Scan 18
Metropolitan Museum of Art – Musical Instruments of All Nations 1910, 1910
12 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1relationships. Those who are best acquainted with the history of music will most appreciate the difficulty of this undertaking, and be quickest to realize how many years of patient research are represented in the modest groups which, to the uninstructed eye, seem so ordinary and commonplace.1
3Apart from the repetition which grows out of the inclusion of many localities and nationalities, duplicates have, as far as possible, been avoided. This has been done largely to economize space. In a collection designed for exhibition, as must be the case in a Museum of Art, the freedom possible under other conditions is impossible. It would, however, greatly add to the value of the collection if it were possible at some later date to gather about the instruments designed for exhibition a second group, which could be used solely for study and experimentation. If this were the case, the restriction which now prevents the inclusion of duplicates would fall to the ground.
5A feature of the collection to which attention is called is the presence of models showing the mechanism of the various instruments, as, for instance, the different kinds of reeds, free and beating, the different varieties of tubes employed in wind instruments, as conical, cylindrical, etc., and the different actions of the various keyboard instruments. In this way it is possible to unlock some of the secrets hidden away within tubes and behind cases, and to show through how much more intricate and winding a path than might at first appear man has been led in his search for sweet sounds.
7In the second European room, Gallery 25, there is a collection of portraits, engravings, lithographs, etc., of musical com-
91 The following are the families completely represented: The viol, violin and guitar; the transverse flute without keys, transverse flute with keys; the very large recorders and the smaller set; the galoubet and the ocarina; the clarinet and saxophone; the krumhorn, oboe, bassoon and pommer; the cornet à bouquin, ophicleide, Russian horn; trombone; helicon; brass sax horn, rotary valves; sax horn, pump valves; sax horn, bell over shoulder m-del; wooden sax horn. Each group is outlined with cording in order to facilitate recognition.
11Since this catalogue was printed two complete families have been added to the above list: the Sarrusophone and the Russian Balalaïka.
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