Music, the most immaterial art of all, is in fact the most strongly enslaved by the tyranny of the material. Its history is indissolubly attached to the one of crafting musical instruments, like the history of men following the curve of the development on their armaments.
É. Vuillermoz, Histoire de la musique, 1979
Musical instruments are amongst the most important cultural objects. An instrument in music is a manual device with the ability to create musical sounds. The term audio device or audio object is used for simple instruments who derive directly from nature and have not been processed at all. The human voice is also considered an instrument, though usually it is not included in the list of musical instruments, but rather it is mostly used as a criterion for testing the adequacy of the musical instruments.
According to the traditional and most popular system of classification, musical instruments are divided into three categories: string, wind and percussion instruments.
The Hornbostel–Sachs system is based on the nature of the vibrating materials, which are meant to produce sound, and classified instruments into four main groups: idiophones, membranophones, chordophones and aerophones.
Idiophones and membranophones include all percussion instruments, as they are most widely known, and they are the most ancient instruments. Idiophones primarily produce their sounds by means of the actual body of the instrument vibrating. Membranophones primarily produce their sounds by means of the vibration of a tightly stretched membrane or leather. Hitting an object with a hand or hitting two objects together produces sound and automatically creates an idiophone. Therefore, any object can be used as such an instrument, which means that there is an endless variety not only in popular cultures but also in the orchestra. It is also obvious that there can be many variations of these instruments. Something similar applies also to the membraphones, although the types and variations are much fewer.
Chordophones produce sound by vibrating stretched strings, which are usually made of plant fibre, catgut (animal intestine), silk, metal or plastic.
Aerophones produce sound by vibrating columns of air. The sound source is the air itself, which is usually enclosed in a specific space, such as a tube.
Pure instrumental music, that is the one played and heard without any vocals (song) or movement (dance), is typical, almost exclusively, in the Western European tradition. Musical instruments, in all traditional cultures since ancient times, are being used in combination with singing and dancing.
This exhibition focuses on the material side of music, that is the musical instruments, and contains exhibits from antiquity to the present such as archaeological objects, 3D models, photographs and Illustrations of musical scenes that include musical instruments.
The exhibition contains items from the following institutions:
