Two important purchases have been made. A fine viola da gamba by Mathias and Augustinus Kaiser of Dusseldorf, circa 1700, together with two bows have been bought with assistance from the Government's Local Museums Purchase Fund, the University's General Council Trust, the Pilgrim Trust and an anonymous benefactor. The two Wagner tubas needed to reunite in University ownership the historic set of four (brought to Britain by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1935) were purchased from the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Collection has published as a booklet the text of Alan Lumsden's lecture The Sound of the Sackbut, given to celebrate the acquisition by the University of the trombone by Anton Schnitzer dated 1594.
The work on technical drawings has proceeded: seven further drawings, of oboes, were published this year, making a total of 23 workshop drawings now on sale.
The Scottish Museums Council's Antiquities Conservation Officer undertook work on two of the instrument cases in the Collection, the work being grant-aided by the Council.
The Honorary Curator represented the University at the CIMCIM (The ICOM Committee on Musical Instrument Museums) meeting in Berlin, where he read a paper `Cataloguing Standards for Instrument Collections'.
A number of brass instruments have been lent for display at the Quakers Friars Museum of Music in Bristol.
The Collection has been used for teaching purposes by University Staff, in particular for courses in the Faculty of Music on the History of Instruments, Ethnomusicology and Musical Acoustics. Several parties have made organised visits, and various scholars and instrument makers have visited to study particular instruments.
Arnold Myers, 31st December 1988
[ Report for 1989 ] [ Report for 1987 ]
© Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, 1988.
This article was re-published on 23 December 2022