Musical Instrument Museum
Encyclopedia
The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) is a music museum in central Brussels
, Belgium
. It is part of the Royal Museums for Art and History and internationally renowned for its collection of over 1,500 instruments.
by Rajah Sourindro Mohun Tagore in 1876 and the collection of the celebrated Belgian musicologist François-Joseph Fétis
, purchased by the Belgian government in 1872 and put on deposit in the Conservatory, where Fétis was the first director.
Its first curator, Victor-Charles Mahillon
, greatly expanded the already impressive collection so that, by the time of his death in 1924, the MIM consisted of some 3,666 articles, among which 3,177 were original musical instruments. He was noted of his astute judgments in obtaining these large augmentations by calling on philanthropists, mixing with erudite amateurs who sometimes became generous donors, and through friendly relations with Belgian diplomats in foreign posts, who sometimes brought back instruments from beyond Europe.
The monumental five-volume catalogue of the collection Mahillon commissioned between 1880 and 1922 also included four versions of his essay on the methodical classification of both ancient and modern instruments, which was to serve as the basis for the organological
Hornbostel-Sachs
classification systems still used today. Beginning in 1877, Mahillon also created a restoration workshop in the MIM where he employed and trained a worker, Franz de Vestibule, to restore damaged articles and make copies of unique instruments in other public collections.
Mahillon's successor at the Conservatory, François-Auguste Gevaert
, organized several successful concerts of professors and students playing early instruments in the 1880s.
After the first World War, donors and philanthropists became rarer, with only about a thousand instruments entering the collections between 1924 and 1968, and Belgium's famed instrument builders began becoming scarcer. Until 1957, the curators taking their turn at the head of the MIM, with Ernest Closson (1924–1936), his son Herman (1936–1945), and René Lyr (1945–1957) limiting themselves through the two world wars to preserving the already collected instruments, in not always satisfactory conditions. Ernest is notable for editing several articles on Belgian makers for the National Biography and devoting a long monograph to La facture des instruments de musique en Belgique, which appeared at the 1935 Universal Exhibition held in Brussels.
With the arrival of the esteemed Latinist Roger Bragard, curator between 1957 and 1968, larger budgets became available from the Ministry of Culture as exhibits were renovated, new personnel were hired, concerts were again organized, and new rare pieces were collected. His efforts were continued by his successors René de Maeyer (1968–1989), Nicolas Meeùs (1989–1995), and Malou Haine (1995–2009).
s in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and as the home of instrument inventor Adolphe Sax
in the nineteenth century), European musical traditions, and non-European instruments. Mechanical instruments are shown in the basement, traditional instruments on the ground floor, the development of the modern orchestral instruments on the first floor, and keyboard and stringed instruments on the second floor.
Visitors are given infrared
headphones
in order to listen to almost 200 musical extracts of the instruments on display.
Information is provided in French
and Dutch
, though not in English
.
Among the notable pieces of the collection are the famous Rottenburgh Alto recorder, instruments invented by Adolphe Sax, a unique set of giant Chinese stone chimes, and the only existing copy of the luthéal
, an instrument used by Ravel.
, built in 1899 by Paul Saintenoy
out of girded steel and glass in the art nouveau
style as well as an eighteenth-century neo-classic building designed by Barnabé Guimard.http://economist.com/cities/displayObject.cfm?obj_id=747281&city_id=BRU&CFID=2878035&CFTOKEN=1f0020-66a230e4-c160-4e08-8e8d-56026f94578f
Located at Rue Montagne de la Cour 2 on the Mont des Arts, the museum sits next to Place Royale and in front of the Magritte Museum. Access is available through the metro lines (1A and 1B, which stops in Central Park), the tram (lines 92, 93, and 94, which stop at the Royale), the busing system (lines 20, 38, 60, 71, 95, and 96 stop at the Royale), and by car (underground parking is available at the Congrès Albertine through the Place de la Justice and the Rue des Sols.
The museum is closed on Mondays and on the dates of January 1, May 1, November 1, November 11, and December 25.
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. It is part of the Royal Museums for Art and History and internationally renowned for its collection of over 1,500 instruments.
History
Originally attached to the Brussels Royal Music Conservatory with the didactic purpose of showing early instruments to students, the MIM collection was created in 1877 with a collection of a hundred Indian instruments given to King Leopold II of BelgiumLeopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865 and remained king until his death.Leopold is chiefly remembered as the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free...
by Rajah Sourindro Mohun Tagore in 1876 and the collection of the celebrated Belgian musicologist François-Joseph Fétis
François-Joseph Fétis
François-Joseph Fétis was a Belgian musicologist, composer, critic and teacher. He was one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century, and his enormous compilation of biographical data in the Biographie universelle des musiciens remains an important source of information today...
, purchased by the Belgian government in 1872 and put on deposit in the Conservatory, where Fétis was the first director.
Its first curator, Victor-Charles Mahillon
Victor-Charles Mahillon
Victor-Charles Mahillon was a Belgian musician and writer on musical topics. He built, collected, and described more than 1500 musical instruments....
, greatly expanded the already impressive collection so that, by the time of his death in 1924, the MIM consisted of some 3,666 articles, among which 3,177 were original musical instruments. He was noted of his astute judgments in obtaining these large augmentations by calling on philanthropists, mixing with erudite amateurs who sometimes became generous donors, and through friendly relations with Belgian diplomats in foreign posts, who sometimes brought back instruments from beyond Europe.
The monumental five-volume catalogue of the collection Mahillon commissioned between 1880 and 1922 also included four versions of his essay on the methodical classification of both ancient and modern instruments, which was to serve as the basis for the organological
Organology
Organology is the science of musical instruments and their classification. It embraces study of instruments' history, instruments used in different cultures, technical aspects of how instruments produce sound, and musical instrument classification...
Hornbostel-Sachs
Hornbostel-Sachs
Hornbostel–Sachs is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie in 1914. An English translation was published in the Galpin Society Journal in 1961...
classification systems still used today. Beginning in 1877, Mahillon also created a restoration workshop in the MIM where he employed and trained a worker, Franz de Vestibule, to restore damaged articles and make copies of unique instruments in other public collections.
Mahillon's successor at the Conservatory, François-Auguste Gevaert
François-Auguste Gevaert
François-Auguste Gevaert was a Belgian composer.His father was a baker, and he was intended for the same profession, but better counsels prevailed and he was permitted to study music. He was sent in 1841 to the Ghent Conservatory, where he studied under Edouard de Sommere and Martin-Joseph Mengal...
, organized several successful concerts of professors and students playing early instruments in the 1880s.
After the first World War, donors and philanthropists became rarer, with only about a thousand instruments entering the collections between 1924 and 1968, and Belgium's famed instrument builders began becoming scarcer. Until 1957, the curators taking their turn at the head of the MIM, with Ernest Closson (1924–1936), his son Herman (1936–1945), and René Lyr (1945–1957) limiting themselves through the two world wars to preserving the already collected instruments, in not always satisfactory conditions. Ernest is notable for editing several articles on Belgian makers for the National Biography and devoting a long monograph to La facture des instruments de musique en Belgique, which appeared at the 1935 Universal Exhibition held in Brussels.
With the arrival of the esteemed Latinist Roger Bragard, curator between 1957 and 1968, larger budgets became available from the Ministry of Culture as exhibits were renovated, new personnel were hired, concerts were again organized, and new rare pieces were collected. His efforts were continued by his successors René de Maeyer (1968–1989), Nicolas Meeùs (1989–1995), and Malou Haine (1995–2009).
Exhibits
The museum's collection represents Belgian musical history (including Brussels' importance in the making of recorderRecorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
s in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and as the home of instrument inventor Adolphe Sax
Adolphe Sax
Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax was a Belgian musical instrument designer and musician who played the flute and clarinet, and is best known for having invented the saxophone.-Biography:...
in the nineteenth century), European musical traditions, and non-European instruments. Mechanical instruments are shown in the basement, traditional instruments on the ground floor, the development of the modern orchestral instruments on the first floor, and keyboard and stringed instruments on the second floor.
Visitors are given infrared
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
headphones
Headphones
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers, or less commonly a single speaker, held close to a user's ears and connected to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio, CD player or portable Media Player. They are also known as stereophones, headsets or, colloquially, cans. The in-ear...
in order to listen to almost 200 musical extracts of the instruments on display.
Information is provided in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, though not in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
Among the notable pieces of the collection are the famous Rottenburgh Alto recorder, instruments invented by Adolphe Sax, a unique set of giant Chinese stone chimes, and the only existing copy of the luthéal
Luthéal
The luthéal is a kind of prepared piano which extended the "register" possibilities of a piano by producing cimbalon-like sounds in some registers, exploiting harmonics of the strings when pulling other register-stops, and also some registers making other objects, which were lowered just above the...
, an instrument used by Ravel.
Location
The museum's current location, as of 2000, is in the former Old England department storeDepartment store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
, built in 1899 by Paul Saintenoy
Paul Saintenoy
Paul Saintenoy was a Belgian architect, teacher, architectural historian, and writer.Born in Ixelles, in the Brussels-Capital Region, he was the son of an architect. He began studying architecture in Antwerp in 1881 then returned home to complete his training in Brussels...
out of girded steel and glass in the art nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
style as well as an eighteenth-century neo-classic building designed by Barnabé Guimard.http://economist.com/cities/displayObject.cfm?obj_id=747281&city_id=BRU&CFID=2878035&CFTOKEN=1f0020-66a230e4-c160-4e08-8e8d-56026f94578f
Located at Rue Montagne de la Cour 2 on the Mont des Arts, the museum sits next to Place Royale and in front of the Magritte Museum. Access is available through the metro lines (1A and 1B, which stops in Central Park), the tram (lines 92, 93, and 94, which stop at the Royale), the busing system (lines 20, 38, 60, 71, 95, and 96 stop at the Royale), and by car (underground parking is available at the Congrès Albertine through the Place de la Justice and the Rue des Sols.
Hours
Operating hours are between 9:30 AM to 4:45 PM Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and between 10:00 AM and 4:45 PM on Saturday and Sunday (ticket sales end 45 minutes before closing time).The museum is closed on Mondays and on the dates of January 1, May 1, November 1, November 11, and December 25.
External links
- Official museum website
- Entry on Musical Instrument Museum from the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
h2g2H2g2h2g2 is a British-based collaborative online encyclopedia project engaged in the construction of, in its own words, "an unconventional guide to life, the universe, and everything", in the spirit of the fictional publication The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the science fiction comedy series... - Musical Instrument Museum information from TripadvisorTripAdvisorTripAdvisor.com is a travel website that assists customers in gathering travel information, posting reviews and opinions of travel-related content and engaging in interactive travel forums. It is part of the TripAdvisor Media Group, operated by Expedia, Inc. TripAdvisor is a pioneer of...
Wikitravel description