Acquisition
The Frank Tomes Collection of thirty-six outstanding instruments (mostly brasswind) was donated by Frank Tomes's widow, Susan Tomes. This collection was mounted in an exhibition in the Reid Concert Hall Museum of Instruments by Assistant Curator, Lisa Norman.
Several items from the Andreas Hartmann-Virnich Collection of bagpipes and related items were purchased as part of the bagpipe acquisition programme "Enriching our Musical Heritage" supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Further bagpipes and related items were donated by Andreas Hartmann-Virnich.
A group of guitars and related instruments was donated by Peter Forrester. Other items were donated by Fiona Donaldson, Troy Guindon, Philip Lowe, Margaret Belford and the Horniman Museum. Archival papers from Christopher Monk were donated by Susan Tomes.
Documentation and catalogue publication
An illustrated catalogue of the Frank Tomes Collection was published.
The Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) funded project, Drawing to Scale, was completed. 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 was carried out by Research Assistant Eleanor Smith under the supervision of Darryl Martin, and enabled full-scale plan-view drawings of forty of the most important keyboard instruments. A paper describing this project was given by Eleanor Smith at the University Museums in Scotland conference held in Glasgow in October.
Learning and Access
The Proceedings of the Clarinet and Woodwind Colloquium 2007 were published as a bound volume containing 27 papers.
Catherine Peck, the MGS-funded intern, curated an exhibition at St Cecilia's Hall, Painting Music. Several Collection objects were included in the exhibition Masterpieces II, held in Edinburgh University Library.
The "Doors Open Day" on September 22nd 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 Audience Development Assistant arranged a series of events throughout the year. The combined attendance at these events was 480.
Instruments from the Collection were used throughout the year for various recitals organised by the University, the Friends of St Cecilia's Hall and Museum, and other groups. Total audience figures were approximately 3000.
Maintenance of the Playing Collection
John Raymond, Assistant Curator, undertook all of the keyboard collection tuning and maintenance during the year. 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).
Teaching and Research
Arnold Myers and doctoral candidate Hayato Sugimoto gave presentations at the 1st Portuguese conference on Organology in Aveiro; Arnold Myers gave a presentation at the International Bagpipe Conference in London; Darryl Martin, Arnold Myers (with Bradley Strauchen and with Jocelyn Howell) and doctoral candidates Hayato Sugimoto and Sarah Richardson gave presentations at AMIS meeting in New York; Arnold Myers (with Murray Campbell and with Sabine Klaus) and doctoral candidate Lisa Norman (with John Chick) gave presentations at Historic Brass Society meeting in New York.
The staff of EUCHMI were involved in teaching as usual. Professor Arnold Myers (along with Dr John Kitchen) taught part of the Music and Technologies Class to all first-year Music students, and taught an honours option on the History of Instruments. A Musical Instrument Technology honours option was taught by Professor Arnold Myers and Professor Murray Campbell. Dr Darryl Martin taught several Research Methods classes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. PhD students remain a high priority for University teaching with twelve organology-related PhD students enrolled. Pedro Bento submitted his thesis during the year.
The Collection was heavily used for research support during the year both for students from Edinburgh University and elsewhere, including organised visits from Glasgow University, University of Aberdeen, Anniesland College (Glasgow), West Dean College (Sussex), Schola Cantorum Basel (Switzerland) and others.
Staffing
Antonia Grant left to take up work in London; the part-time post of Audience Development Assistant was taken up by Sarah Richardson.
Herbert Heyde visited as Guest Curator for six weeks.
Curator Dr Darryl Martin was appointed an external examiner at London Metropolitan University, examining the various musical instrument practice courses there.
Development
A Feasibility Study funded by MGS was carried out towards the 'St Cecilia's Hall Redevelopment Project'; the study was in two parts - the first carried out by Studio MB and the second by Studio SP. Both were successful in delivering information and illustrations which greatly progress plans towards redevelopment. In December, the St Cecilia’s Hall Redevelopment Project received first round funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Further information about the activities of EUCHMI can be found on the website:
Arnold Myers, Chairman, 31st December 2012
[ Report for 2011 ]
© Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, 2012.
This article was re-published on 23 December 2022