On Saturday, I went with some friends to an exhibition by the Kunst Historisches Museum taking place in the Neue Berg: The Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, “home to the most important collection of renaissance and baroque instruments worldwide.” It was AMAZING.
Rooms upon rooms were filled with rare and historic instruments in beautiful condition, some of which were played upon by some of the greatest composers and musicians of all time, such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms, among many others!
Along with entry into the museum, our ticket also included an audio device which provided comprehensive and extremely extensive information about most of the instruments (in English, huzzah!), along with some audio examples of the period instruments, adding a whole other dimension to the experience.
Obligatory harp pictures since I’m a harpist~
They were so ornate, it was stunning. Additionally, most of them weren’t [entirely] double action yet.
Details
More details
Even more. Gorgeous.
One more. This one was shaped like a fish and had teeth at the base!
Some other instruments, now that I’ve harp-geeked-out (I wish these photos showed the intricate details a bit better, but I won’t spam this blog with my 500 photos of every angle of each instrument!):
So ornate. This one had Grecian inspiration for the legs.
One of the rarest instruments in the collection
Viola da Gamba
Viola D’amore
Arpeggione
…Just a few cool examples of the hundreds of instruments there.
This museum was a musician’s dream, and I am so happy we had the opportunity to visit. I may just go back before I leave Vienna to gawk some more!
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