The Museum of Musical Instruments of the University of Leipzig (german: Musikinstrumentenmuseum der Universität Leipzig) is a museum in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. It is located on Johannisplatz, near the city centre. The museum belongs to the
University of Leipzig
Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...
and is also part of the
Grassi Museum
The Grassi Museum is a building complex in Leipzig, home to three museums: the Ethnography Museum, Musical Instruments Museum, and Applied Arts Museum.
It is sometimes known as the "Museums in the Grassi", or as the "New" Grassi Museum (to di ...
, whose other members are the
Museum of Ethnography and the
Museum of Applied Arts.
It is one of the largest music instrument museums in Europe, alongside those
of Brussels and
of Paris. Its collection of around 10,000 objects includes valuable instruments from Europe and beyond, as well as music-related items from the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
, the
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
, and
Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
's Leipzig period.
History
In 1886 the Dutchman opened a museum of historic musical instruments in Leipzig, but he sold the collection to the paper merchant Wilhelm Heyer in 1905. The "Wilhelm Heyer Museum of Music History" opened in 1913, containing De Wit's collection alongside that of the
Florentine Baron Alessandro Kraus and
keyboard instruments
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos. ...
from the
Prussian
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
manufacturer Ibach. The collection was bought by the University of Leipzig in 1926, paid for partly by the
State of Saxony and partly by the publisher
C.F. Peters, and was opened in the New Grassi Museum in 1929.
[The History of the Museum of Musical Instruments]
Parts of the collection were removed for safekeeping during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, but a large number of the remaining items were destroyed during a
bomb raid on the building in 1943, including the Ibach pianos, the archive and the library. After the war it transpired that the items which had been removed were also significantly damaged or lost, owing to improper storage or theft.
Starting in the 1950s, the museum was gradually rebuilt and reopened to the public. The collection was expanded anew over the following decades, through purchases and donations. All or part of the De Wit, Heyer, Kraus and Ibach collections still survive.
The museum is a member of the
Konferenz Nationaler Kultureinrichtungen
The Konferenz Nationaler Kultureinrichtungen (KNK) or Conference of National Cultural Institutions is a union of more than twenty cultural organizations in the former East Germany. It was established in 2002 in Halle.
It includes the following o ...
, a union of more than twenty cultural institutions in the
former East Germany.
Exhibition
The permanent exhibition presents the major eras of musical history (in particular that of Leipzig) and
instrument technology. The oldest exhibits date from the 16th century. The exhibition is chronologically ordered and divided into 13 sections. Besides those mentioned above, the most important collections include
bowed,
wind
Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hou ...
and
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
instruments,
piano rolls, the collection of
Friedrich von Amerling
Friedrich von Amerling (14 April 1803 – 14 January 1887) was an Austro-Hungarian portrait painter in the court of Franz Josef. He was born in Vienna and was court painter between 1835 and 1880. With Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller he is one of ...
, and a 1931
theatre organ
A theatre organ (also known as a theater organ, or, especially in the United Kingdom, a cinema organ) is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films, from the 1900s to the 1920s.
Theatre organs have horseshoe-shaped arrangements o ...
. The museum also contains a sound laboratory where musical instruments can be tested out.
University connections
The museum has been part of the
University of Leipzig
Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...
since 1929, and includes a teaching collection and a study collection. It also holds teaching events for students of Leipzig University and the
University of Music and Theatre Leipzig
The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig (german: Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig) is a public university in Leipzig (Saxony, Germany). Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn ...
.
The Grassi Museum and the University of Leipzig
Further reading
*Eszter Fontana, Birgit Heise: ''Für Aug' und Ohren gleich erfreulich. Musikinstrumente aus fünf Jahrhunderten''. Museum of Musical Instruments of the University of Leipzig, Halle/Saale, 1998. .
*Helmut Zeraschi: ''Geschichte des Museums'', Issue 2 of ''Schriftenreihe des Musikinstrumenten-Museums der Karl-Marx-Universität'', Leipzig, 1977.
See also
* List of music museums
This worldwide list of music museums encompasses past and present museums that focus on musicians, musical instruments or other musical subjects.
Argentina
* – Mina Clavero
* Academia Nacional del Tango de la República Argentina – Buenos ...
Notes
External links
Home page in English
{{authority control
Music museums in Germany
Museums established in 1929
Leipzig University
Museums in Leipzig
University museums in Germany
Musical instrument museums