EUCHMI events in 2009 celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Reid Concert Hall Museum of Instruments; these included an evening of musical performances and readings in November during which some of the instruments collected by our founder, Professor John Donaldson, were demonstrated.
Acquisition
An important early 19th century 9-key oboe by Guillaume Triébert of Paris was purchased with funding from the National Fund for Acquisitions and the Thomson-Dunlop Bequest. Further acquisitions were made as part of the Enriching our Musical Heritage (bagpipe) project: a set of Scottish small-pipes with drones in a common stock and a set of miniature great Highland bagpipes were purchased.
In the course of the year, the Collection was given instruments and other items by Jock Agnew, Sheila Barnes (a Viennese fortepiano), Frances Bennett, Charles Foster, and Malcolm Porteous. The installation of the Rodger Mirrey Collection at St Cecilia's Hall was completed in the second of two phases.
Documentation and catalogue publication
A programme to prepare a detailed catalogue of the Rodger Mirrey collection was commenced by Eleanor Smith under the guidance of Darryl Martin.
Conservation and Collections Management
The programme of condition monitoring and conservation of metal wind instruments was progressed by Panagiotis Poulopoulos with the support of a grant from the University of Edinburgh Collections Fund.
Educational Initiatives
The conference Making the British Sound was successfully organised in conjunction with the Horniman Museum and took place in London and Edinburgh, followed by the Summer Meeting on Wind Instrument Acoustics (organised by EUCHMI in conjunction with the School of Physics).
Learning and Access
EUCHMI provided a full programme in both museums as part of the Show Scotland weekend, organised by Emily Peppers with funding from Museums and Galleries Scotland.
The inaugural season of the Sypert Summer Concert Series (three early music concerts using instruments from the Collection) was held at St Cecilia's Hall with support from George and Joy Sypert.
Sound guides were installed in both museums with Scottish Government Recognition Scheme funding. This incorporates existing sound recordings and new recordings, and fills a long-standing need in enhancing access to the Collection.
The exhibition Sackbut and Trombone showing sixty trombones plus related materials was successfully mounted for the period from May to September.
The "Doors Open Day" on September 26th was very successful in both Museums, with over 1000 visitors welcomed by the Friends of St Cecilia's Hall and Museum and by a team of organology and other students.
The project Musical Instruments at Your Fingertips was commenced, organised by Learning and Access Officer Emily Peppers with Scottish Government Recognition Scheme funding. This will expand access to the Collection for young people and the general public through the creation and improvement of ICT and web resources with a diverse content acknowledging a broad range of learning styles, and will be linked from social networking websites.
Maintenance of the Playing Collection
The Burkat Shudi double-manual harpsichord was restored to playing condition by John Raymond, who also carried out all necessary maintenance, re-voicing and tuning of the playing early keyboard instruments used in concerts throughout the year.
Teaching and Research
The Collection has been used for teaching purposes by University Staff, in particular for courses on Organology and Musical Acoustics. Several parties made organised visits, and various scholars and instrument makers have visited to study particular instruments. An increasing number of enquiries were answered, many by e-mail.
Arnold Myers delivered his inaugural lecture in May following appointment to a personal chair of Organology, and presented papers at the Institute for Musical Research in London and at meetings in Portland (Oregon) and the Musée de la Musique in Paris; he also gave joint papers with Eugenia Mitroulia at conferences in Ann Arbor and Rome. Darryl Martin presented papers at the conference Making the British Sound in Edinburgh, the CIMCIM meeting in Florence, and the Galpin Society / AMIS meeting in Rome. University of Edinburgh doctoral organology students Lisa Norman, Eugenia Mitroulia, and Panagiotis Poulopoulos presented papers at the conference Making the British Sound.
Co-operation
The European Union awarded funding to the University of Edinburgh as lead partner in the two-year MIMO (Musical Instrument Museums Online) project which will provide free online access to the digital content of major musical instrument museums (45,000 instruments) for delivery through Europeana. The project, with eleven European partners, commenced in September 2009.
The ex- James Hogg (the Ettrick Shepherd) fiddle was loaned to National Library of Scotland for exhibition, March-May 2009.
Visiting scholars for extensive study periods were Vicente Pastor (Spain) and Isabel Asensi (Spain).
Staffing
Arnold Myers stepped down from the position of Director at the end of September, and took up the role of Chairman with a remit including documentation of the Collection. Jacky MacBeath (Museums Development Manager) and Darryl Martin (Curator) took over some of the duties of the former post of Director.
Further information about the activities of EUCHMI can be found on the website:
Arnold Myers, Chairman, 31st December 2009
[ Report for 2010 ] [ Report for 2008 ]
© Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, 2009.
This article was re-published on 23 December 2022