In Oxford: Seminar Series: Instruments of the 18th Century

Instruments of the Eighteenth Century
Seminars run 1-2pm at the Bate Collection of
Musical Instruments, Faculty of Music, St Aldates

Should you find yourself in or near Oxford on a Wednesday lunchtime, these might be very interesting indeed! See the events programme here.

Many a Good Tune Played on an Old Fiddle - introducing MIMO

Musical Instrument Museums Online

Think about all the old musical instruments that have survived through the centuries. What stories they could tell! If only we knew who had played them, and what they played!

Sometimes, we do know.  Especially if they're in a musical instrument museum.  RCS lecturer Dr Simon van der Walt thought we might like to share details of this online facility - MIMO.  It stands for Musical Instrument Museums Online.

Do take a look and see what you can find.  For a start, Edinburgh isn't that far away ....

Historic Musical Instruments

'Whittaker' was trying to identify an instrument the other day. He still hasn't sourced what's in his mind's eye, although it appears to be some kind of wooden whistle, in C.

However, he does now know what a mid-19th century flageolet looks like. And what a weird beast it is!

Music Treasures on Verizon.net

Where can you see historic instruments?

• North of the Border, why not visit Edinburgh University's Collection of Historic Musical Instruments?
• In London, the Victoria and Albert Musical Instruments Collection is now closed – find out how you can gain access to these instruments for study purposes.
• If you can't just walk into the V and A, at least you still have their list of online links to other collections! (Smithsonian National Museum of American History; Smithsonian Global Sound; Royal Academy of Music; Horniman Museum Musical Instruments Collections; Royal College of Music)
• Doctoral student Elizabeth Ford at the University of Glasgow has suggested the Dayton Miller Collection at the Library of Congress is a worthy addition to this list. Reported to be the the largest collection of flutes in the world.
• Do you know of other collections that should be in this list?