e.g. to the tromba/trombetta and
trumpet/clarino identification, as well as to the origin of the word
“trombone”.
A Tale of Bells and Bows: Iconography and the Early
Development of the Trombone. Stewart A. Carter (Wake
Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina)
While organologists continue to debate the existence or
non-existence of the early-Renaissance slide trumpet, iconography
clearly demonstrates the emergence of the U-slide trombone in the
closing years of the fifteenth century. Paintings by Filippino Lippi
and Gentile Bellini, as well as sculptures by Benedetto da Maiano,
show the two quintessential features of the fully developed
trombone, a lower bow (the slide-bow) that extends forward beyond
the bell of the instrument and an upper bow (the bell-bow) that
extends rearward beyond the plane of the player’s face. There are,
however, several iconographical sources that depict an instrument
that lacks one of these features, the bell itself being longer than
the slide-bow. My research has revealed more than twenty
iconographic sources from the fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries and from widely scattered regions of Europe that show “defective”
trombones—i.e., with bell extending beyond the slide-bow. Through a
review of iconographic sources, my paper shows that while artists’
inattention to detail may explain some of the anomalies in these
depictions of early brass instruments, it is nevertheless reasonable
to posit the existence of a “transitional trombone,” with a
relatively short U-slide, in fairly common use from ca. 1460 to ca.
1520.
Between Serpents and Invention Trumpets.
Herbert Heyde (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
This talk continues the discussion of serpent-shape
instruments, which I previously addressed in a catalog contribution
for the exhibition Meraviglie sonore in Florence in 2007. There, I
suggested that the dragon-slayer motive of the Hercules and Apollo
myths, which were main topics of the festive culture of the
Renaissance and Baroque, inspired the making of cornetti in snake
form and dragon heads, the S-shape tenor-cornetti and apparently the
actual musical instrument known as serpent. The Italian origin of
the latter is still a weak hypothesis that needs more supporting
evidence in addition to what we have so far. Leaving aside the issue
of the Italian origin of the serpent-motive, this paper will shed
light on the expansion of this cultural idea to central Europe,
specifically as we find it in the surviving images of the court
festivals in Dresden. There, the imitation of Italian culture was
strongly advanced under Elector August (reigned 1553-1586) and his
successors who entertained close connections with the Florentine
court of the Medici. Among many Italian artists, who worked in
Dresden, was Giovanni Nosseni, who in 1575 was appointed
Hofkuenstler [court artist]. In this capacity he was responsible,
among many other things, for the design and outfitting of the
various court festivities. These were performed indoors and outdoors,
often in connection with tournaments and metaphoric representations
that emulated the Italian intermedi. Among Nosseni’s creations we
find serpent-shaped metal trumpets with or without a dragon mouth.
Built in variants, they eventually were called invention trumpets as
they were used in the Inventionen, the term used for the topics and
episodes of the festivities. Some festivities were documented in
drawings and we can occasionally find these instruments depicted
from the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 18th
century when the large-scale court festivals went out of fashion. I
regard these trumpets and horns with dragon heads as inspired by the
Italian cornetti and serpents with snake and dragon heads. The paper
documents and discusses various examples of such snake-shape
instruments from German sources.
Instruments Made by Adolphe Sax and his Son: Evolution
During the Transitional Period. Bruno Kampmann (Paris)
and Eugenia Mitroulia (University of Edinburgh)
Instruments made by Adolphe Sax at the end of his active life
(when at rue Lafitte) were rather traditional, without much change
from his former production. Those made by his son (Adolphe-Edouard)
after taking over the business (at rue Blanche) were either
old-fashioned, such as cavalry trombones and saxhorns with “pavillon
tournant” patented by Adolphe Sax in 1859, or markedly more modern
in their design, such as the “trompettes fleur” and modern saxtubas.
Instrument inscriptions are not consistent either: some instruments
have the father's monogram with the son's address and others have
the son's monogram with the father's address. The above evidence
suggest that Adolphe-Edouard sold under his name some instruments
made previously by his father, but was also making more modern
instruments at the time. This paper will discuss the various types
of instrument (saxophones, saxhorns, other brasswinds), describing
their evolution and suggesting explanations to the marking issues
