The Met (Part 1) - Musical Instruments
Sep. 15th, 2010 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mcgillianaireNew York's Metropolitan Museum of Art contains over 2 million works of art, including a unique collection of over 5000 musical instruments from around the world. The Met is worth every cent of the $20 entrance fee, even though I managed to wangle half-price as a student despite the fact my ID had expired last month! The audio guide is an essential companion for $7.50. You can get there by taking the green-coloured (Lexington Avenue/IRT East Side) subway lines served by the "4, 5 and 6 trains" and getting off at 86th Street station. It's about a 5-10 minute walk from there. The museum is located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile with its entrance on 82nd Street. It's very hard to miss once you're walking towards it along Fifth Avenue. There's also free Wi-Fi inside.
The world's oldest piano. Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano in 1698 but the one pictured is the oldest of three surviving items from 1720, 1722 and 1726. Cristofori called it "gravecembalo col piano e forte" (large harpsichord with soft and loud [sound]).
Traditional wooden and ivory hunting horns from around the world.
Modern brass orchestral horns evolved from the large, coiled hunting horns in the top row which came into fashion in France in the second half of the 17th-century. From about 1700 they began to be adjusted in form and structure for incorporation into orchestral music.
Pierre Piatet's Invention Horn (or Orchestral/Hand Horn) of 1845-50 was built in France and can be set up in all tonality keys from B-flat alto to B-flat basso, making it possible to produce many different sound qualities. That's why it's made up of so many separate parts.
This Belgian ceramic Hunting Trumpet/Horn in F was manufactured either in the late 18th or early 19th-century. Instruments of this kind were produced by glass blowers in Lodelinsart and Chênée in Wallonia (southern Belgium). It imitates smaller versions of brass hunting horns of the 16th to 18th centuries and the "tromba da caccia" (hunting trumpet) used in orchestral music in the 18th-century.
Bugle Horns, Reeds and other Western wind instruments.
Laurentium Hauslaib's Claviorganum of 1598 was built in Nuremberg. The velvet-covered ebony cabinet contains an organ with four ranks of pipes controlled by levers. A small door surrounded by drawers, frames a brass panel depicting the Deposition from the Cross.
Johann Christian Schleip's Lyraflügel (or Upright Lyre Piano) circa 1820-44 was manufactured in Berlin. Such pianos were a fashionable fixture in middle-class Biedermeier parlors in northern German lands. During the Napoleonic occupation (1806-13) the lyre became a symbol of freedom and liberation and it was popularised in song through patriotic poems. Schleip was the principal maker of the Lyraflügel.
Érard et Cie's Grand Pianoforte (circa 1840) of satinwood veneer was built for Thomas Henry Foley, 4th Baron of Kidderminster and Liberal politician, for his residence at Whitley Court in Worcestershire. The piano is a showpiece designed by an otherwise unknown artist, George Henry Blake, in the Louis XV style. It has a double-escapement action that was patented in 1822 by its maker, Pierre Erard. The Erard piano and harp factory was founded in Paris by Sébastien Érard who also opened a branch in London in 1792. His nephew Pierre continued the business under the name of Érard & Cie and it became one of the leading piano manufacturers of the 19th-century.
Jan Ruckers' Harpsichord (1642). The Ruckers family were a Flemish harpsichord and virginal makers based in Antwerp.
Michele Todini's Harpsichord (circa 1670) is decorated with a frieze depicting the Triumph of Galatea and supported by three Tritons. It is one of the finest examples of Roman Baroque decorative art and a testament to Todini's ingenuity.
Indian strings including sitars, veenas, sarangis, sarods, tamburas and sursangas.
Sringed instruments of India including a 19th-c Sursanga painted in the Mysore style to the left and a "Persian" sitar to the right.
Ekaanda/Sarasvati Veena (early 20th C). This is the main stringed instrument of South Indian classical music and is made from a single piece of wood. My sister learnt to play it and we had one at home. It is a delightful instrument valued for its tone. This item was owned by C.S. Narasimhan, the last owner of "Swadesamithran" (lit: friend of self-rule), the 1st Tamil newspaper owned and operated by Indians.
The world's oldest piano. Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano in 1698 but the one pictured is the oldest of three surviving items from 1720, 1722 and 1726. Cristofori called it "gravecembalo col piano e forte" (large harpsichord with soft and loud [sound]).
Traditional wooden and ivory hunting horns from around the world.
Modern brass orchestral horns evolved from the large, coiled hunting horns in the top row which came into fashion in France in the second half of the 17th-century. From about 1700 they began to be adjusted in form and structure for incorporation into orchestral music.
Pierre Piatet's Invention Horn (or Orchestral/Hand Horn) of 1845-50 was built in France and can be set up in all tonality keys from B-flat alto to B-flat basso, making it possible to produce many different sound qualities. That's why it's made up of so many separate parts.
This Belgian ceramic Hunting Trumpet/Horn in F was manufactured either in the late 18th or early 19th-century. Instruments of this kind were produced by glass blowers in Lodelinsart and Chênée in Wallonia (southern Belgium). It imitates smaller versions of brass hunting horns of the 16th to 18th centuries and the "tromba da caccia" (hunting trumpet) used in orchestral music in the 18th-century.
Bugle Horns, Reeds and other Western wind instruments.
Laurentium Hauslaib's Claviorganum of 1598 was built in Nuremberg. The velvet-covered ebony cabinet contains an organ with four ranks of pipes controlled by levers. A small door surrounded by drawers, frames a brass panel depicting the Deposition from the Cross.
Johann Christian Schleip's Lyraflügel (or Upright Lyre Piano) circa 1820-44 was manufactured in Berlin. Such pianos were a fashionable fixture in middle-class Biedermeier parlors in northern German lands. During the Napoleonic occupation (1806-13) the lyre became a symbol of freedom and liberation and it was popularised in song through patriotic poems. Schleip was the principal maker of the Lyraflügel.
Érard et Cie's Grand Pianoforte (circa 1840) of satinwood veneer was built for Thomas Henry Foley, 4th Baron of Kidderminster and Liberal politician, for his residence at Whitley Court in Worcestershire. The piano is a showpiece designed by an otherwise unknown artist, George Henry Blake, in the Louis XV style. It has a double-escapement action that was patented in 1822 by its maker, Pierre Erard. The Erard piano and harp factory was founded in Paris by Sébastien Érard who also opened a branch in London in 1792. His nephew Pierre continued the business under the name of Érard & Cie and it became one of the leading piano manufacturers of the 19th-century.
Jan Ruckers' Harpsichord (1642). The Ruckers family were a Flemish harpsichord and virginal makers based in Antwerp.
Michele Todini's Harpsichord (circa 1670) is decorated with a frieze depicting the Triumph of Galatea and supported by three Tritons. It is one of the finest examples of Roman Baroque decorative art and a testament to Todini's ingenuity.
Indian strings including sitars, veenas, sarangis, sarods, tamburas and sursangas.
Sringed instruments of India including a 19th-c Sursanga painted in the Mysore style to the left and a "Persian" sitar to the right.
Ekaanda/Sarasvati Veena (early 20th C). This is the main stringed instrument of South Indian classical music and is made from a single piece of wood. My sister learnt to play it and we had one at home. It is a delightful instrument valued for its tone. This item was owned by C.S. Narasimhan, the last owner of "Swadesamithran" (lit: friend of self-rule), the 1st Tamil newspaper owned and operated by Indians.
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-15 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-16 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-17 08:48 pm (UTC)I saw the Met twice. In neither time I could ever finish it. I went through the musical instruments section the second time I went there.
Peace!
Pekky
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Date: 2010-09-17 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 10:42 am (UTC)