They\u2019re captivating objects in themselves, witness to another form of expertise \u2013 the consummate skill of the craftsperson. The UK\u2019s abundance of musical instrument museums spells it out.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> If you have plenty of time and, ideally, your own set of wheels, making a countrywide tour of these wonderful collections pays rich dividends. One inevitably finds oneself spending longer than anticipated lost in admiration of all manner of things plucked, struck or blown; plus, of course, there is often an expert or two around to provide a few extra nuggets of information. However, we live in the digital age, and most museums can also be browsed comprehensively online by those who cannot get there in person. So, it\u2019s time to get the map out and \u2013 physically or virtually \u2013 plan a few visits\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n First stop, a sight of the just-redeveloped <\/span>Royal College of Music Museum<\/span><\/a><\/strong> \u00a0in South Kensington. This traces its origins to 1894, when the initial collection amounted to around 250 instruments, as curator Gabriele Rossi Rognoni explains during my guided tour. \u2018Now there are 15,000 examples, mostly in storage. We offer a whole history of musical creativity seen through instruments.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n The permanent collection offers a feast for the eyes wherever you look. Perfectly lit display cases host a range of stringed instruments for bowing or plucking from a wide historical span (including the earliest surviving guitar) but with elegant recorders and other woodwind instruments in the mix. <\/span><\/p>\n Dominating the space, though, is an array of keyboard instruments. You\u2019ll want to see the earliest surviving stringed keyboard instrument \u2014 a clavicytherium from around 1480. Rognoni himself singles out a gorgeously decorated mid-16th-century harpsichord made in Venice by Alessandro Trasuntino. I go for domestic simplicity \u2013 an unassuming yet handsome 1685 spinet, made in London by Stephen Keane.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Next stop, Forest Hill SE23, for the astonishingly variegated assemblage of 1,300 musical instruments gracing the <\/span>Horniman Museum<\/span><\/a><\/strong>. Established in 1901 by Frederick Horniman as a repository for his various acquisitions \u2013 embracing natural history, cultural artefacts and musical instruments \u2013 the museum continues to offer free entry to all-comers, as its founder intended. \u2018The collection invites visitors to celebrate diversity, whatever the musical genre,\u2019 says Mimi Waitzman, the museum\u2019s senior curator of Musical Collections and Cultures. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n And so much of humanity is here in this magical space. I find myself whisked through much familiar territory in terms of Western classical and popular music (including an extensive display of brass instruments and an electric guitar enclave) then on to a cornucopia of exhibits from the Far East and Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n I adore the beauty of a harp-lute from Senegal and a lyre from Ethiopia, but also savour the characterful charm of a group of pottery ocarinas and a cluster of lamellaphones \u2013 again, African \u2013 whose metal tongues attached to boards are plucked with fingers\/thumbs. A select range of instruments can be heard in recordings to hand.<\/span><\/p>\n Still in Greater London, the <\/span>Musical Museum<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in Brentford puts the accent on musical reproduction, from miniature music boxes and self-playing violins to reproducing pianos (using rolls as the recorded medium) and orchestrions (machines mimicking an orchestra or band) \u2013 plus, of course, dips into the story of the gramophone. It\u2019s all the brainchild of Frank Holland, a collector of reproducing pianos, over half a century ago.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018We now have items manufactured across a span of around four centuries,\u2019 says Steve Barrett-White, chair of the museum\u2019s board of trustees. There\u2019s no shortage of things to hear in action, representing many musical genres, classical included \u2013 and it\u2019s clearly great for kids.<\/span><\/p>\n The choicest item for Barrett-White is the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ, manufactured in New York in 1928. \u2018This was commissioned by a wealthy Chicago resident who then suffered in the Wall Street crash, so the instrument had to be warehoused. <\/span><\/p>\n It found its way to the Regal cinema in Kingston! The BBC\u2019s The Organist Entertains<\/i> radio programme used to feature it.\u2019 (On similar lines, incidentally, try also the <\/span>Grange Musical Collection<\/span> (grangemusicalcollection.com<\/i>) of self-playing instruments at Diss in Norfolk \u2013 fabulous machines of all sizes\u2026and shapes!)<\/span><\/p>\n While you\u2019re in the capital, you\u2019ll also want to pop into <\/span>The V&A<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, which houses a glorious collection of instruments chosen for their aesthetic beauty.<\/span><\/p>\n The Museum of the Royal Academy of Music<\/span><\/a><\/strong> , meanwhile, has been collecting instruments, scores and memorabilia since its foundation in 1822<\/span><\/p>\n The British Museum<\/span> (britishmuseum.org<\/i>) carries a renowned collection of musical instruments from around the world, dating back through millennia.<\/span><\/p>\n And in Hampstead, the National Trust\u2019s <\/a><\/strong><\/span>Fenton House<\/span><\/a><\/strong> is home to the Benton Fletcher Collection of early keyboard instruments, all in playing condition.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Driving to the National Trust\u2019s Hatchlands Park<\/a><\/strong> property near Guildford always stirs excitement at the prospect of feasting the eyes on the keyboard instruments in Alec Cobbe\u2019s peerless <\/span>Cobbe Collection<\/span><\/a><\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n The USP is their special connection to composers. Instruments from a range of European makers link to the likes of Purcell<\/a><\/strong> and Elgar<\/a><\/strong>; Mozart<\/a><\/strong>, Haydn<\/a><\/strong> and Beethoven<\/a><\/strong>; Chopin<\/a><\/strong> and Mahler<\/a><\/strong>; Liszt<\/a><\/strong> and Bizet<\/a><\/strong>. This isn\u2019t a collection that stands on ceremony, shrouded in silence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Examples feature in the regular series of Hatchlands concerts, and everyday visitors can hear the sound of each instrument via an audio guide. \u2018The articles of the collection\u2019s charitable trust stipulate that the instruments must be kept in playing order and used,\u2019 explains Cobbe.<\/span><\/p>\n See Elgar\u2019s Broadwood piano which enabled the sketching of such works as The Dream of Gerontius<\/i> <\/a><\/strong>and the Enigma Variations<\/i><\/a><\/strong>; the Jean Roller combined piano\/composing table on which Bizet penned his opera Carmen<\/i>; and Johann Christian Bach\u2019s Zumpe & Buntebart 1770s piano, very likely used by Bach\u2019s friend Mozart for the first performance of the latter\u2019s formidable A minor Sonata, K310.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Imagine being able to hear that sonata played here at Hatchlands on a range of instruments manufactured in Mozart\u2019s lifetime!\u2019 says Cobbe. \u2018Each offers something completely different.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Talking of historic keyboards, the 2015 closure of the Finchcocks Musical Museum at Goudhurst, Kent meant the sale of most of fortepianist Richard Burnett\u2019s extraordinary collection of historical keyboard instruments. The good news is that 14 classic examples \u2013 dating from 1700 to 1824 \u2013 remain accessible via the <\/span>Richard Burnett Heritage Collection<\/span><\/a><\/strong> \u00a0at Waterdown House in Tunbridge Wells. Viewings are by appointment, and there are special events and concerts.<\/span><\/p>\n On my latest visit to Oxford University\u2019s <\/span>Bate Collection,<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0unassumingly tucked away south of the city centre, I\u2019m greeted with news that this remarkable repository transfers to purpose-built premises in north-central Oxford in a few years\u2019 time. Perhaps then it will get the visitors it deserves. The collection bears the name of the late Philip Bate, a cash-strapped BBC producer who developed a passion for picking up historical instruments as bargains from market stalls and junk shops.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The collection has developed across a broad range of instrument types which threatens to burst these modest quarters at the seams. Rank upon rank of wind instruments, for example, highlight any number of adaptations in design. The eye is drawn to the serpent (forerunner of the trombone) which may have been played at the Battle of Waterloo. <\/span><\/p>\n However, my personal favourite is a clutch of 18th-century clarinets d\u2019amour \u2013 for sheer looks. And pop to the upstairs gallery for a surprise: two Afghan lutes \u2013 a rabab and a shash tar \u2013 donated by US Army colonel Frederick E Carl, who rescued them while on active service in Afghanistan. \u2018Without his intervention, the instruments would have been destroyed by the Taliban,\u2019 notes the Collection\u2019s curator, Andy Lamb.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Before leaving Oxford, maybe take in the musical instrument holdings at the <\/span>Ashmolean<\/span> (ashmolean.org\/musical-instruments<\/i>) and the even more extensive one at the <\/span>Pitt-Rivers Museum.<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nBest music museums in London<\/h2>\n
Royal College of Music Museum<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Horniman Museum<\/span><\/h3>\n
Musical Museum<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
The V&A<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
The Museum of the Royal Academy of Music<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/24\/2023\/01\/PianoGalleryRoyalAcademyofMusiccmyk-312283e.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>The British Museum<\/span><\/h3>\n
National Trust\u2019s <\/span>Fenton House<\/span><\/h3>\n
Best music museum in Surrey<\/span><\/h2>\n
National Trust\u2019s Hatchlands Park<\/span><\/h3>\n
Best music museum in Kent<\/span><\/h2>\n
Waterdown House in Tunbridge Wells<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/24\/2023\/01\/TunbridgeWellskirkmanDosfotocmyk-18d4d99.jpg?quality=90&resize=426%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Best music museum in\u00a0 <\/span>Oxford<\/span><\/h2>\n
Oxford University\u2019s <\/span>Bate Collection<\/span><\/h3>\n
Pitt-Rivers Museum<\/span><\/h3>\n
Best music museum in\u00a0<\/span>Manchester<\/span><\/h2>\n
Royal Northern College of Music<\/span><\/h3>\n