THE 2005 CIMCIM MEETING

Annual conference in East Germany: Michaelstein, Freiberg, Halle, Leipzig

Abstracts of the papers

Annalisa Bini, Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia, Roma, Italia

New opportunities for services to the public looking at economic perspective: the AXMEDIS project inside a collection of musical instruments

The aim of this paper is to describe some opportunities given by a new EU Information Technology project: AXMEDIS (which stands for "Automating Production of Cross Media Content for Multichannel Distribution"). The project will build a technological framework suitable to sell digital contents in a protected way on different media channels: PCs (on the internet), PDA, standalone Kiosks, Mobile phones, I-Tv.
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia participates to this project as a content partner, and will provide the demostration (and possibly the exploitation) of the technology using its heritage with special focus on the collection of musical instruments.
This paper will provide a description of the project and some examples on how to use the framework to have, for instance, the guide of the museum (for general public and scholars) and selling, in a protected way, different digital contents coming from its collection, or even the collections of other museums preserving their ownership and giving them royalties.

This solution encourage not only the creation of a digital archive containing texts (of any kind), images, sounds, video and multimedia items based on international standards of cataloguing and descriptions (metadata) to sell them (or give them for free depending from the museum's policy). The digital archive itself is not only a conservative structure, it is also a good chance to give wider access to the collections.

It encourages also the creation of a network of collections where it is possible to sell (or give for free) digital contents coming from a partner, multiplying the points of entrance to collections, on a Business 2 Business model.

Peter Donhauser, Vienna Museum of Technology, Vienna, Austria

The Neo Bechstein a critical appreciation

The Neo Bechstein piano is a typical attempt during the 1930ties to build new instruments on the basis of the brand new radio technology. It was an attempt to stimulate the stagnating piano industry as well. The instrument at the Vienna Museum of Technology was investigated very carefully in the last months, the original amplifier works. This gives an authentical impression of the sound quality and the features of the instrument. In parallel details of the history of the Neo Bechstein and the roots of these ideas were researched. A lot of new material and characteristical sound samples will be given up to new recordings from 2004.

Heidrun Eichler, Musikinstrumenten-Museum, Markneukirchen, Germany

Is the trade yet so small...

The world-wide trade, and in particular that of the USA around 1900, had a marked influence upon the qualitative and quantitative development of Vogtlaendish instrument production in Saxony. What is interesting about this interrelation is the social status of the instrument makers, who saw themselves as self-sufficient masters of their craft.

It is indeed long ago since Markneukirchen became a prosperous city through the musical instrument industry and the big trade. However, traces of that wealth are still recognizable today.

Sabine K. Klaus, National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota, German-American Relationships Immigration and Trade Factors in American Brass Instruments during the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries

The close relationship between German and American brass instrument production in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is a well-known fact. Saxon makers were particularly active in supplying the American market with brass instruments before the arrival of the large American factories. Makers of the Vogtland were mostly dependent on dealers, who sold their goods for higher prices. As a result a considerable number of German makers decided to avoid the dealers and seek their fortune overseas. Many of them immigrated to the US in the 1860s. This influx was prompted by an increased need for brass instruments during the Civil War in America. During this period German makers adapted their instruments to American models.

In my lecture I will delineate this development with examples of American brass instruments of the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, manufactured by German immigrants. These examples will be taken primarily from the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection at America's National Music Museum, The University of South Dakota. Also, the question of how to interpret signatures on brass instruments will be addressed in the light of trade and dealer relationships between Germany and America.

Monika Lustig, Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein, Germany

The reflection of economic aspects of the Vogtland instrument making in the collection of the Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein

The peculiarity of the Michaelsteiner music instrument collection consists in the extremely large number of Vogtland instruments which are in addition preserved in an almost original condition (especially the bowed instruments).

The Vogtland instruments take a part of 35% of complete stock containing approx. 700 exhibits (500 instruments and 200 bows).

On closer examination of the Vogtland instruments in the Michaelstein collection it can be uncovered, that the mixture of these reflect the special situation of the instrument making in the Vogtland region.

The very high number of instruments without signs in comparison with signed specimens point out to the important role of the dealers with instruments and to the division of labour, which began at a very early time.

At select examples it can be shown that the flat-rate devaluation of the Vogtland instruments (especially the unsigned ones) as cheap mass-produced article frequently to be found isn't correct in every case.

The existing signed instruments shall be examined for the ratio of the dealer signatures and actual manufacturer signatures provided that this is possible with available biographical data.

However the concentration of the instrument making in single Vogtland villages as well as the distribution of single-branches of it can be shown in signed instruments.

The consideration of the signed instruments, which represent numerous important families of instrument makers are followed by considerations for a future collection strategy.

This paper can also be an introduction for the guided tour of the exhibition in Michaelstein.

Jesmael Mataga, Zimbabwe museum of Human Sciences, Zimbabwe

The Musical Instrument as a Trade Factor: The African experience

The paper seeks to explore a variety of questions as concerns the economic derivatives of African musical instruments and explore the historical and contemporary practice as regard making, movement and trading in African musical instruments. African instruments as the African musical culture have been on the move and have influenced musical cultures elsewhere in the world. Without well established and internationally recognised instrument makers and with instrument making characterised by isolated and dwindling craftsmanship, can one really talk of "trade" in African musical instruments? Nonetheless, while the concept of "trade" might be different in the African context, some exchanges have occurred within African communities themselves and also with the outside. Historically, collectors have since the first contact of Africa with other continents collected instruments and African Music and Instruments have been exported to other continents through slavery, colonialism and museum collecting. At the moment the trade in African instruments seems to continue mainly on the museum collecting level, as tourist souvenirs and in limited quantities for purposes of playing them. The existence of a market for African instruments remains hazy outside of these contexts.

Nina Mileshina, Musical Instruments Department, Glinka Museum, Moscow, Russia

Some Developments In the Making Of Musical Instruments In Russia

Foreign manufacturers account for 70-80% of the Russian musical-instrument market. Only the Russian folk instruments niche is represented exclusively by Russian producers.

Over the recent 15 years musical instruments manufacturing in Russia has dropped considerably.

An increasing number of hand-made instruments are being sold abroad, and instrument makers are moving to foreign countries.

However, demand for musical instruments remained unabated in Russia.

Prices for instruments produced domestically skyrocketed and even outstripped those for imported Czech, German, Chinese, Korean instruments. Consequently, dealers became more prominent and started to gain higher margins.

By and large, there is insufficient funding, high-tech field remains virtually dormant, an educational system for instrument makers has not been developed so far.

Nevertheless, there is high potential for the manufacturing of musical instruments in Russia. A number of private firms have been opened, some of them springing from the former state enterprises. Russian acousticians and tuners demonstrate high professionalism.

International competitions and musical instruments exhibitions in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg sponsored by state and private enterprises play a prominent role in the development of the Russian instrument-making market.

It is vital to preserve historical musical instruments in museums as benchmarks for manufacturing. A new trend has been the creation of sample Russian folk instruments (balalaikas, domras, guslis) and visual aids funded by the Ministry of Culture.

The majority of state musical institutions employ restorers, who apart from the repair, restoration, and conservation works on ancient and modern concert instruments, are also engaged in the production of new ones.

The Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture is one of the major cultural centres that bolster interest towards musical instruments and their making. The Museum houses a permanent exposition called Musical Instruments of the Peoples of the World. Every month the Museum holds concerts and lectures on Folk Instruments in Russia, Musical Masters and Musicians. Every four years it houses Tchaikovsky International Violin Makers Contests, where Russian makers display high quality of works; the best instruments are transferred to the Museum's deposits and the State Collection of unique musical instruments.

Christiane Rieche, Hdndel Haus, Halle, Germany

The Representation of the Harmonium-industry of the Mitteldeutschland region in Public Collections

The Mitteldeutschland region was one of the most important harmonium building centre at the first half of the 20th century. Nearly every second harmonium in Germany was build in that region. The book Das Harmonium in Deutschland" gives an overview about this phenomen as well as a list of all harmoniumbuilders in Germany. This paper now is an attempt to compare the list of harmoniumbuilders of Mitteldeutschland with the noted instruments in the musical instrument museums in Germany and the instruments which we listed in our inventory of instruments in the regional museums of Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thuringia. The result of this study could be an answer of the question: Do we have to collect more such instruments?

Miguel Zenker, Escuela Nacional de Mzsica, Del Carmen, Coyocan, Mexico

Violin making in Mexico: an upcoming trade and handicraft

Controlled to the outmost during the Colony, due to the fear that Mexican artisans could easily overshadow Spanish makers, the craftsmanship of musical instrument construction developed at that time mostly in the area of folk instruments. Since its Independence in the 19^th Century, classical musical instrument making stood in the shadow of the slow industrial development then to be found in Mexico. In the first half of the 19^th Century classical instruments were brought by ship from Europe or by train from the USA, at the owners' risk. The first musical instrument import company settled in 1854 and by the 80s it had a lithograph-printed catalogue of more than a 100 pages, a fact that illustrates the huge amount of musical instruments used then. During the 20^th Century, in 1954, the government created for the first time a violin making school. After its decadence in the 604s, other makers looked to Europe for their apprenticeship and, after their return to Mexico, settled in different cities, contributing with the creation of private and institutional workshops to the training of new instrument makers and restorers. In 1987, the government created another school that forms part of present-day violin making schools in this country. On the other hand, starting from two orchestras in the 50s, about 20 symphony orchestras have by now developed in Mexico and, from almost none at that time, a large list of classical music ensembles of Early and Modern Music nowadays exist. New schools of music have arisen, supporting the training of musicians for all ensembles and orchestras. This paper deals with the struggle of Mexican instrument makers against importation of cheap Asiatic and European instruments and against lack of knowledge by music trainers of technical aspects about instrument making, restoring, care and attention to quality, all in behalf of the efforts of musicians to improve the quality of their performance, and despite the lack of government support for this activity and a relatively weak present-day economy.