before c 1625
c 1625 to c 1775
c 1775 to c 1825
c 1825 to c 1865
after c 1865
Petit bugle or soprano flugelhorn (France)
| Information about these demonstrations |
Click on the links in this table for pictures, descriptions, and demonstrations of instruments being played.
Menu of Demonstrations
This is a site about historic musical instruments: ancestors of modern concert instruments. It offers photographs, technical details, historical information and samples of music. Keyboard instruments are not represented in these demonstrations: CDs of the Collection's keyboard instruments are available from The Friends of St Cecilia's Hall and Museum.
Not all the instruments in the Collection are in a playable state, and for some which are it would be too risky to attempt to use them even for a limited time. As with many other musical instrument museums, the Edinburgh University Collection's main purpose is to preserve historic instruments in perpetuity for study, and their principal use is in teaching and research. None of the instruments in the Collection is played regularly, and it is not the Collection's policy to "restore" instruments since any rebuilding, however minor, diminishes an instrument's value as a historical document.
For the purposes of these recordings, only routine maintenance was carried out, such as replacement of strings. The instruments were not all functioning as well as a modern copy would be expected to. The recorded sounds in this site may give some impression of how the instruments sounded in their prime, but it will not be a completely true re-creation since
The site is designed and edited by Dr Arnold Myers, Director and Curator of the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, with contributions from John Wexler, University of Edinburgh Graphics and Multimedia Resource Centre.
Video, audio and action photography by the University of Edinburgh Media and Learning Technology Service (MALTS).
The recordings were made with the support of a grant from the University of Edinburgh Collections Committee.
Still photography of instruments by Antonia Reeve Photography, Edinburgh.
Still photography of performers by Mark Findlay, MALTS, University of Edinburgh.
Musical performances:
The texts (history, technical details and references) are drawn from the Catalogue of the Collection, which gives full descriptions of all the instruments in the Collection.
Video and audio by the University of Edinburgh Media and Learning Technology Service ( MALTS ).
The recordings were made with the support of a grant from the University of Edinburgh Collections Committee.
Still photography of instruments by Antonia Reeve Photography.
Still photography of performers by Mark Findlay, MALTS, University of Edinburgh.
Communications about the contents of these pages
All material on this website is
copyright.
© Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, 1999-2003, 2008.
This page updated: 30.10.08