EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY COLLECTION OF HISTORIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

PROGRESS REPORT 1994

In the year, the Collection has been given instruments by Frank Dodman, B.D. Mackenzie, Timothy Tozer, Fettes College, the University of St Andrews and the Janissary Band Museum, Istanbul. Further items have been lent to the Collection, including a Joachim Tielke viola da gamba and other important instruments from the Glen Collection, lent by the National Museums of Scotland.

An endowment fund has been established, the income from which will be used solely for additions to the Collection.

The cataloguing programme has continued to advance: two further fascicles of descriptive text have been published. These cover oboes, and cornets & tubas respectively. In addition to the printed editions, they have also been published electronically.

Three further technical drawings have been published, of the Schnitzer tenor trombone and the Huschauer tenor trombone and trumpet, prepared for the Collection by Raymond Parks. These bring the total number of workshop drawings on sale to 33.

The University, jointly with the National Museums of Scotland, hosted the 1994 meeting of CIMCIM (The International Council of Museums Committee on Musical Instrument Museums), the Honorary Curator being responsible for the local arrangements. The Collection, with the Russell Collection, also contributed the Centenary celebrations of the Faculty of Music by hosting a 4-day Symposium on Musical Instrument History under the auspices of the Galpin Society and the Historic Brass Society.

Concurrently with the Symposium, the Collection organised a masterclass in historical performance practice given by Crispian Steele-Perkins (trumpet) and Susan Addison (trombone), and one of the Faculty's series of Historical Concerts celebrated the multi-centenaries of three of the instruments in the Collection dated by their makers: the tenor trombone (Anton Schnitzer, Nuremberg, 1594), the tenor trombone in Bb and the natural trumpet in D (both Joseph Huschauer, Vienna, 1794).

The Reid Concert Hall was open to the public as part of Doors Open Day on 10th September, when many visited the Collection. 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 1994

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