On the archive.org website I have found two books showing the musical instruments collection of a museum in Cöln (Cologne).
The second volume of the catalog describes the plucked instruments. For this article I have selected the mandolin family and extracted the pictures. The quality of those pictures is not the best, but they are very interesting anyway.
Musikhistorisches Museum von Wilhelm Heyer in Cöln : Kleiner Katalog der Sammlung alter Musikinstumente, verfast von Georg Kinsky
Recently I have been listening to some resources from the Smithsonian websites, especially the radio programs.
Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park and nine research facilities.
A set of radio programs with many interesting recordings is available at:
This includes a Bluegrass radio witha set of recordings of some of the important bands:
The Folkways collection contains some of the most influential early American bluegrass recordings and features such giants as Red Allen and Frank Wakefield, Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, the Stanley Brothers, and The Country Gentlemen. Listen here to these influential artists and experience this dynamic American roots tradition.
In the Smithsonian Folkways youtube channel you can also find some bluegrass recordings like this:
If you are a teacher you can also make use of the freelesson plans and other resources for teaching, like the following
Bluegrass Music: A Toe-Tapping Exploration of an American Art Form
Students will be introduced to American Bluegrass music and Appalachian songs through singing, listening and conversation. A number of songs will be compared leading to a conversation the characteristics of Traditional American music.
I did also listen to the Festival Radio that is available on the Smithsonian Festival site: http://www.festival.si.edu/ which also includes some great bluegrass performances from the Smithsonian Folklife Festivals.
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival was first held Juli 1 – 4, 1967 and has been a big success. Since then the festival took place every year. It is a festival of all folk arts including music and dance, craftsmen like carvers, blacksmiths, potters or quilters, and folk artists of all kinds.
You can find scans of the interesting programs of the festivals since 1967 on the archive.org website:
This is an excerpt from the program of the first festival:
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
FESTIVAL OF AMERICAN FOLKLIFE
July 1-4, 1967
America's grass roots culture provides abundant material
for the four-day Festival of American Folklife presented by
the Smithsonian Institution on the National Mall over the
July 4th weekend. More than doubling previous peak attendance
at the Smithsonian for this holiday weekend, the first program
in July, 1967 attracted 431,000 spectators, according to
National Park Service figures. The exceptional public response
to this first event has lead the Smithsonian to establish the
Festival as an annual Independence Day tribute to our folk
heritage.
Fifty-eight traditional craftsmen and thirty-two
musical and dance groups from throughout the United States
demonstrated and performed at the first open-air event.
Mountain banjo-pickers and ballad singers, Chinese lion
fighters, Indian sand painters, basket and rug weavers, New
Orleans jazz bands and a Bohemian hammer-dulcimer band from
east Texas combined with the host of participants from many
rural and urban areas of our country to weave the colorful fabric
of American traditional culture.
The instruments built by Antionio Stradivari are world famous. Most of those instruments are found today in museums or collections, others are played by some of the best musicians today.
Today I would like to present two of Stradivaris instruments – the Sabionari guitar and the Tuscan violin.
The Sabionari Guitar
The guitar name Sabionari guitar has been restored in 2011 and is now in a playable condition. It has been brought back to Cremona where is has been built centuries ago. The Stradivari Foundation will show this instrument and organize concerts where the guitar can be heard.
The Sabionari Guitar will be entrusted to the Stradivari Foundation in Cremona. The Foundation through the network Friends of Stradivari will let the world know this precious guitar and its sound. Friends of Stradivari will organize expositions and auditions in the Stradivari Museum in Cremona and in Europe.
On the website http://www.sabionari.com you can find interesting information about the instrument and its history, including a beautiful album with pictures of the restored guitar:
Website:
The Tuscan Stradivari Violin
In the Internet Archiv I have found a scan of a littel booklet about the Tuscan Strad which has been published in 1889 in London:
In the collection of this museum you can also find 12 beautiful mandolns – just use the search function and search for “mandolino”. For each of the instruments you will find pictures which can be zoomed in to show the details of the instruments.
Guitars built by John D’Angelico, James D’Aquisto and John Monteleone are shown in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Read about this exhibition in the New York Times:
“Guitar Heroes,” an exceptionally interesting exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has nothing to do with the video game that enables nonmusicians to imagine themselves playing like rock stars. The heroes here are three craftsmen known for producing some of the most sought-after jazz guitars of the last seven decades: John D’Angelico (1905-1964), James D’Aquisto (1935-95) and John Monteleone (born 1947).
Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York
Part one of the exhibition shows the developement of lutherie in Italy with many historical instuments including a guitar by Antonius Stradivari, mandolins by Vinaccia, Presbler and Manello, lutes by Tieffenbrucker and violins by Amati and Stradivari. The second part of the exhibition shows mandolns and guitars by the three luthiers John D’Angelico (1905-1964), James D’Aquisto (1935-95) and John Monteleone (born 1947).
There is also a very interesting special homepage about the exhibition with great pictures, videos, interviews and additional informations – do not miss!
historical instruments
