EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY COLLECTION OF HISTORIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

PROGRESS REPORT 1995

In the year, the Collection has been given the eight instruments comprising the New Violin Octet, made by (or under the supervision of) Carleen Hutchins. They have been donated by Professor Emeritus Peter Fellgett. The Collection has also been given instruments by Mrs G.W. Anderson, William Waterhouse, and the St Andrew Orchestral Society, and other items by Dr Christopher Field and Julian Stapley Esq.

Two important instruments have been purchased for the Collection. A flute by the most eminent woodwind maker to have come from Edinburgh, John Mitchell Rose, has been bought with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions, the Pilgrim Trust and the Hope Scott Trust. A rare tenor trombone by François Riedlocker of Paris (circa 1800) with original wooden case has been bought with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions, the Pilgrim Trust and Mrs Kerr's Bequest in the Faculty of Music. The National Fund for Acquisitions is administered with Government funds by the National Museums of Scotland.

The Endowment Fund has been augmented by a donation of 10,000 pounds sterling from Russell Trust. The income from this will be used solely for additions to the Collection.

The cataloguing programme has continued to advance: four further fascicles of descriptive text have been published. These cover (1) viols & violins, (2) clarinets, (3) stringed instruments of regional cultures worldwide and (4) ancillary equipment. In addition to the printed editions, they have also been published electronically. A further donation towards the Cataloguing project has been received from the Binks Trust. A part of the Catalogue has been mounted on the World Wide Web (apparently making EUCHMI the first musical instrument collection to have substantial useful information on www pages): an electronic picture gallery containing a "virtual catalogue" has been created, consisting so far of 58 pictures showing some 84 items (supplementing Volume 1 of the Collection's Catalogue). The gallery can be viewed at

http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/euchmi/

Further information about the Collection can also be found here.

Two further technical drawings have been published, of the anonymous Terz Guitar and a guitar by Louis Panormo, prepared for the Collection by Darryl Martin. These bring the total number of workshop drawings on sale to 35.

Following the concert organised by the Faculty of Music using the New Violin Octet, the Collection hosted a well-attended Colloquium in February in which the scientific and musical achievements and prospects for the New Violin Octet were discussed.

For part of the year, the Collection has benefitted from a programme of work undertaken by Joanna Archibald with grant-aid funding from the Scottish Museums Council. This has resulted in improved display of 75 instruments and improved storage facilities for 150 instruments.

The Honorary Curator represented the University at the Triennial General Assembly of the International Council of Museums and the meeting of CIMCIM in Stavanger.

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 1995

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