Acquisition
A fine Smith-Watkins trumpet with its set of interchangeable lead-pipes was donated by Richard Smith.
An important two-key clarinet in D by Philipp Gottlieb Wietfelt, Burgdorf, mid 18th century was purchased for the Sir Nicholas Shackleton Collection. A set of Northumbrian smallpipes by Robert or James Hall, Hedgeley, Northumberland, late 19th century, a walking-stick bagpipe chanter by Alexander Glen, Edinburgh, mid 19th century, and a very fine set of border bagpipes by Walker, Edinburgh, c 1840 were purchased as part of the bagpipe acquisition programme Enriching our Musical Heritage supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
An important group of bagpipes and related materials associated with Robert Millar were lent.
EUCHMI also received the organological archive, which was assembled and bequeathed by Lyndesay Langwill and William Waterhouse. An archive of papers relating to Reginald Kell was donated by Richard Masters.
Documentation and catalogue publication
The cataloguing programme continued to advance: three fascicles of descriptive text were published: Euphoniums and Tubas (3rd edition) by Arnold Myers and Raymond Parks; Free Reed Instruments and Musical Glasses by Melanie Piddocke; and Oboes (2nd edition) by Simon Milton.
The two-year MIMO ('Musical Instrument Museums Online') project, funded by the European Union with the University of Edinburgh as lead partner, was completed. Records giving concise descriptions of all the instruments, bows for stringed instruments, mouthpieces for brass instruments and beaters for percussion instruments were made available online, along with digital content from eight other major musical instrument museums from across Europe, through the MIMO database, available at:
Members of staff contributing to EUCHMI input to MIMO included Arnold Myers (co-ordination and classification), Scott Renton (database), Eleanor Smith (makers' names and media file editing), Melanie Piddocke (makers' names and image editing), and Raymond Parks (photography).
Links were made to records in the MIMO database from the lists of instruments on the EUCHMI website. In addition to the migration of records, images and media files to the Vernon collection management system, substantial input was made to the revision of the Hornbostel-Sachs classification, and the authority files for names of instrument makers.
Workshop Drawings
One further technical drawing, of the clarinet in A by Kaspar Tauber, Vienna, c 1810, was published, prepared by Melanie Piddocke.
A Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) funded project, Drawing to Scale, commenced during the year. This has enabled the construction of a “pantograph” - a frame into which an instrument is placed with a glass panel above through which a laser points and records the position of the instrument directly into a computer drawing (CAD) programme. This project is being carried out by Research Assistant Eleanor Smith under the supervision of Darryl Martin, and will enable full-scale plan-view drawings of all of the keyboard instruments held.
Conservation and Collections Management
Work on a clarinet storage project, funded by MGS and the Sir Nicholas Shackleton Fund, has provided the stored clarinets with full-length supportive cushions. This work was undertaken by Assistant Curator, Melanie Piddocke.
A Committee of Curators of University Collections (CCUC) small grant was awarded for preventative conservation work and the production of environmental monitoring at the Reid Concert Hall; a second CCUC small grant was awarded for a large print guide for the Laigh Room at St Cecilia's Hall, this work was carried out by postgraduate student, Edward Dewhirst.
Learning and Access
The "Doors Open Day" on September 24th was very successful in both Museums, with over 900 visitors welcomed by the Friends of St Cecilia's Hall and Museum and by a team of organology and other students.
A Roberts Fund award was secured to allow PhD students to create a series of small exhibitions showcasing their research and how it relates to EUCHMI.
Four instruments were lent to the 'Singing the Reformation' exhibition in Edinburgh University Library in August.
Maintenance of the Playing Collection
The keyboard collection was well used for concerts and recordings throughout the year, in particular in the concert series organised by the Georgian Concert Society, the Friends of St Cecilia's Hall and Museum, and the Reid School of Music (including the Sypert Summer Concerts).
John Raymond, Assistant Curator, undertook all of the keyboard collection tuning and maintenance during the year. This included preparation of the instruments for the Sypert Summer Concert Series, Friends of St Cecilia's Hall Fringe Concert Series, Reid School of Music lunchtime recitals and Georgian Concert Society winter concerts, as well as other special events during the year such as the First International Conference on Historic Keyboard Music, held at St Cecilia's Hall in July.
Teaching and Research
The collection has been used extensively for teaching and research during 2011. Reid School of Music teaching was carried out both at undergraduate level, with courses in Musical Instruments and History of Instruments (Honours), and at postgraduate level, with the Musical Instrument Research MMus course. The year also saw three PhD students working in the musical instrument field (Eugenia Mitroulia, Panagiotis Poulopoulos, and Melanie Piddocke) successfully completed their studies. Four University of Edinburgh doctoral organology students presented papers at the American Musical Instrument Society meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, where Karen Loomis and Melanie Piddocke, both Edinburgh students, shared the prize for best student paper at the conference.
Arnold Myers gave a presentation at the Diagnostic and Imaging on Musical Instruments Workshop in in Ravenna (with Laura Bognetti), a paper at the AMIS meeting in Phoenix, and a presentation at the 13th International RIdIM Conference and 1st Brazilian Conference on Music Iconography in Salvador. Darryl Martin presented a paper at the Symposium Cembalo, Clavecin, Harpsichord Regionale Traditionen des Cembalobaus in Herne.
The collection has also been actively used by visiting researchers from all over the world, leading to several papers prepared for major conferences and leading journals.
Many Collection instruments are illustrated in a new Spanish textbook on musical instruments, El Clarinete: Acústica, Historia y Práctica by Vicente Pastor García (Valencia: Rivera Editores, 2010).
Staffing
Emily Peppers stepped down as Learning and Access Officer and Melanie Piddocke demitted the post of Assistant Curator (part-time). The part-time position of Assistant Curator (Reid Concert Hall) was taken by Panagiotis Poulopulos before his move to Germany, since when it is being held by Lisa Norman. Kristy Davis was appointed Information Management Assistant to work with curatorial records and object files. Catherine Peck joined EUCHMI as Intern with MGS funding. Antonia Grant, transferred from the post of Learning and Access Assistant to Audience Development Assistant.
The collection has been, as always, strongly supported by the Friends of St Cecilia's Hall in many areas. In particular there has been considerable volunteer work carried out by Martin Hillman as publications officer, and by Dianne Fraser and Sheila Barnes at numerous events held at the Hall. Asma Khan has also been a regular volunteer at St Cecilia's Hall, in particular during opening hours. Eleanor Smith has carried out numerous volunteering tasks at St Cecilia's Hall, in particular giving pre-arranged tours of the collection. Lisa Norman carried out volunteer work at the Reid Concert Hall prior to her appointment as Assistant Curator, including the setting up of an exhibition on the Wagner Tuba.
Development
The major development focus for the Collection has been the 'St Cecilia's Hall Redevelopment Project', which is now the major capital project for University Collections. A Project Board has been set up to oversee the work, and fundraising is actively in progress under the leadership of Niamh Donlon. Feasibility studies for both the building and for a museum re-display have been commissioned, the museum re-display study being funded by MGS.
Further information about the activities of EUCHMI can be found on the website:
Arnold Myers, Chairman, 31st December 2011
[ Report for 2012 ] [ Report for 2010 ]
© Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, 2011.
This article was re-published on 23 December 2022