Contact, Enquiries and Special Visits
Postal addresses
Reid Concert Hall Museum of Instruments, Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, U.K.St Cecilia's Hall Museum of Instruments Niddry Street, Edinburgh EH1 1NQ, U.K.
E-mail addresses
- Group Visits to the Museums
- Study Visits to the Museums
- Comments on your visit to our Museums, our publications or our website
- Enquiries about Instruments in the Collection or Communications about the Collection
- Enquiries about Instruments not in the Collection
- Enquiries about the History of Instruments or about other topics
- To order EUCHMI publications
- To contact the Friends of St Cecilia's Hall and Museum
Group Visits to the Museums
To arrange a group visit or for any enquiries about the Learning Programme contact
the Audience Development Assistant, e-mail to:
Study Visits to the Museums
To arrange special visits to either Museum for study purposes, e-mail to:
Comments on your visit to our Museums, our publications or our website
Please e-mail comments and suggestions for improving our service or addenda and corrigenda for our publications to:
Enquiries about Instruments in the Collection or communications about the Collection
Please e-mail requests for information about this Collection to:
Enquiries about Instruments not in the Collection
Time permitting, the Collection staff are happy to help answer questions about historic musical instruments, and to provide information about instruments brought to the Collection (by appointment).
If photographs are sent by post the staff will reply, but only if pertinent information can in fact be supplied. Please make a note of any inscriptions on the instrument and enclose with the photographs. Photographs will not be returned.
Only rarely can useful information about unseen instruments be provided by e-mail. The Collection staff will reply to e-mail enquiries if pertinent information can in fact be supplied. Please do not e-mail scanned images or encoded documents without prior arrangement. E-mails to this Collection containing unexpected image files or other attachments will be deleted unread.
It should be possible to learn more about an instrument by comparing it with similar objects in museums, supplemented by study in a good music library. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001) will be a good starting place for most enquiries. William Waterhouse, The New Langwill Index :: a Dictionary of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers and Inventors (London :: Tony Bingham, 1993) gives much information about makers and is helpful in dating wind instruments.
Many museums and collections publish catalogues. This Collection publishes a catalogue in both printed and electronic forms. Information about museums specialising in musical instruments can be found at the CIMCIM website.
Museums do not provide a valuation service, and the EUCHMI staff cannot comment on the condition and quality of an unseen item. One of the leading auction houses employing a musical instrument specialist, or an experienced appraiser should be able to help you determine the value of a historic musical instrument.
If you wish to sell a historic instrument, do not play it at all and do not have it repaired or "restored". Museums and collectors prefer things in as near original condition as possible and if they do decide that repairs are necessary they prefer to commission their own from an expert of their choice.
E-mail enquiries to:
Enquiries about the History of Instruments or about other topics
The Collection staff receive many requests for help with research at all levels from school project to post-doctoral. In all cases, researchers should read the published literature and visit museums with musical instruments before asking for special help.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001) and material listed in its bibliographies will be a good starting place for most enquiries.
The Galpin Society website contains details of many articles and books about the history of instruments.
To order EUCHMI publications
To order publications and pay securely online, e-mail your requirements to:
To contact the Friends of St Cecilia's Hall and Museum
To contact the Friends of St Cecilia's Hall and Museum, write to the Secretary.
E-mail enquiries to:
friends@stceciliasfriends.org.uk
This article was published on 18 March 2013