Only one curatorial department at the Metropolitan Museum exhibits objects originally meant to appeal as much to the ear as to the eye. It is the Department of Musical Instruments, which holds approximately five thousand examples from six continents and the Pacific Islands, dating from about 300 B.C. to the present. The collection, which is unsurpassed in its comprehensive scope, illustrates the development of musical instruments from all cultures and eras. The instruments, selected for their technical and social importance as well as for their tonal and visual beauty, may be approached in a number of ways: as art objects, as ethnographic record, and as documents of the history of music and performance.
Although the greatest strength of the department lies in its encyclopedic nature, categories that are particularly well represented include European and American keyboards, wind instruments from the late seventeenth through the nineteenth century, and instruments of all sorts from non-Western societies. Fifty highlights from the department are presented online, organized by instrument type and, within types, alphabetically by the name of the country of origin. The basic instrument types, or classifications, are aerophones (which generate sound through the vibration of air), chordophones (through the vibration of strings), membranophones (through the vibration of a stretched membrane), and idiophones (which are made of naturally sonorous materials that require no additional tension to produce sound). A fifth type—electrophones, which generate sound electronically or through amplified means—is represented among the highlights by a single guitar.
More about the Department and Its Collection
The collection of musical instruments at the Metropolitan Museum originated in 1889 with gifts of several hundred European, American, and non-Western examples from Lucy W. Drexel (in the name of her husband, Joseph W. Drexel, a president of the New York Philharmonic Society and trustee of the Museum) and from Mrs. John Crosby Brown. Mrs. Brown continued to donate musical instruments to the Museum until her death in 1918, by which time some four thousand items had been catalogued and placed on display. The assemblage, already the largest and most comprehensive of its kind outside Europe, was initially administered by the Department of Decorative Arts; in 1933, when the Department of Renaissance and Modern Art split off from Decorative Arts, the collection of instruments went with it. In 1942, the collection was made a subdepartment supervised by the Museum's director, and finally, in 1948, the autonomous Department of Musical Instruments was formally established, with Emanuel Winternitz (1898–1983) as its first curator.
The collection continues to grow along the heterogeneous lines established by Mrs. Brown in the late nineteenth century. Since 1971, more than eight hundred objects have been displayed in The André Mertens Galleries for Musical Instruments, which were donated by Clara Mertens in memory of her husband, the preeminent impresario. The Mertens Galleries comprise two halls, one devoted to Western instruments, arranged by type or family, the other to non-Western instruments, grouped geographically. Among the treasures on display are the oldest extant piano, by Bartolomeo Cristofori (Florence, 1720); an important American pipe organ, by Thomas Appleton (Boston, 1830); famous violins by Antonio Stradivari; guitars that belonged to the great Spanish classical guitarist Andrés Segovia; rare Asian and African instruments made of precious materials; and exquisite instruments from the Renaissance and Baroque eras.
The staff of the Department of Musical Instruments balances the imperatives of conservation with those of interpretation, publication, teaching, and performance by leading musicians. Many of the instruments are playable and can be heard in concerts and on recordings, as well as in lecture-demonstrations. The Audio Guide, available in the Great Hall, provides musical excerpts along with narration about the instruments' functions, symbolism, decoration, and technology. Special exhibitions featuring objects from the collection, with loans from other institutions and private collectors, are mounted from time to time.
From October to May, the Appleton organ may be heard in recital on the first Wednesday of each month (free with Museum admission). Special visits for school groups are available through the Education Department; see Group Visits.
