Tucked away behind the mustard
coloured Philharmonic Hall is this museum of all things musical. Opened in 1888,
the museum documents the history and evolution of musical instruments from the
16th century to present day.
The deceptively large museum,
holding around 800 instruments, is divided into two floors. The ground floor
displays instruments from the 16th and 17th century. Here
you will find opulently decorated harpsichords, hurdy-gurdies, and the rather
unfortunately named fagott horn. The highlight has to be The Mighty Wurlitzer
theatre organ which sounds and looks like a prop from a cheesy Sc-Fi movie.
Visit at noon on Saturday for a chance to see a live demonstration of this
bizarre instrument.
Upstairs the exhibition, which covers the
period from the 18th century to the present day, has a smaller
collection on display. The instruments become more recognisable and you begin
to think the museum is pushing its luck with a display of piano tools. Still
there are some intriguing instruments such as the model synthesiser that Pink
Floyd used in their song ‘Welcome to the Machine’. When you pay the snobbish attendants your 4€
entrance fee ask them for a free English audio guide (they will not offer you
one). After the general introduction, read by a rather creepy sounding man, you
can listen to samples of music played by the instruments on display. You can
hear elegant harps, bassett horns (which look uncannily like artificial limbs)
and a 16th century serpent horn that sounds like a man blowing
raspberries into a rusty bucket. The whole museum takes about an hour and
offers great insight into the history of music. It is just a shame that you are
not actually allowed to play anything.
