EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY COLLECTION OF HISTORIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

PROGRESS REPORT 1993

In the year, the Collection has been given instruments by Andrew Shivas and Archibald Smith. Further items have been lent to the Collection, including several early English trumpets and other important instruments from the Shaw-Hellier Collection, lent by J.W. Phillips.

The cataloguing programme has continued to advance: three further fascicles of descriptive text have been published. These cover bassoons, trumpets and trombones, and wind instruments of regional cultures worldwide respectively. In addition to the printed editions, they have also been published electronically.

Three further technical drawings have been published, of the mandolin attributed to Vinaccia (303) and the early 17th-century lute by Buchenberg (3249), prepared for the Collection by Darryl Martin, and the cornetto (3189) drawn by Raymond Parks. These bring the total number of workshop drawings on sale to 30.

A small exhibition showing the work of the Collection has been mounted in the foyer of the Old College of the University, showing some recent acquisitions, examples of conservation work on instruments (grant-aided by the Scottish Museums Council), current research, and the plans and model of the display proposals for the new premises for the Collection.

The Honorary Curator represented the University at the CIMCIM (The ICOM Committee on Musical Instrument Museums) meeting in Antwerp and is serving on the Museums and Galleries Commission's expert panel advising on standards for the care of musical instruments in collections.

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 1993

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