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Museum International

No 189 (Vol XLVIII, n° 1, 1996)

Musical Instruments

Front cover Cello by Goffriller (1659-1742), private collection. Ail rights reserved

Back cover Anthropomorphous harp of the Ngbaka people of Zaire. O Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren

Editor-in-Chief: Marcia Lord Editorial Assistant: Christine

Iconography: Carole Pajot-Font Editor, Arabic edition: Mahmoud El-Sheniti

Editor, Russian edition: Tatiana Telegina

Wilkinson

Advisory Board

Gael de Guichen, ICCROM Yani Herreman, Mexico Nancy Hushion, Canada Jean-Pierre Mohen, France Stelios Papadopolous, Greece Elisabeth des Portes, Secretary- General, ICOM, ex officio

Roland de Silva, President, ICOMOS ex officio

Tomislav Sola, Croatia Shaje Tshiluila, Zaire

O UNESCO 1996

Published for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization by Blackwell Publishers.

Authors are responsible for the choice and-the presentation of the facts contained in signed articles and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. The designations employed and the . presentation of material in Mzisez~i?~ Intemational do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

C O N T E N T S No. 1 , January - March 1996

3 Editorial

4 Dossier: Musical-instrument

collections

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Musical-instrument collections: a special challenge Cynthia Adams Hoover

Interpreting musical instruments: a university collection in Japan Sumi Gzwzjz'

The conservation of musical instruments K. L. Bmclaj,

A stroll through the history of Austrian music Rudolf Hopfner

Creating a context for African musical instruments Jos Gansenzans

A new 'world of music' in Paris Harriet WeIQ Rocheforl

Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum: a specialist collection for non-specialists Aune Moore

Restoration, reconstruction and copying in musical-instrument collections John Koster

Caring for musical instruments A Museum International report

Event 43 The 1995 European Museum of the Year Award Kenneth Hudson

Ititerview 49 The new research laboratories of the Museums of France A n intei-uieezu with Jean-Pierre Moheia

Imovatioti 5 2 Ancient monuments create a new museum in Peru Marco Albini

Features 56 Books

5 9 Museum-Museums 63 Technology update

ISSN 1350-0775, Mzrseuin Intenzational (UNESCO, Paris), No. 189 (Vol. 48, No. 1, 1996) 8 UNESCO 1996

Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley-Road, OxFord, OX4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142 (USA)

STOLEN Les Musiciens (Musicians), oil painting on panel by Alexis Bafcop: a ziiolinist is sitting astride a chair luith his musicpropped up on a wine banel; a boy is standing on his lefi, and a woman is behind the chair with both her hands on the chairback. Scene painted in the style of the seventeenth-centu y Flemish masters. Monogram ‘A.B.’ in bottom right-hand corner. Dimensions 3Gx 29 cm. Stolen on 23 August 1994 from a museum in Cassel, northern France. (Reference 94/43-13/B&f Interpol France.)

Photo by courtesy of the ICPGInterpol General Secretariat, Lyons (France)

Editorial

‘Man cannot stay in a village where there are no musicians.’

So say the Dan people of West Africa. However, history has shown that this is true of all peoples on all continents and at all times.

Music and musical instruments are among the most complex creations of the human mind. They convey the deepest cultural and spiritual values of a civilization, reflecting and transmitting its religion, mythology, history and traditions. It is rare to encounter a civilization or a people with no musical instruments; be they the creation of the most skilled craftsmen or simply rudimentary objects, they are some of the most prevalent and meaningful artefacts of the cultural heritage. Their abundance and diversity bear witness to the persistence of human imagination and power of invention; since prehistoric times, they have been created to produce organized sounds intended to accompany the key moments of everyday life. With the rapid pace of transformation - not to say the disappearance - of traditional societies, music is frequently the last cultural vestige to remain, emanating as it does from the very depths of the community’s collective meinoiy.

UNESCO has long been concerned with protecting the worlds cultural heritage, and its efforts on behalf of humanity’s great monuments and sites are well known. But it has also led the way in documenting and safeguarding the even more vulnerable intangible heritage so as to give it renewed vitality which can inspire contemporary creation. As far back as 1976, the Organization adopted a ten-year plan for the promotion of music and the visual arts in Africa and Asia which provided for field collection and recording and for the creation of museums and archives where selected musical instruments and recordings could be studied and preserved. Since musical instruments are objects that convey both sound and meaning, they divulge a host of information not only with regard to the musical aspects but also to all the other fields that make up the ,socio-cultural context. It is no wonder, then, that they are of interest to museums the world over, and that their collection and display comprise a complex, multiform task that must be approached with sensitivity and care.

To help tell this story, Museuin i~ztei-natioi2al turned to Cynthia Adams Hoover, curator of musical instruments of the Smithsonian Institution’s Division of Musical History, and President of the ICOM International Committee of Musical Instruments Museums and Collections from 1969 to 1995. She provided a wealth of insight and guidance for which we are most grateful. Her unstinting co-operation was but another illustration of the close ties that bind ICOM and UNESCO, and on the occasion of ICOM’s 50th anniversary this year, w e would like to wish our partner organization continued health and prosperity.

M.L.

ISSN 1350-0775, Mu.seum ïntenzarional (LJNESCO, Paris), No. 189 (Vol. 48, No. 1,1996) O UNESCO 1996 Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142 (USA)

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Musical instrument collections: a special challenge Cynthia Adams Hoouer

fie ‘bou~s’ aiid Luh-ys’ of mzcsical instrument collections are described b y this issue’s co-ordinator. In addition to her work at the Smithsoninn Instihition, Cynthia Adams Hoover has authored exhibitions andpublications sicch as Music Machines - American Style, American Ballroom Music and Dance 1840-60, CES well CES many articles and papers oia the history of thepiano. She bas also served on the editotial boards of the New’Harvard Dictionary of Music, The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, The Complete Works of William Billings andNew World Records.

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It would be difficult to imagine a culture without music and musical instruments. It is the great joy and challenge of those working in museums with collections of musical instruments to collect, preserve, and interpret the unique musical heritage of many of the world’s cultures.

Historically, the reasons for collecting musical instruments have been many. Wealthy noble families like the Habsburgs in Europe began in the sixteenth century to collect instruments as works of art, selected for their rareness and fine ornamentation. (These are now housed in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum.) In Nara, Japan, many centuries before that, gifts (including musical instruments) to honour the newly built Buddhist temple were preserved and now allow us to study (at the Shosoin National Treasury) rare examples of eighth-century life.

Some nineteenth-century collectors, swept up in the taxonomic trend of that time, concentrated on finding similarities of musical instrument types among different cultures rather than recording unique traditions of a single culture. They were more interested in how the sound was produced than in the role the instrument played in the culture. Instruments from every part of the world were assigned to four major sound-producing types: idiophones(sound produced from the substance of the instrument itself being struck, plucked, blown, or vibrated by friction, e.g. bells, cymbals, jew’s harps); mernbranophones (sound produced by tightly stretched membranes, e.g. drums); chordophones (sound produced by strings stretched between fixed points, e.g. violins (bowed), guitars (plucked), pianos (struck); and aerophoizes (sound produced by air as the vibrating agent, e.g. flutes, trumpets). The system was refined by Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs in 1914 and an expanded ver-

sion still remains the authority for most instrument collections and the recent Ait and Architecttire i%esaurzis developed by the Getty Trust Art Information Program. (An English translation of the entire classification system appears in G@in Society JOLI^^^, No. 14, March 1961, pp. 3-29.)

Other collections, like that of the Royal Museum of Central Africa, were begun as ‘curiosities’ from Belgian colonies and have developed into research institutions. Their professional staff studies and collects objects, including music and musical instruments, and documents how these objects fit into the total fabric of everyday African life. Their collections, for instance, have preserved music and musical performance now lost following the upheavals in Rwanda. Many museums, like the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., trace the source of collections to field research (nineteenth-century field trips to the American West and to Alaska, and many worldwide field trips since) and to major gifts and purchases (for instance, pianos documenting the American piano industry and, more recently, instruments and archives to document the American jazz and folk traditions). Still other collections focus upon a single instrument, like bagpipes in England (as w e learn in the article about the Morpeth museum) or jew’s harps in Siberia (as participants at the 1995 ICOM meetings in Norway learned from our Yakut colleague Ivan Alekseyev - an extraordinary collector, scholar and performer).

While most of us in museums see the preservation of our collections as one of our major responsibilities, those working with musical instruments have a special challenge. If part of the essence of an instrument is its sound, how can we exhibit that dimension without destroying important historical details or indeed the

ISSN 1350.0775, Museum Intenzatio>zal (UNESCO, Paris), No. 189 (Vol. 48, No. 1,1996) O UNESCO 1996

Published by Rlackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142 (USA)

Musical instrument collections: a special challenge

entire object? Several of the articles that follow, especially those by Robert Barclay and John Koster, address this dilemma. Although they concentrate mostly on demands to use instruments from the Western European tradition for performances and recordings of the Early Music revival, the questions are as great with non-Western instruments, as marks of use are obliterated and important ritual symbols are incorrectly replaced during restorations.

Live performance is only one means of interpreting musical instruments. Several of the articles point out how many current museum installations include exhibitions that show the instruments in their cultural context (although some still prefer to organize their exhibit cases according to instrument types), with sounds of appropriate music provided by headphones, videos and interactive CDs. From special workshops, visitors can also learn about musical heritage and the culture from which it comes - and even how to play the instruments. As Anne Moore so well sums it up, the ultimate goal is ‘to catch the

interest and imagination of as many visitors as possible without being patronizing, while retaining the integrity of the collections and holding the interest of the “expert” visitors at the same time.’

For several years members of CIMCIM (the ICOM International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections) have considered the place of musical instrument collections in the changing world of museums. W e realize that as museums move toward broader thematic goals and toward more involvement in contemporary society, the focus on specialized collections (and indeed on the objects themselves) is not always considered the primary priority of today’s museums. But, as the new technologies make the world smaller, they also threaten to homogenize cultures and possibly to obliterate unique traditions. With urgency in some areas of the world, we will continue to concentrate on the collecting, conservation, exhibition, and interpretation of the world’s collective musical heritage so that it will be available to current and future generations to study and enjoy.

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Interpreting musical instruments: a university collection in Japan Sztmi Gztnji

Collecting and displaying mrisical instruments forpriinarily edLicationa1 puiposes raises complex questions as to the0 y and method. me airthor is a professor at the Kiinitachi College of Music in Tokyo, specializing in the histo y of musical instruments. She is the author of na11?ierozlspublicntions in the field and bas translated significant works froin English and Gennan.

The term ‘organology’ was introduced for the first time by Nicholas Bessaraboff in his outstanding work, Ancient European MU- sical Instruments. He argued that

the study of music and instruments may be divided into two mutually related, yet distinct approaches. The dividing line in this case can be clearly recognized as the difference between music proper and the objective and material means for its expression. Thus the qea- tive, artistic and scientific aspect of music might be entitled musicology. The scientific and engineering aspect of musical instruments might be entitled organology.’

The present article discusses the suitability of making uniform use of the method based on organology for the interpretation of musical instruments from all parts of the world. This question arose out of my experience in teaching organology and in establishing the collection of musical instruments at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo.

The collection was founded in 1980 to contribute research material to the scholars, educators and students of the college and to the public as well. To meet the individual requests of every curriculum of the music college, that is, performance, composition, musicology and pedagogy, the collection was to offer visible and audible material related to all kinds of musical instruments. In addition to the problems posed by the acquisition and display of the instruments, a more vexed question arose concerning their interpretation.

The usual way of interpreting musical instruments is to exhibit them in the order of some type of classification, such as the Sachs-Hornbostel system,? indicating their

name and, if possible, some explanation of their construction or playing technique. This method works well for Western instruments, but others need to be interpreted in a different fashion, such as ethnographic or folklore origins, so as to reflect their unique characteristics.

Although the borderlines between West- em and non-Western musical instruments - including European folk music instruments - are not clearly defined, we nevertheless have a vague understanding of their characteristic differences. The term ‘Western musical instruments’ is generally applied to those used for European music after the sixteenth century, so-called classical music. To quote Bessaraboff, these instruments are built as the ‘objective and material means’ for the expression of the music and their development is based accordingly on the requirements of composers or performers who wish to realize the ideal musical sounds of their stylistic period. Extending the range, changing the timbre and making the playing of the instruments easy and sure, were the most significant and obvious developments in the history of Western musical instruments, and structural changes were closely related to the scientific and social evolution of the West.

The interpretation of non-Western musical instruments is insufficient if it consists merely of a simple explanation of the name and origin of the instrument, with perhaps a mention of construction and playing techniques. A correct understanding requires further explanation as to origin and history for the simple reason that most such instruments are derived from objects that have a non-musical purpose, such as ritual, communication, signals or daily life, and some are still used for these purposes as well as for musical pleasure.

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Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OS4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142 fUSA)

Interpreting musical instruments: a university collection in Japan

. . > . - .. ..,” .

Another matter for consideration is the conceptual difference in the sound of Western and non-Western music. Non- Western instruments have a more natural and improvisational sound compared with Western instruments. Keyboard instruments - which are the quintessential instruments of Western music - illustrate this distinction: the pitch of each note is fixed according to a tempered tone system and the timbre is built up harmoniously with fairly limited noise. The construction of most Western instruments is thus based on acoustical and mechanical principles. However, performers using Western instruments

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are less able to create the ‘ideal’ sound by virtue of their playing techniques than those using non-Western instruments whose sounds may vary considerably according to the performer’s virtu- osity and skill. In sum, the more me- chanically complex the instrument, the less leeway there is for the performer to create his or her original sound. Unfor- tunately, people sometimes think of non- Western instruments as primitive because of their simple appearance. This may hamper genuine comprehension of these instruments and for this reason it is indispensable to add sound recordings or video material to their display.

Interpretation by photographs: exhibition room of Gakkigaku Shiroyokaiz at Kunitncbi College of Maisic, Tokyo.

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Sound recordings: uisitovs to the College of Music can listen to a-tape cassette corresponding to the instmment of their choice.

It should be kept in mind that Bessaraboff divided the study of music and musical instruments into the categories of ‘musicology’ and ‘organology’ so as to make a distinction between the creative, artistic and scientific aspects of music (musicology) and the scientific and engineering aspects of musical instruments (organology). He took pains to indicate that ‘there is an ethnological approach - perhaps one of the best, with respect to extra- European instruments’ and, referring to the Sachs-Hornbostel system, pointed out that ‘an important classification of musical instruments is printed in a journal devoted to ethnology’.

In conclusion, I would like to recall the words of Curt Sachs himself who, in his book Geist iind Werden der Mi.lsik- instminmzte, pointed out that the history of

musical instruments is not primarily that of technibal accomplishment that aims for higher musical achievement, but is a reflection of the development of the human spirit, and that the ideal sound itself appears as the expression of the state of the human soul. When musical instruments are interpreted with due consideration of ethnology and folklore, as well as organology, they may be one of the. best means of providing a genuine understanding of other cultures. W

Notes

1. Nicholas Bessaraboff, Ancient filiisical histniments. An Orgnnological Study of the &lusical Iizstnments in the Leslie Lindsey Mason Collection at the iI4ueiim of Fine Arts, Boston, p. mi, Cambridge, Mass., 1941.

2. ‘Systematik der Musikinstmmente. Ein Versuch von Erich von Hornbostel und Curt Sachs’ [A Classification of Musical Instruments. An Essay by Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs], Zeitschriift fiir Ethnologie Uournal of Ethnology], Vol. 46, 1914. (English translation by Anthony Baines and Klaus P. Wachsmann in Galpin Society Journal, No. 14, March 1961, pp. 3-29.)

Hands-on exhibition where visitors can play the instruments on display.

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The conservation of musical ins trurnents R. L. Ba~clay

Attitudes, practices and ethics comenaiizg niusical iiistrumeiits iiz nazIseutn collections have euolued considerably over time. What is cleal; boweuev, is thnt there is a well-defined middle gi’ozrnd between extreme restoration, on the one band, and overly consewatiue presematioiz, on the other. ï%e author is seizior comeivator in the Ett!!nology Section of the Canadian Coizseivation Iizstitrrte in Ottawa.

Musical instruments have been one of the most misused class of artefacts in museum collections. ‘Misuse’ seems a strong term, but it is used here advisedly - whenever artefacts from museums are used there is the potential for misuse. The role of a musical instrument is quite obviously for playing music and if this role is not ful- filled then its entire function has been lost. This, at least, is the view of almost all musicians in the private sector who own antique instruments. Unfortunately, such attitudes have been transferred into the care of museum collections to an astonishing extent. Virtually every major museum of musical instruments has had, at some time in its history, at least a tacit policy of restoration to playability, and some still do. During the last three decades or so many of the Western world’s most important keyboard instruments have undergone thorough restoration, the extent of which is now regarded as highly questionable.

At the beginning of the 1960s the early- music revival began to gather momentum. Audiences, jaded with the old nineteenth- century musical chestnuts served up by that apparently immortal dinosaur the symphony orchestra, were looking elsewhere. There was increased interest in hearing the music of bygone times on instruments appropriate to the period - a need to visit the workshop of the composer and to become familiar with the tools found there. The rediscoveries in musical dynamics and expression that this revival engenderedwere enormous. Mean- while, the recording and broadcasting industries were booming under the increasing demand for authentic performances on original instruments. Study material was required for all this exploration of the past, and museums often supplied it gladly. Here was an opportunity to study the workings of ancient instruments to an

extent unheard of before, to express the museum collections to the public and to make money. Perhaps if musical-instrument curators in those days had been trained within the museum profession the intervention might not have been so whole- sale. But they were not. To a large extent they were musicologists or musicians whose focus was, quite naturally and understandably, directed towards the instrument as a functioning machine.

Restoration of instruments in the private sector was, of course, an industry with antecedents many centuries in the ‘past. Massive modernizations of keyboards, bowed strings and other instrument parts have been done virtually since the instruments were first made. It is extremely rare, if not impossible, to find an early instrument that does not bear at the least the marks of maintenance, if not radical alteration. There is an adage among musicians that only bad instruments find their way into museums by virtue of being useless for the making of music. As one small example of the extent of past restorations, here are the words of Dom Vincenzo Ascensio, an eighteenth-century Spanish violin maker and repairer:

The smaller viola . . . I took to pieces and replaced the bar. I also removed the parchment which oppressed the tone, from the sides, and thinned the neck. [For the violoncello:l I pieced the centre (patched the belly) and replaced the bar by one adjusted to mathematical pro- portions based on that of Stradivari. I corrected the thicknesses, pieced the four corner-blocks, took the back off and inserted a piece in the centre, as it was too thin. I had to replace the neck, which I did in the most careful manner. I then adjusted the instrument, the tone of which was rendered excellent by all these changes.’ *

ISSN 1350.0775, Mtiseriin ïnlentaliowal (UNESCO, Paris), No. 189 (Vol. 48, No. 1, 1996) O UNESCO î996 Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142 (USA)

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R. L. Barclay

This extent of restoration and repair that went on before the modern era is not unusual; virtually no Stradivari instruments survive in their original condition. In general, unless an instrument was very deco- rative or had some other non-musical function, it had to work, otherwise it was useless.

The burgeoning early-music movement of the last few decades made huge demands on museums, where many of the finest examples had been preserved, in some cases for centuries, from just such intervention, and it was to the private sector that most instrument curators went for consultation and eventually for labour. This illustrates the insular nature of these museums in that, while the conservation profession was refining its ethical practices and applying pragmatic scientific techniques to works of art and artefacts, the curators of musical instruments were seeking help from an entirely different source, an old-established source which was much more concerned with the here and now. This is not to say that restorers are unethical and conservators are not - this facile generalization has been at the root of far too much misunderstanding already - but it is true to say that the aims of private-sector restoration and museum conservation are at variance. It must be borne in mind that in the period under discussion - the 1960s - the distinction between conservation and restoration was well understood by those in the mainstream of the museum world.

Conservation and restoration

Conservation and restoration are often thought of as opposite ends of the spectrum - one can practice conservation or restoration, or a mixture of both somewhere in between. However, this is not a

very apt model because it breaks down at the restoration end by assuming an untenable mutual exclusivity. It is fairly obvious from a social point of view that an extensive restoration in fact prolongs the life of an object; the object is conserved for the future by extensive treatment, regardless of the intention and the nature of that treatment. A better model is therefore to see restoration as a sub-set of conservation. Conservation is then defined as any action taken to maintain or control the condition of an object, and restoration becomes one of those actions.

Restoration of an instrument causes loss of primary intrinsic attributes - those features of the object that represent its original state - by replacing or overlaying them with secondary attributes. This is a downward hierarchical transfer because it is axiomatic for museum objects that the original is of more value than the replacement. For example, the replacement of a worm-eaten wrest plank with a new one, fashioned of the same material and closely following the original pattern, causes a net loss to the primary state, regardless of what this may do to the interpretation of the instrument and its subsequent aesthetic, cultural and monetary value. This amplifies the view that ‘every restoration, no matter how well- documented or sympathetic, wipes away evidence and makes the original condition, one condition more remote.”

In rendering an instrument functional the increasing remoteness of its present state from its original state engendered by loss of primary attributes cannot be considered acceptable in a museum context, nor should it be acceptable when dealing with unique instruments in the private sector.

Following is an examination of a few cases of extreme restoration which convince us that even in our enlightened times

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The conservation of musical instruments

interventive treatments of culturally significant instruments are still prevalent. The extreme of restoration is illustrated by a harpsichord in a European museum which has had its soundboard smoothed, flat- tened and thinned by application of an orbital sander, while its keyboard is now so clean, sharp and regular as to lead one to believe that it is brand new. One of the Steinway pianos upon which Canadian pianist Glenn Gould played was completely stripped and reconditioned, re- moving all traces of the very special adjustments for which Gould was famous, under the auspices of the Canadian De- partment of Public Works in 1985. In Ontario there is a historic barrel organ, a Canadian-made rarity from the early nineteenth century, which had thirteen 6-mm holes drilled in its windchest, easily visible and right through the original finish, in an attempt to correct an assumed maker’s error. In a published work on the subject the restorer states:

‘I have heard it said that there was consternation over the drilling of those holes. They are certainly visible, although they will be made less so. From the point of view of the sound of the organ, and of its use, the holes were long overdue and are perhaps the most effective single improvement of recent de cade^.'^

It might be assumed that with current understanding of conservation ethics, and the ready dissemination of information on the subject, interventions on unique cultural objects like those described above would be a thing of the past, but this is not so. Following is the case of the earliest known English pianoforte, published as recently as 1989. The instrument is dated 1766 and was made by Johannes Zumpe in London. During restoration it was discov- ered that the soundboard had been made

O UNESCO I996

in three plies, an extremely unusual practice at the time. The restorer stated: ‘I have to confess that I baulked at the formidable technical problems of making an exact replacement and made a conventional solid soundboard in~tead.’~ If one were asked to identify the single piece of a keyboard instrument that contributed most to its sound quality, it would have to be the soundboard. This restorer removed it completely and replaced it with a piece of wood having entirely different acoustic characteristics; an isotropic soundboard was replaced by a non-isotropic one. The article continues in describing the ‘singing quality of the treble . . . and the resonant bass . . . remarkable in such a small instrument’, though the original sound quality is, of course, entirely unknown.

While misguided from the museum perspective, all the above restorations were done with the best possible intentions. There was a passionate interest in the instruments and a deep commitment to making them accessible by restoring their voices. This was an expression of the philosophy that a musical instrument is nothing unless it is allowed to speak; it is the antithesis of consigning the instrument to ‘a temple of silence where it may be conserved as a piece of furniture, its musical function forgotten’.s Nevertheless, from the museum perspective the exorcism of Glenn Gould’s ghost from a refurbished Steinway, the improvement of a unique Canadian organ, and the transformation of the earliest known English piano can all be regarded as tragedies. And indeed the tragedy is exacerbated by the fact that two of these treatments were published, thus giving them a measure of respectability. This is not, of course, respectability in the eyes of those who make historical integrity, original techniques, and minimal intervention their daily business, but respectability in musical and historical circles it

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R. L. Bada-y

certainly is. That such articles could never appear in journals like Studies in Conserva- tion is a small comfort - the interventive treatment of the objects has still been done.

To look for a moment at the other extreme, the profession of conservation in North America, and increasingly in Europe and elsewhere, is taking on a more preventive and non-interventive orientation, clearly as a reaction to the excesses of earlier decades. But, as one can go too far in restoration, one can go too far the other way as well; over-conservation of musical instruments renders them non-viable in a museum setting. A collection of musical instruments, purchased new and preserved in absolutely unused condition, is hardly expressive, but from the conservative conservator’s point of view, no matter how little use the intruments get, or how much care they are given, they still cannot be maintained in pristine condition. The conservation argument is clear - these objects are documents of past practice and technology, and interference with them results in a loss of information. However, it is also true that unused objects tell us a lot less than those that have been used and cherished, and kept En perfect working condition. No history of use is written upon an instrument fresh‘ from its maker’s hands, whereas one that has passedthrough phases of fashion and changes of musical taste will be a goldmine of information. A musical instrument in a museum collection which can be sounded safely, but which is not because of over-conservative policy, is also tragic.

The above are two extremes; on the one hand, there is the intention to enjoy the cultural property now while it exists, no matter what the cost, while on the other there is a denial of any enjoyment, passing virgin works altruistically to the future. The truth of the matter is that there is a middle

road between greedy use and conservative silliness. The information value of individual objects must be respected, while still expressing the acoustical properties of those instruments which can be used without compromise, or which have already been compromised. It must be understood that there is much more to a historical object than its prime function. As Ilarp has stated: ‘The value of an older musical instrument does not lie solely in its being playable (any more than an older costume must be wearable, or an older weapon must be lethal).’6 To assume that if an instrument is not played its musical function will be forgotten is to show ignorance of the wide spectrum of resources open to historians, instrument-makers, students and musicians in the modern museum context.

Codes of ethics

It was not long ago that the International Committee of Musical Instruments Muse- ums and Collections (CIMCIM) discussed the need for a code of ethics specifically for the conservation of musical instruments. It was at the ICOM Triennial Conference in Buenos Aires in 1986 that a resolution was taken to address this problem. However, such thinking is based upon the assump- tion that museum musical instruments are in some way different from other objects. They are not. They are made of the same wide range of materials as furnishings, clocks, firearms, tools, and any other utilitarian objects; they require the same care in handling and treatment; they require the same attention to environmental control. More to the point, the existing codes of ethics, particularly the definitive ones for conservation, such as that produced by the International Institute for Conservation Ca- nadian Group (IIC-CG), are quite adequate in providing a framework for sensible practice. If a code of ethics specifically for

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The conservation of musical instruments

musical instruments is considered necessary, do we also need one for clocks, one for machine tools, one for scientific instruments, and so on? Of course not. It is far more rational to base our actions on the accepted codes of ethics of the'museum and conservation professions. if abuses still continue, this cannot be blamed on the lack of a specific code. Codes can oniy guide, they cannot dictate, and we run the risk of regulating ourselves into the ground. The Western democracies are learning that more regulation does not equate with less crime, and there is much the musical instrument field can learn from this simplistic observa- tion. The ultimate resource must always be the sensibility and sensitivity of individuals when facing specific problems, and it is the role of the museum profession to sensitize owners of valuable instruments in a positive and constructive way.

Again, the potential insularity of musical- instrument museums arises, at the risk of upsetting the few that are fully in the mainstream of conservation. If returning an instrument to a playable condition is contemplated, it is facile to believe that this should and could be done by a restorer or curator working alone. Such a decision is only taken through consultation with as wide a range of specialists as possible, as spelt out in the ICOM Code of Professional Ethics:

There are often difficult decisions to be made in relation to the degree of replacement or restoration of lost or damaged parts of a specimen or work of art that may be ethically acceptable in particular circumstances. Such decisions call for proper co-operation between all with a specialized responsibility for the object, including both the curator and the conservator or restorer, and should not be decided unilaterally by one or other acting alone.

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If such consultation had been a routine occurrence in musical instrument collections twenty or thirty years ago, there might exist many more untouched originals for historians, instrument makers, musicians and students to study, and very probably many more copies for scholars to perform experiments on. it is far easier to learn about history, technology and performance practice from authentic ruins than it is from falsely restored musical instruments.

The cautious attitude alluded to above has resulted in conservators being regarded as purists who 'press for silence', and the stereotype of the white-coated and gloved conservator with the liands- off attitude is well known to musicians and curators. It is important to emphasize that this is only a derogatory stereotype, coined in over-reaction to what was per- ceived as an attack on the sacred cow of play-at-all-costs restoration. Indeed, the code of ethics does not prohibit making an object fulfil its original function; quite the reverse is the case as stated in the Code of Ethics and Guidance for Practice of the IIC-CG:

It is the responsibility of the conservator, acting alone or with others, to strive constantly to maintain a balance between the need of society to use a cultural property, and the preservation of that property.

There is very clearly a rational middle road between extreme restoration and extreme preservation. It is not an avenue that has yet to be found. There is a plethora of information available to anybody who con- templates the restoration of a musical instrument; there are specialists in museums throughout the world who are only too willing to be consulted. In other words, in the present communication-rich environ-

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R. L. Barclay

ment there is little excuse for working alone in a dark corner and doing a bad job. Nevertheless, there are those, like the restorers alluded to earlier, who either have no access to the literature (which is surprising) or who simply do not consider the historical/technological aspects of early musical instruments to be of greater concern than their current musical qualities. It is quite likely that the conservation profession’s espousal of preventive approaches over the last two decades has distanced these people from museological considerations. To address better the dissemination of information, CIMCIM has published a Recommendation for the Consemation of fiiusicnl Instrumei~ts,~ which contains twenty annotated references to publications on the museum environment, care of musical instruments, ethics and standards, practices, and so on, the idea being to introduce these publications to those outside the narrow museum sphere who are either unaware of what museums are trying to achieve, or interpret their conserva- tism as intransigence.

’

While under the heavy ethical and practical challenges of past decades, the path of least resistance for both musical-instrument users and musical-instrument con- servers has been an isolation of disciplines and a hardening of positions. This often happens to the detriment of the objects both sides have set out to preserve and interpret. The keys are effective communication and wider dissemination. The message on the care and preservation of unique

and non-renewable objects of cultural heritage is clear: the goal must be to bring the sides together, forging a mutual understanding and respect of each other’s points of view. w

Notes

1. W. H. Hill, A. F. Hill and A. E. Hill, Antonio Stradivnri: His Life and Work (facsimile edition), pp. 77-78, New York, Dover, 1963.

2. M. Waitzman, ‘From “Ancient Musicland to “Authenticity“ ’, Music and Musicians, Vol. 37, No. 3, 1988, p. 22.

3. G. Payzant, ‘Barrel Number 3 of the Sharon Temple Barrel Organ’, York Pioneer, Vol. 80, 1985.

4. R. Maunder, ‘The Earliest English Square Piano?, Gnlpin Society Jozinznl, Vol. 42, 1989, p. 82.

5. J. Montagu, ‘A Clavichord by Hieronymous Haas’, National Art Collections Fund Anniial Review (London), 1994, p. 36.

6. C. Karp, The Non-destzictiue Use of Museum fiiiisical instruments, p. 6 (unpublished MS., by permission of the author).

7. Ail CIMCIM publications are available from Arnold Myers, Edinburgh University Collections of Historical Musical Instruments, Reid Concert Hall, Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, Scotland, U.K.

14 0 UNESCO I996

A stroll through the history of Austrian music Rudolf Hopfizey

Since the autuniri of 1993, the collection of ancieizt musical iizstminaents at the Kuiisthistoriscbes Museuni iii Vieniia has been transformed. The organizers have choseiz a successful izew approach which coizueys an inipression of the sound of iîz,aiay of the exhibited instt-uments, while also adopting a contemporary presentation. Rudolf Hopfizer began his career as a teacher at the J. M. Heuer Coîzseivato?y in Wieiier Neustadt and is now einplojJed as a researcher at the museum. As a baroque uiolinist, he belongs to several eizseinbles aiid also publishes aizcient music.

Prior to the re-organization of the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s collection of ancient musical instruments, the exhibition was organized largely according to the Hornbostel-Sachs system, by virtue ofwhich instruments of the same kind were grouped together. However, that structure did not enable different types of ensemble or changes in the socio-cultural background to be shown. There were also disturbing overlaps and inconsistencies. The need for a totally new approach, rather than mere adjustments, was therefore self-evident. That is how the idea was mooted of taking the visitor on a stroll through the history of Austrian music illustrated by old musical instruments that have survived to this day. The focal point of each of the twelve rooms in the Neue Burg was to be a prominent musician, composer or period in the history of music. The tour begins with Classi- cal Antiquity and the Middle Ages to show the roots of the development of European music. This is followed by the rich inventories of Renaissance and Baroque objects, prominence being given to the Emperor- composers of the House of Habsburg. Separate rooms are devoted to the Vien- nese classical composers, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang A. Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Instruments which belonged to Franz Schubert, Robert and Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, or to their immediate circle, are important testimonies to the Romantic movement. The exhibition ends with the twentieth century. In this section, three grand pianos designed by the architects Josef Hoffmann, Josef Frank and Norbert Schlesinger form the visual highlights.

The advantages of this chronological presentation are obvious: instruments that belong to the same environment (e.g. the Kunst- und Wuizderkamnier- curio room - of Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol) are no longer separated; sociological aspects (e.g.

instruments for open-air musical performances in the Biedermaier period) can be presented in a more readily understand- able manner; typical types of ensemble can be shown; the inclusion of other objects (e.g. of pictorial art) enables a background ambience to be created which puts across the atmosphere of the day.

In addition, the new concept enables the most important aspect of a musical instrument, its sound, to be included. O n the occasion of the special exhibition dedicated to Mozart’s World of Sound in 1991, w e were able to experi- ment for the first time with a cordless headphone system which brings text and music to visitors by infrared transmission as they walk round the exhibition.’ The reorganization of the collection provided another opportunity to use this system. Each room is now divided into a number of acoustic zones in which the visitor can listen to the musical pieces and explanatory texts describing the objects on display. Many of the recordings for the cordless headphone guide were made with the actual instruments shown in the collection. They constitute an important documentation in sound. Where this solution was impossible (e.g. for orchestral music), existing recordings were used. W e also included historic sound documents such as a recording of Johann Strauss’s orchestra on a wax cylinder. The text of the headphone guide relates in the first instance to the sounds and history of music. Further information on individual instruments and historical development trends can be found in the written descrip- tions accompanying the exhibits.

Copies of a spinettino and clavichord from the collection were made in the restoration workshop. Visitors are invited to play music for themselves on the copies which are set up next to the originals. The way#

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Rudolf Hopfner

Trzimpet with onante styling, made by Anton Shnitzer in 159S, on loan to the collection of ancient musicd instruments from the Gesellschnft der Musikfreunde.

in which different mechanisms (clavichord, cembalo, pianoforte) work is illustrated by a number of models. Sophisticated modern technology also has its place in a collection of musical instruments: a computer enables sounds to be displayed visually using an analysis program. This can be done in real time using a micro- phone, but typical ensembles ranging from the Middle Ages to the modern orchestra are also compared acoustically in the headphones and optically in spectrograms. This makes acoustic differences visually perceptible.

A long and well-documented history

The Vienna Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments owes its finest objects to the enthusiastic interest in music taken by the rulers of the House of Habsburg and to their,zeal as collectors. It looks back on a long and well-documented history. The central pillar of the exhibition consists of two collections that had a museum function from the outset: the ‘Ambraser’ collection, as it is known, was put together in the late sixteenth century by Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol, himself a musician, in the castle of the same name near Inns- bruck. As was the fashion at the time, the concept corresponded to that of a Kzrnst- und Wrtnderknnzmer. Rareness, value and ornamentation were the criteria used to collect these objects. The earliest inventory of the collection was made in 1596. The history of many valuable instruments shown in our exhibition can therefore be traced back without interruption for nearly 400 years. After the death of Archduke Ferdinand, the collection stayed for a time in the Tyrol. Then, in the early nineteenth century, Emperor Franz I arranged for it to be transferred to Vienna. Finally, in the 1880s it became part of the Kunsthistorisches Hofmuseum (The Museum of Art History of the Royal Court).

In contrast, the ‘Estense’ collection was oriented from the outset towards the practical performance of music. In the seventeenth century, the members of the House of Obizzo laid the foundations for a collection comprising musical instruments and musicalia, together with weapons, in their Castle of Catajo (near Padua in northern Italy). New objects were constantly added, and the collection includes valu-

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A stroll through the history of Austrian music

able eighteenth-century instruments, quite apart from unique pieces of the late Ren- aissance and early Baroque. The collection passed by inheritance to the Dukes of Modena and finally to the House of Habsburg.

The two collections were united in 1916, that is, at the height of the war that was to spell the demise of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Later on, other important instruments previously owned by various court departments (the imperial furniture deposit and the treasury) were added. New acquisitions enabled gaps to be filled (for the most part more recent objects). An important step in this direction was taken with the loan of instruments from the collections of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Music Lovers) in Vienna in the year 1938. Today, more than 100 objects from this important collection, including the most significant mementos of nineteenth-century composers, are included in the exhibition.

The collection was evacuated during the war, but parts of it were reopened to visitors in the Neue Burg in 1947. The complete exhibition, structured according to types of instrument, was opened to the public in 1966. Unfortunately, it tran- spired in the years that followed that a number of factors prevented sufficient attention from being given to vital aspects of conservation. Connection to the district heating system meant that the average temperature rose in winter while the relative humidity fell. Air humidifiers were only operated during opening hours because of the lack of fire-alarm systems; this resulted in sharp cyclical fluctuations in humidity. In summer, the large south-

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facing window frontage, with inadequate protection against strong sunlight, caused interior temperatures to rise to intolerably high levels. All these factors caused severe climatic damage to the objects. Pianofor- tes which had previously worked per- fectly soon became impossible to play. The sound boards of stringed instruments cracked and fractures of woodwind instruments became frequent.

A fresh start

The collection was therefore closed to the public in September 1988. At the same time, a planning phase for the general refùrbishment of the building began. Now that it has been largely completed, the situation has improved significantly in many areas, although the objectives as regards exposure to heat and constant atmospheric humidity have not yet been achieved. Experience has shown that work that is liable to affect the prevailing climatic conditions must never be undertaken in isolation. Minor improvements in some areas are often liable to result in a deterioration in others. Where allowance has to be made for the interests of different users of the same building - as in our case - an overall approach is the only way of finding a comprehensive solution. Because of the intimate links which exist between climatic processes, isolated measures cannot prove satisfactory.

Despite the thermal insulation of the win- dows, the hot summers of recent years resulted in room temperatures of just over 30 'C. Massive arrays of heating pipework in the walls caused temperatures in excess of 20 'C to be reached in winter, even with * 17

Rzr dolf Hopfi I er

the radiators switched off. The goal of 18 "C is practically impossible to attain as additional heat is generated both by the lighting units in the exhibition areas and by heating units in adjoining rooms. On the other hand; the humidity level is now more constant. The creation of buffer zones helped to stabilize values in *e core exhibition areas. A modern fire-alarm system enables the air humidifiers to remain switched on overnight so that the relative atmospheric humidity drops below 40 per

cent only in exceptional cases. AS the conversion work progressed, all the security equipment was also modernized.

At present the collection owns just under 1,000 objects. Then there are some 300 items on loan from other collections in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, from. the inventories of the Gesellschaft für Musikfreunde and from private owners. The actual display comprises around 670 objects. All the other pieces are brought

?%e Marble Hall in the Neue Burg, dedicated to Ludwig uaiz Beethoven, forms the centrepiece of the new exhibition.

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A stroll through the history of Austrian music

.

- -

together in a study collection, which is accessible to a limited extent for research purposes by prior appointment. In recent years, the budgetaw situation has also enabled important acquisitions to be made. The collection quite naturally concentrates on Austrian instrument makers. Clavichords from the south German region are another important theme. The criteria for acquisitions may be summarized as follows: there should be some kind of local tie (through the maker, previous owner or typical per- forming practice of our region); the utmost importance is attached to original condi-

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tion (old neck and bass beam on stringed instruments, no 'reconditioning'. of the sur- faces or renewal of mechanical parts .or strings of keyboard instruments). Never- theless, an instrument in very poor general condition or which has only survived as a fragment may still be of great interest to research and therefore worth purchasing.

ïîJe zither by Girolaino de Wrchi was conmissioned by Archduke Ferdinand of Tyt-ol. With its spleizdid omamentation, it is a masteyïiece of the Italian lutenzaker's ait.

Musical instruments differ from objets d'ai? not least in that they have an acoustic function. That is why ,we also want our instruments to be playable. This criterion can easily give rise to conflict with conser-

b 19

Rudoiolf Hopfner

vation aspects in the routine activity of a museum. The days in which instruments were made playable without reference to the preservation of their original substance are now well and truly gone - at least w e hope so. It is hard to lay down general directives to define the conditions under which it may be acceptable to render an instrument playable again. Measures of conservation generally take priority over restoration work. However, it is reasonable to assume that future generations will develop working methods and techniques that may well make problems that .appear insoluble today easier to handle. At the same time, we must remember that the mere fact of keeping a playable stringed instrument in a permanent state of tune can in itself represent an excessive strain. On the occasion of the sound recordings for the acoustic guide referred to earlier, three violas da gamba made by Antonio Ciciliano in the sixteenth century were brought into use again after a long time. This measure was considered reasonable provided that thin strings were fitted. Now that a sound recording is available, for exhibition purposes w e reverted to model strings, which place no strain on the cover.

The tasks assigned to a museum as we approach the twenty-first century are becoming ever more varied and complex.

Our work'shops are therefore being greatly expanded and modernized. Specialized tourism, whose ambivalent nature is becoming increasingly apparent to every museum curator, places a particularly heavy strain on the restoration workshops. As the collection has but one full-time restorer, major restoration projects can be put into effect only with the assistance of volunteers, who are generally trainee restorers or instrument makers from various branches. At the same time, the availability of measurement data and plans is increasing constantly. W e have projects to compile catalogues for several groups of instruments, but some time will elapse before they are published because of the com- plexity of the preparatory work and the high costs involved. However, a significant step towards making the collection available for scientific purposes will soon be taken: a general index listing all the objects with a short description is in preparation

w and will be published shortly.

Note

1. The acoustic guide to the collection of ancient musical instruments is available as a double CD with a detailed, illustrated accompanying booklet; this also contains English, Italian and Japanese translations of the text of the guide.

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Creating a context for African musical ins truments Jos Gamenaaias

The worldfamous collection of African nzusical iizstrzinzents of the Royal Museuna of Central Africa at Temuren (Belgium), reveals ntuch about 00th the ?nateiial niid musical culture of many Afn‘canpeoples. D e author is a musicologist and head of the Ethnoniusicology and Linguistics Section a?ad of the Department of Cultural Aizthropoiogy at the Royal Museum. He is the author of a number of studies oîa African musical iizstizlinents and is responsible for the production of some twenty records aiid CDs, based on his recordings in the field (Zaire, Rwanda, Netherlands Antilles and Puerto Rico).

Most European museums owe the history, abundance and diversity of their African ethnographical collections to their colonial possessions. This is also true of the Royal Museum of Central Africa at Tervuren (Bel- gium), which started with a small ethnographical, zoological and geological collection in 1897 and grew over the following decades to earn international renown for its Central African holdings, particularly objects from Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi. In 1898, King Leopold II established at Tervuren the Museum of the Congo which became the Museum of the Belgian Congo in 1908 and the Royal Museum of Central Africa in 1960 when the Belgian Congo, now Zaire, gained its independence. Its new name expressed the museum’s wish to expand its interest right across Central Africa and to cover all of sub-Saharan Africa.

The structure of the collection was deter- mined by the museum’s history and its unavoidable association with Belgium’s expansionist policy at the end of the nineteenth century. It consists of 7,745 pieces (inventoried at 31 December 1994) with 764 chordophones (10 per cent), 1,046 membranophones (15 per cent), 3,730 idiophones (43 per cent) and 2,465

C

$ F

people of Zaire. l

aerophones (32 per cent), bringing out the fact that percussion instruments, membranophones and idiophones account for the major part (58 per cent) of the panoply of Central African musical instruments.

In geographical terms, some 80 per cent of the collection covers Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi. Between 1885 and 1960, a great many ethnographical objects, including musical instruments, were sent to the Tervuren Museum by people working in the region who were particularly interested in the peoples and cultures among which they lived, and by museum re- searchers who went into the field to study the material and spiritual culture of the ethnic groups living there.

The early craze for collection was not accompanied by a great deal of ‘ethnographical’ and ‘musicological’ information. The context in which a musical instrument is played and by whom it is played often sheds light on the role of the music and the instrument in a given society. The instrument thus adds a dimension to music- making and occupies a significant place in a society’s social, religious and hierarchical structure.

Ethnologists who researched these cultural and musical aspects during the first half of the twentieth century were helped by the enormous opportunities for collecting and studying instruments and the music they made. W e owe a very large part of our collection to their lively curiosity and their eagerness to understand African cultures. Our wide-ranging collection has enabled Dr J. S. Laurenty, a world-renowned authority on musical instruments, to classify the various categories of instruments and establish a taxonomy for them. His studies reveal the wealth and diversity of musical instruments in Zaire.

ISSN 1350-0775, hIzrseu?it Itztenzationnl (UNESCO, Paris), No. 189 Wol. 48, No. 1, 1996) O UNESCO 1996 Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142 (USA)

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Jos Gamemans

Aiztht-opomorphous slit drum of the Yaka people of Zails.

22

It is virtually impossible to provide an overview of the entire collection but it is nevertheless worthwhile to describe a few of the types of instrument in the museum.

Variety, creativity and communication

Skin drums (1,040 items)

In subSaharan Africa, the skin drum is die instrument that most enhances African

rhythms and is found in all musical cultures. Nevertheless, certain ethnic groups, such as the Tshohwe, the Luba, the Kong0 and the Kuna, to name but a few in Zaire alone, excel in the manufacture and stylization of these instruments, which vary not only from an aestheticviewpoint but also in the method used to tauten the skin or skins. Some are nailed down, others are laced, while yet others are stretched using more than one system. A very complicated but ingenious system is used for laced drums, which are never adorned with sculpted figures

r

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Creating a context for African musical instruments

Hnqs (256 items)

The harp is most common in the northern part of Central Africa and has obvious historical links with the harps of Ancient Egypt. It comes in various forms. There are those made and played by the Zande, the Mangbetu and the Ngbaka, which show signs of a developed sculptural art. Both the resonance chamber and neck are finely sculpted and display the same sculptures and figures found on the other ivory and wooden ethnographical objects made by these same ethnic groups. Of particular interest are the anthropomorphous harps of the Ngbaka, which personifi the spirits that the musician, often a witch-doctor, healer or soothsayer, in- vokes in communicating with the spirit world.

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Snnsn (687 items) Collectioti of iz>o?y wbistlesfr-om Zaire.

O n the basis of our collection, Dr Laurenty has identified no fewer than eighteen main types of this typically Bantu instrument in Zaire. They all follow the same basic principle, though the type of reed (fibre, metal), the form of resonance chamber (box, raft, shell, gourd, etc.), the arrangement of the reeds and also the pitch can be quite different. These, too, are sometimes artistically adorned with anthropomorphous or geometric figures.

Even so, the role of the instrument - and the music it makes - is identical everywhere. It belongs to the realm of recreation, either for one’s own entertainment or for the amuse- ment and entertainment of an audience. The sansa thus occupies an important place in the Central African oral tradition.

23

Jos Gatzsernam

Slit dtrrms (408 items)

The prime function of this type of instrument is communication: the transmission of messages within the village or outside it. Its secondary function is to provide rhythmic accompaniment in an ensemble made up of skin drums, xylophones, slit drums and rattles. Slit drums also come in various types and shapes, of which the cylindrical and trapezoid are the most common. Tulip-shaped (Laurenty’s term) and especially zoomorphic drums (ante- lope, buffalo) testify to a particular taste in art.

Given their communicative function, certain types of drum are also played by witch- doctors and healers wishing to call up their spirit protectors. The most representative are the small fetish drums used by the Kongo and the Yaka.

Horns and whistles (2,256 items)

Another category of instruments, used for conveying messages over short distances, consists of whistles and horns. Used mainly by hunters, these instruments, carved in wood, ivory, reed, gourd and animal horn, are often rudimentary; only the whistles and ivory horns are artistically decorated. The ivory horns (elephant tusks) belong to the chiefs and are adorned with figura- tive art representing scenes from daily life. The hunting whistles bear the same anthropomorphous and geometric figures as the other sculpted ethnographical objects.

Bringing the instruments to life

The museological function of the Royal Museum focuses on its extensive collections, scientific research on these collec-

tions and the findings of field research in Africa. Relations with the public and visitors to the museum are among the activities of the Ethnomusicology Department and are reflected at several levels. First of all, there are the museum’s exhibition rooms. Some 120 instruments representing the most common specimens found in Central Africa are displayed in two large showcases, the first of which contains the chordophones and membranophones, and the second, the aerophones and idiophones.. In addition to these showcases, a further eighty instruments are distributed throughout the museum and displayed in a number of showcases devoted to the material culture of the African peoples. Some 200 instruments are displayed in all, accounting for 2.5 per cent of the total collection.

In the near future, we plan to create a space that will serve both as an exhibition room and a music room (for concerts, lectures, video and cinema shows). In this new facility, particular attention will be paid to audiovisual techniques for ‘bringing the instruments to life’. Interactive CD techniques will enable the visitor to access all sorts of information about each instrument on display, how it is made, where it is found, its musical and social role, and the music itself.

In order to increase the collection’s standing in the outside world, w e have organized a travelling exhibition entitled Madirnba na Diticnaba (Kiluba for ‘xylophones and drums’). The exhibition contains some eighty musical instruments displayed in twelve showcases. It pays special attention to the sansa family and the various types of idiophone, giving the visitor an idea of African creativity and the great variety to be found in individual types of instrument, according to the ethnic groups by whom they are made.

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Creating a context for African musical instruments

In the museum itself, the Education De- partment, in liaison with the Ethno- musicology Department, organizes music workshops for young people from 6 to 18 years of age with a programme suited to each age-group. The demonstrators use music as a point of departure to impart a more precise knowledge and understanding of African cultures. The participants also learn to play a few basic rhythms on the djeniOe drums, under the direction of a professional percussionist, to obtain some experience of physical contact with the musical culture.

In addition to the collection of nearly 8,000 musical instruments, the Ethnomusico- logical Department boasts a sound archive containing 6,000 hours of traditional Afri- can music to assist in the study of the musical cultures.

The first recordings in our archive date back to 1910 and were made on Edison wax cylinders in north-eastern Zaire by J. J. Hutereau. Since then the collection has gradually grown but it is only since the invention of the tape recorder and its use in the field that traditional music has been systematically collected. Field research in Africa naturally provides the basis for all subsequent research. Dur- ing these missions, we take the opportunity to collect as much information as possible on the instruments, including how they are made, the technique for playing them and their role in everyday life, their range and their relation to vocal music. In this way, the musical

instruments of Central Africa are set against the backdrop of both the musical and the material culture.

W e still have a great many untapped opportunities for organological research, but the current modernizing trend in African societies does not leave us with much time to study and record the traditional music that is still alive. The dearth of competent musicians and the fact that some rituals have fallen into disuse may well lead to the disappearance of some musical genres. Also, owing to the lack of sound recordings and written sources, it is not always easy to trace the history and evolution of musical styles in Central Africa back more than 100 years.

Research in the Ethnomusicology Depart- ment is currently focused on a project entitled ‘Traditional music of the Interlacustrine Region’. The musical cultures practised in Kivu-Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, southern Uganda and western Tanzania are studied there as a matter of course. The purpose is to compose a comprehensive anthology of the musical culture of this African region, including its musical instruments.

Note

As early as 1902, the first work dealing with the instrument collection was published at the Royal Museum and triggered a whole series of publications. The author has drawn up a selective list which is available from Musetiin International. - Ed.

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A new ‘world of music’ in Paris Hamkt Welty Rocheforl

The recently opened Cité de la Musique in Paris has not only transformed a once ramshackle neighbourhood, but has also begun to attract a new mnsicalptiblic. A major coinponent of the complex is the Music Museum, described by Hairiet Welty Rochefort, a freelance journalist liziing imz Paris.

26

In a strange twist of destiny, the former municipal slaughterhouses in the working- class district of northern Paris have been metamorphosed into a gigantic cultural centre. Once the final venue for unfortu- nate cows and pigs, and later an urban wasteland, Lavillette, as it is named, is now a humming centre of activity for scientists, musicians and the general public.

The decision for this transformation was taken by the French Government back in 1979 when it was considering what could be done with fifty-five abandoned hectares of land which were an eyesore in the city. The result of the decision - an ambitious undertaking, part of former President François Mitterrand’s grandsprojets, which include the Grand Louvre, the Bastille Opera House and the new National Library - is an urban park in which are housed a Museum of Science and Techniques, the Zenith Concert Hall, and the City of Music and its Music Museum.

Today, in what was once a rundown, dingy area, sounds of music fill the air. Serious- looking music students and performers scurry to rehearsals, while music lovers have the choice of attending a concert or rehearsal or visiting the Music Museum for a look at a rare collection of precious instruments from all over the world. The whole area is a hive of activity (and in spite of the demise of the slaughterhouses, res- taurants across the street from the City of Music still serve the best steaks in Paris!).

The City of Music became part of the gran& projets when the National Conservatory of Music outgrew its quarters in central Paris and needed new space. The space was available at La Villette and the government decided to include buildings for the conservatory in the park. The project got off the ground in 1985 with the launching of an architectural competition. French architect

Christian de Portzamparc, who went on to win the Grand Prix d’Architecture in 1990 and the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 1994, was designated by President Mitterrand to design the entire ensemble from the conservatory to the Music Museum. In January 1995, after ten years of ups and downs due to political imbroglios and construction delays, the City of Music was opened to the public.

It was worth the wait. Christian de Portzamparc put his talents to work on the creation of a self-contained village for 7,000 musicians, where no two square metres are said to be alike. Located within a large park area dotted by Franco-Ameri- can Bernard Tschumi’s twenty-five red ‘follies’ (modernistic lego-looking structures), the City of Music consists of an east and a west wing which flank the great hall in the centre at the southern entrance to the park. The east wing contains a modular 800- to 1,200-seat concert hall, a 230-seat amphitheatre, rehearsal hall and dressing rooms, as well as an interactive video library and documentation centre, instrument-restoration laboratory, offices of the Institute of Music and Dance Teachers, and the headquarters of the Ensemble Inter- Contemporain, directed by composer-con- ductor Pierre Boulez. It also has a café restaurant and extra housing for eighty- two students from the National Conserva- tory. The 2,800 m2 Music Museum is also located in the east wing.

The west wing houses the conservatory and is architecturally more traditional and classical than the east wing, which is filled with passageways and nooks and crannies and seems to be closed in upon itself. The more complicated sculptural architecture of the east wing is not always easy to comprehend. Ac-cording to an article in Connaissance des Arts, musicians say that it took them two weeks to find their way among the various buildings.

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A new ‘world of music’ in Paris

The east wing of the City of Music in fact looks like a triangle with the ellipse of the concert hall in the middle ‘rather like a piece of pie with a blob of ice cream on top’, wrote David Stevens, music critic of the International Herald T7-ibzirze. One of the most stunning features of this triangular shaped mass is the long light-filled, spiral-shaped, glass-covered public area leading to the concert hall, punctuated with miniature grand pianos. As Portzamparc explains:

It’s a style of architecture that moves, that one can never seize in only one glance. And it is precisely in this experience of the movement, of its length, of its sequences, of its ruptures and of its discoveries that the architecture meets the music experience. Here, the architecture is an art of movement, and is made by sound.

Welcome Stevie Wonder and Pierre Boulez!

The cold, windy day I visited the concert hall, sound technicians garbed in black turtle-neck sweaters were busiiy setting up the stage for a Stevie Wonder concert that night. The concert hall is a rectangle within

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an ellipse with a flat floor so that the platform can be installed anywhere in the hall. A 15 m high ceiling encompasses four periph- eral balconies. Students perched in the upper gallery can use glass tables discreetly placed in front of them to follow the music with their scores. A combination of motor- ized mobile curtains and ceiling components, which can be either absorbant or reflective, guarantees acoustic modularity.

The concert I~nll, designed to seatfi’om 800 to 1,200people.

The idea behind the City of Music was to create a veritable ‘world of music’, not just for the musicians, students and performers but for the public as well. Maximum ticket prices reach 160 francs (approximately $32) and the public is invited to attend free concert rehearsals. Programming runs from the twentieth century, represented by the Ensemble Inter-Contemporain, to chamber orchestras and jazz. In November 1996, the City of Music will host the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Chamber Or- chestra .of Europe conducted by Claudio Abbado and Nicholas Harnoncourt. The City of Music has commissioned new works from Georges Aperghis, Richard Galliano’ and George Russell and has programmed major contemporary works such as Carré for four orchestras, by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Rituel in metno??am maderna, by Pierre Boulez. The City of

. i ) 27

Harriet Welty Rocheforzt

A uiezu of tbe City of Music. Music is a rendezvous for weekend performances of music from around the world as well as jazz concerts and song-fests. Summer programmes are also in the works and a series of concerts by youth orchestras is being organized for the summer of 1996.

In addition to concerts, the City of Music is en- gaged in various educational endeavours. A research-and-restoration laboratory will enable instrument makers and collection curators to ‘network‘. The documentation centre with its national database is actively collabo- rating with the music-and-dance information centre ~d the documentation centres of the Conservatory to unify computer access so as to offer a common network that will be nationally and internationally accessible. The City and the Conservatory are also working on a-publishing policy to create and define ‘peda-

gogical rights’ which do not currently exist in contracts. In addition to the indispensable paper publications such as guides and catalogues, the new focus of communication is audiovisual and interactive products.

The Music Museum, which opened in the autumn of 1995, is the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the City of Music, housing one of the richest collections of musical instruments in the world -more than 4,500 pieces from the 200-year-old National Conservatory on five floors of 2,800 m2. Abookstore and boutique are adjacent to the museum in a squat rounded building that looks like a spaceship or tepee. With a small staff of forty, the museum is placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture. It depends upon both the Directorate of Music and Dance and on the French Museums Directorate for the management of its collections.

A permanent exhibition of 800 pieces from the Renaissance to Stravinsky, along with paintings, sculptures and other works of art inspired by music, is arranged in nine ‘chap- ters’ throughout the museum. To show the visitor how music was played at a particular epoch, rooms have been set up as they were at the time. The visitor can see the instruments that were used as well as a large model of the location in which the work was composed, along with background information, and paintings andengravings which complement the exhibit. Thus, the visitor can travel through time from, for example, the Ducal Palace of Mantua room where Claudio Monteverdi’s Oyfeo was created to the Ircam projection space where Mauricio Kagel created Ex-position.

Inside the museum, interior architect Franck Hammoutène’s unusual showcases form large glass volumes from floor to ceiling, defining presentation spaces along a fluid path, utilizing warm woods and grey patina. A high-performance air-conditioning sys-

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A new 'world of music' 'in Paris

tem maintains constant humidity and temperature, important because of the' fragility of old musical instruments. A 200-seat amphitheatre, nicknamed the 'camembert', is the setting for demonstrations of musical instruments, concerts, cultural events and film projects. Concerts held there are on various themes, explaining the relationship between technical inventions and musical creation. An example: the influence of the double action invented by Erard on the writing of piano music by Franz Liszt.

The museum's documentary stock includes about 5,000 books, encyclopedias, theses, museum catalogues, a collection of 15,000 photos, and documentary files about the instruments in the museum's collection and their makers, and the task of collecting instruments. Technicians specializing in keyboards and bowed and plucked strings work in the museum on a permanent basis in close collaboration with professionals. The laboratory offers various services, among them multiple technical and organological tests, the use of a fungicide and insecticide cell, and the experimenta- tion of investigation techniques.

Stradivari violins and a Frank Zappa synthesizer

The instrument collections date back to the French Revolution. Kept at the National Con- servatory of Music which was founded in 1795, the collection has continued to grow and to be enriched both by the gifts of private collectors and an active acquisition policy. Among its outstanding pieces are some 300 instruments from the collection of Antonin Louis Clapisson (180%66), saxo- phone inventor Adolphe Sax's instruments (1814941, 800 items from the Geneviève Thibault de Chambure collection, and the 1677 harpsichord made by the instrument maker Louis Denis, purchased in 1973. In O UNESCO 1996

addition there are instruments from the French School of the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, with Erard and Pleyel pianos, Chedeville musettes, and Hotteterre wind instruments. Italianinstrument making is particularly represented by the instruments of Amati, Guarneri and five Stradivari violins.

îihe 'street of intisic'.

Museum director Marie-France Callas, who headed the Audio-Visual and Phonothèque Department including the Charles Cros collection at the Bibliothèque Nationale before joining the Music Museum in 1993, points out that the entire collection now in the museum came fromthe conservatory's former headquarters in central Paris - where most of it was kept in underground cellars. 'Some of these instruments were played; some not. Over the centuries many of the instruments

27

Hnm‘et Welty Rochefovl

were destroyed. In any case, the collection was known oniy to connoisseurs.’

When the museum staff started its inventory of the Conservatory’s collection, there were some pleasant surprises. In addition to the classical Westem instruments, they discov- ered instruments from all over the world. The staffs ethnomusicologist ‘is delighted by the treasures he is Finding,’ says Ms Callas.

The museum is at present focusing its attention on the twentieth century and its contribu- tion to music in the form of electronics and electricity. Examples include a Selmer guitar which belonged to Django Reinhardt, Frank Zappa’s modular E-Mu synthesizer, as well as electric guitars and other instruments.

One of the main problems with a collection such as this is the fragility of the instruments -humidity or dryness for the wood instruments, corrosion for the brass, and a different set of problems for the ivories. All the saxophones have undergone a special anti- corrosion treatment and Ms Callas says she is ‘extremelyvigilant’ about the conditions in which the instruments are stored, both for their upkeep and for safety.

Mane-France Callas acknowledges that a museum within a music city is very unusual, and not without its problems. For example, it is not always easy for musicians to understand why they cannot play the instrument that is in front of them. ‘We have a no-lending policy because we feel that it is important to make people understand that the museum collection is a part of history,’ she says. There are exceptions to the rule. For the inauguration of the City of Music, the amphitheatre was filled with music coming from a precious eighteenth-century Hemsch harpsichord and a Ruckers-Taskin harpsichod from the seventeenth century. ‘The audience was thrilled,’ says Ms Callas. The public, she stresses, is vitally important to the museum

which hosts a large variety of inside and outside events and addresses itself to individuals, groups, schools and professionals.

Marie-France Callas points out that ‘we are surrounded by people from the world of music, dance, the sciences. The museum is the only element of heritage in the City.’ She stresses that unlike the other activities going on around it, the museum is

a place of memory, a place where instm- ments are witnesses of the time at which they were played. When an instrument arrives in the collection, w e do not modify it. W e aren’t going to be Viollet le Duc. Wecanmake itsothataninstnimentcould be played by giving it identical mechanics, but all our operations are reversible.

Facsimiles are made of instruments that are too damaged. The mechanics of some rare pieces in good condition are not restored on purpose so that they can be used for study. ‘An eighteenth-century Louis Denis harpsichord will remain as it is and will hence advance research in organology,’ says Ms. Callas, citing this as an example of how the museum can participate in research endeavours. W e must keep in mind that each instrument is a part of history.’ She continues:

Our challenge is to be both a place to identify and date instruments and to conduct research as well as to be a museum that is open to the public. There are so many things to do - acoustical research, co-operation with other countries, the enlistment of historians and musicians for work on archives, the interviewing of musicians w h o are still alive so that they can contribute to the history of music.

An ambitious project for a music museum within a music city. The job has just begun.

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Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum: a specialist collection for n,on-specialists Anne Moore

Housed in an ancientprivate chapel, renovated to accomnodate a small select collectiou, Moipeth Chaiity Bagpipe Museum in the tiorth of England combines sight and sound to appeal to a broadpiiblic as well as to the veteran bagpipe aficionado. Aime Moore, who was iizvolved with the mIseu?n since its inceptiou, explains how this was accotnplished. She has been curator since î989.

The exterior of Moipeth Chantiy Bagpipe Musetina.

Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum opened its doors to the public in June 1987. It represented the last phase of Castle Morpeth Borough Council’s project to restore the Chantry, a Grade-1 listed thirteenth-century chapel, back to full use from the shabby ruin it had become in the early 1980s.

The museum displays the W. A. Cocks Collection of bagpipes, the majority of which are from Northumberland and its borders with Scotland, while the re- mainder are froin Ireland, France, Italy, Spain and the rest of Europe. The collections are a unique and very special part of Northumberland’s heritage, and are also of great European significance. W. A. Cocks built up the collection in the first half of the twentieth century, recog- nizing the importance of the instruments at a time when little value was placed on them by others. As well as musical instruments Cocks also collected related books, manuscripts, photographs, news- paper cuttings and ephemera. The collection was bequeathed to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1971, and was then displayed in New- castle upon Tyne until the time of its transfer to the new museum in Morpeth.

The special nature of the collections, the high standard of presentation in the displays and the unique infra-red sound system, were all immediately recognized not only by the everyday museum visitors but also by award-giving organizations such as National Heritage. Within a year of opening, Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum had been given a special citation in the Museum of the Year Awards. In 1990 the museum received a special commendation in the Gateway Interpret Britain Awards ‘in recognition of outstanding interpretative practice contributing to greater awareness and understanding of Britain’s heritage’.

A number of interpfetative problems had to be solved when the museum was set up in Morpeth, not least of which was the problem of how to get potential visitors to think of the museum’s subject-matter seri- ously and with an open mind. The majority of visitors perceive bagpipes to be a pecu- liarly Scottish and particularly military instrument - a sort of extra weapon to be carried into battle in order to stir up morale while terrifying the enemy. Of course, the bagpipe has a long and fascinating history which stretches back to at least the tenth century A.D. The instrument can be found the length and breadth of Europe at all positions in the social spectrum, from the royal family of France to the lowliest itin- erant gypsy musician.

Most visitors think they know what bagpipes sound like - loud and strident. Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum spe- cializes in the Northumbrian small pipes, a small sweet-sounding instrument, designed to play chamber music. Northumbrian pipes sound quite unlike the Scottish Highland pipes, and both sound different to other pipes in the collection.

There are as many different ways of playing as there are different kinds of bagpipe +

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A m e Moore

%e main gallery of the miisezim. - some are mouth-blown, some are bel- lows-blown. Some have closed fingering systems, some have open fingering systems. The only common factor is the bag - and in the case of the Sardinian Launeddas, the player’s mouth itself is used as the bag!

Interest, imagination and integrity

At this point, it may be worth digressing shortly in order to look at how the collection was displayed in its former home at the Black Gate Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne. The Black Gate was very much a bagpipe specialist’s museum, put together by enthusiastic amateurs for themselves, there being very few concessions made for the casual visitor. Every instrument in the collection was displayed, hung on a nail in a line of very old and dusty cases. The interpretation of the subject, such as it was, meant that those visiting the museum with no specialized knowledge would have gained very little useful information from their visit. Each exhibition was accompanied by a very detailed, highly technical label, which only an expert pipemaker would understand or be interested by. Very little secondary information was used; there were few pictures of bagpipes being played, nor was there any means of finding out what each different bagpipe sounded like.

There were no knowledgeable staff at hand who could explain any of these things or answer any questions which a visitor might pose.

The requirement of the new museum was to present its highly specialized collections in such a way as to capture the interest and imagination of as many visitors as possible without being patronizing, while retaining the integrity of the collection and holding the interest of the ‘expert’ visitor at the same time.

The new curators appointed for the job - Sarah Campbell, Gillian Crawley and Anne Moore - were fortunate in that a completely fresh start could be made in the brand new display space at the Chantry. At the beginning of the project none of the team had any specialist knowledge of bagpipes and their music, though some played other instruments and all had a strong interest in a diversity of musical forms. They, and the exhibition designer, Gill Humphrys, were able to look at their subject with a fresh and objective eye.

The interpretation of the collection was based on three main themes: (a] that not all bagpipes are Scottish - bagpipes are a European phenomenon; (b) how bagpipes work; and (c) how bagpipes sound. The decision was made to present the pipes in a number of different ways and on a

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Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum: a specialist collection for non-specialists

number of different levels simultaneously, in order to catch the imagination and interest of as many different types of visitor as possible. Difficult concepts have been presented in a simple way: for example, the display of a well-chosen large and colourful photograph of a bagpiper playing is far more informative than a long- winded technical 'book-on-the-wall' explanation of the process of playing the instrument. The text accompanying the photography uses technical terms but is kept simple. Wherever possible, personal details are included about pipers depicted, humanizing the display and bringing a social dimension to the gallery.

This simplicity of presentation is carried through to the display cases chosen for the gallery, which are clean-lined and apparently seamless, with backing panels of text and pictures designed to be easily read - the majority having black text on a white background - and colour photographs wherever possible. Labels accompanying each artefact give the essential information about their subject - name, date, maker and materials. Highly technical information is not included, though details such as who played the pipes originally or other interesting facts are given. Visitors needing further information are encouraged to ask for it.

It was decided to display each instrument in the position it would be played, rather than lying flat or hung up, as in the old museum. The latter methods of display encourage the visitor to look at the bagpipes mqre as art objects than as musical instruments. Each instrument is suspended by heavy-duty nylon fila- ment, and supported by thick felt pads to obviate damage and minimize stress. (Where instruments are particularly frag- ile they are laid flat or are kept in the reserve collection.)

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'The sound of music'

The most important aspect of the displays is the presentation of the music of the bagpipes. This is done in several different ways. The visitor is greeted on reception with background recordings of bagpipe music - usually of Northum- brian pipes, though this can be varied. on request to almost any type of bagpipe. This music sets the scene for the visit, and puts the visitor into a receptive i)

Page from an eighteenth-centuiy Frencb manuscript.

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Anne Mooye

Robbie Greensittplnying dudy (Czech bnepipes).

frame of mind. The main part of the museum is furnished with an infra-red sound system, which transmits ten different tracks of music to each display case in the gallery. Each visitor is equipped with headphones so that each journey round the gallery is accompanied by the appropriate music, which changes automatically with each display. As only music is used, and no spoken commentary, there are no difficulties about coming in halfway through a track and missing information. Neither are there any language difficulties for foreign visitors. In this way, the visitor is not only able to listen to numerous different bagpipes and hear how they sound, but is also able to differentiate between varieties in a much more immediate way than from simply reading labels and text.

There is also live music on the premises at all times. Both present members of staff play the Northumbrian pipes, so can demonstrate to visitors exactly how these pipes are played, and answer questions regarding this. Another valuable resource is the fünd of local piping talent; pipers are encouraged to come and use the museum during normal opening hours to practise and to hold playing sessions. The museum has contacts all over Europe, and from time to time an Irish, French or maybe an Italian piper will visit for an afternoon. One high point was the occasion when the museum was unexpectedly visited by a sixteen-strong pipe band from Lorient in Brittany.

Hands-on exhibits - where the visitor can touch and try - are a valuable tool in providing a meaningful and enlighten- ing visit. This facility is also of very great value to the visually impaired museum visitor.

The paradoxical situation of having a collection of musical instruments that can no longer make music is overcome in several different ways. There is a display showing how a reed operates in a working model; there is provision of a basic set of bagpipes for the visitor to try on; and there is a modern ‘working’ collection kept in playing condition for the specialist visitor, who can perhaps already play pipes of one sort or another. When a musical instrument can be demonstrated or tried, the mechanics of how it works (and sounds) is made very clear.

It is important that the museum is not seen as a dry and uninviting place - somewhere to go to on a wet afternoon when there is nothing else to do. Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum is a lively and vital place - a ‘living’ museum. An events and education programme runs in tan-

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Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum: a specialist collection for non-specialists

dem with the permanent exhibition. One of the galleries was designed in such a way that the limited space available can be used for a dual purpose - by using slim display cases and movable display panels the room can be rapidly transformed into an intimate concert venue, seating up to seventy people. Policy is to present the bagpipes in as many different lights as possible, showcasing folk and traditional music, but also present- ing early and baroque, jazz and popular music.

The museum also runs a meetings programme for Northumbrian pipers to come along for maintenance and playing advice. Members of the public are encouraged to attend and watch these sessions. Occa- sionally, special piping days are arranged when players come from farther afield for special talks, workshops and playing sessions. In this way, bagpipers are encouraged to participate and be a ‘living’ part of

the museum, which aims to be a part of the modern piping scene as well as a reporter of its history.

The museum organizes regular teaching sessions. Especially successful have been ‘piping from scratch’ days, where the aim is to have complete novices playing a recognizable tune at the end of one day’s intensive tuition. These days are always popular, and have started off many pipers on the road to successful playing while satisfying others’ curiosity as to whether or not they would be suited to the instrument.

To conclude, it would be fair to say that Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum presents its specialist collections in a non- specialist way; its aim is to promulgate and share knowledge among as wide an audience as possible, allowing the bagpipe and its music to stand as part of Europe’s living heritage - a unique and common link with our past.

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Restoration, reconstruction and copying in musical-instrument collections Job n Kostev

Thepros and cons of ilsitzg historical imtnme?tts or copies haue been heatedly debated in both miweurn and niilsical circles. John Kosterpresents the poiizt of view of the Shrine to Mink Mirseirm in Vermillion, South Dakota (United States)> where he is Consemator and Associate Professor of Museum Science. He is also the airthor of Keyboard Musical Instruments in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1994). In 1990/91 he held nia Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museunt of Art, New York.

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Musical instruments have always been utilitarian artefacts. In this aspect they are no different from other historical objects. Chalices and. altarpieces, for example, were, along with organs, all ‘works of craft’ intended to serve particular functions in religious ritual. Their makers could not have imagined that these objects might one day be exhibited in museums as works of art. The utilitarian aspect of chalices and organs, which were necessarily handled in order to be used, is more obvious than that of altarpieces, which (except for occa- sional handling to open and close their wings) needed only to be seen. The present-day circumstances under which an altarpiece is used in a museum, where people view it for aesthetic edification or for scholarly research, are physically identical to the circumstances of the object’s original use: light reflected from it is observed. Of course, even objects that’are obviously utilitarian were often made to possess certain qualities, such as elegant form or exquisite decoration, which may have had symbolic functions and which w e today regard as aesthetically edifying. Further, just as with painted or sculpted altarpieces, we might admire these objects for the technical skill or historical information that they display. Thus, organs and chalices in museum collections can, like altarpieces, be used in a worthwhile manner simply by viewing them.

It would be absurd to assert that members of the general public or even scholars cannot adequately appreciate or understand a chalice without drinking from it. To do so, or to sit in antique furniture exhibited in a museum, would be a trivial act and would be utterly contrary to the modern museum’s ethical mission of preserving its collections. Wear and damage would inevitably occur.

The analogous act of playing an antique musical instrument is inherently not so trivial. Of course, some players might merely wish to obtain a romantic thrill from playing instruments that might have been played by Bach or Beethoven, and some listeners might likewise wish to become enraptured by hearing instruments that might have been heard by Louis XTV or Goethe. Nev- ertheless, there remain two principal legiti- mate reasons for wishing to play and hear historical musical instruments. First, these objects were intended by their makers to be heard, and it is generally impossible to imagine this experience with the same claritywith which it might be possible, say, to imagine sitting in an antique chair. Second, musical compositions, which are other works of craft or art, cannot be experienced unless they are performed, and it is reasonable to assume that they cannot be completely or even adequately understood unless they are performed by the same media that were available to the composer. Thus, there are compelling reasons to play old music on old instruments in order to maintain the original intent of the maker of a musical instrument and to re-establish the original intent of the composer of a piece of music. This, however, is not as straightforward as it might seem.

The futility of restoration

Virtually all historical instruments require some restoration or, at least, technical maintenance before they can be played. During recent decades, however, most of the professionals responsible for the over- seeing and care of museum collections of musical instruments have become increasingly wary of restoring instruments to playing condition. Not only does the playing of instruments subject them to wear and damage, but also the very process of restoration - to be distinguished from

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Restoration, reconstruction, and copying in musical-instrument collections

conservation - can destroy original material and evidence of original craftsman- ship. Various mechanical components of early pianos, for example, were attached with leather hinges which after two centuries have become weak and brittle. The instrument will not function properly unless these hinges are replaced, but if this is done tlie original material is then irre- versibly altered. Even the installation of new parts to replace missing original components can destroy potentially important evidence. The characteristics of missing strings, for example, might be deduced from stains or marks left on the parts of the instrument that they touched. New strings would obliterate these traces. Because tlie major ethical responsibilities of a museum include tlie preservation of its collections and tlie advancement of meticulous research, restoration, which is often detri- mental to these missions, is done much less frequently and certainly much more circumspectly than in the past.

Another problem with restoration is that new materials replacing deteriorated or missing parts are, at best, copies or reconstructions of the original components. This, all restored instruments are, to a certain extent, copies of themselves. Further, tlie remaining original parts are frequently so altered by time or human intervention that they no longer function as they were intended. For example, the embouchure holes of early flutes were often later en- larged so that the instruments could remain in use with the louder orchestras of later periods. Even if this has not been done, the bores of flutes and other woodwind instruments, originally circular in cross section, have usually become oval because of Lin- equal expansion and contraction of tlie wood. T~us, it cannot be assumed that historical instriiinents sounded as they did originally. Indeed, it can be argued that the intentions of their malcers are better re-

8 UNESCO I996

flected by accurate modern copies in whicli the surmised state of tlie 'original' object lyas been reconstructed.

Halpsichord by Jacques Gen??ai?z, Paris, 1785. I&atdhS F~il~d, ZYS3.

Early copies and reconstructions

Many of tlie comprehensive collections of musical instruments formed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries include copies of instruments. Generally, these seem to have been acquired when historical examples of their types were not available. By tlie turn of tlie century tlie collection of tlie Conseivatoire (now the Musée Instrumental) in Brussels, for example, contained copies of shawins made in tlie museum's own workshop after originals in another museum. Such copies acquired by museums in this period were evidently intended to serve more as teacli- ing aids to illustrate the technological

i) 37

John Koster

Copji of the Gerrnai?i harpsichord, made by ïbomas and Barbara Wolf.

development of musical-instrument making than as functional instruments for musical performance or as tools for research.

At about the same time in the United Kingdom, Francis W. Galpin, in addition to supplementing his collection with copies, undertook to reconstruct a Roman hydraidis (pipe organ). Because no such instrument was extant, his principal source was a second-century clay model found in Carthage. Galpin was a distinguished historian of musical instruments, and his reconstruction of a hydraidis should be regarded as a serious scholarly attempt to gain, from a functional object, insight both about a lost instrument-making technology and about a lost tradition of musical performance. The instrument came to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1917 along with the rest of Galpin’s important collection.

Another significant instance of musical archaeology occurred in the Musik- instrumenten-Museum in Berlin in 1930.

Curt Sachs, director of this collection, purchased in Cairo an Egyptian harp from about 700 B.C. Instead of executing a necessarily radical restoration of the original harp, a copy was made. This provides a particularly obvious example of the element of reconstruction in all restoration and in all copying. The strings and the cords to which they were attached were absent in the original. Regardless ofwhether these new parts were attached to the original object or to a copy, they would inevitably have been reconstructions based on evidence from Egyptian paintings or from analogies in modern ethnographic instruments. it is no longer clear whether the Berlin Museum’s copy was made to illustrate the original appearance of the harp or to reveal how it might have sounded. In either case, the incident is a clear illustration of the principle that it is better to experimentwith a copy than speculatively . to restore an irreplaceable original object.

A tale of two copies

Among the particularly important and beautiful instruments at the Shrine to Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, are a violin by Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1693, and a harpsichord by Jacques Germain, Paris, 1785. In recent years the museum has also acquired copies of these two instruments.

The Stradivari violin, known as the ‘Harrison’ after a former owner, is in an exceptional state of preservation. This is undoubtedly the result of the instrument’s having been owned by amateur collectors throughout most of the period since 1800. The varnish, for example, has remained in fine condition because it was not constantly subjected to wear and tear during practice sessions and performances. Although the setup of this instrument, like that of virtually all fine old

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Restoration, reconstmction, and copying in musical-instrument collections

violins, was altered during the nineteenth century to conform to modern standards, it is one of the very few Stradivari violins to retain its original neck. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century luthiers who undertook to set the strings of early violins at a higher angle and to increase their length usually did so by discarding the original neck and retaining only the scroll, which was grafted to a new neck. With the Harrison, however, the original neck was lengthened and re- angled by insertion of a small wedge where it joins the body.

The tone of the instrument, owned and extensively used for performance and recording by a prominent concert artist for two decades before it came to the museum in 1985, is splendid. Nevertheless, it has remained silent throughout the decade since its acquisition and, if the museum’s current policies continue, the instrument will never be played again. Little would be gained to have one more Stradivarius in concert use, but much would be lost if one of the best presenred examples were to be subjected to wear and damage. W e regard as illusory the dictum, often heard in the world of violin- ists, that an instrument must be played in order somehow to remain ‘alive’.

More or less (usually less) accurate copies of Stradivari violins have been made for many generations. The usual goal has been to make a modern violin as Stradivari himself might have done had he lived 200 years later, or to make a modern violin as if one had an artificially aged Stradivarius with which to begin. With the revival of historical performance practices, however, many musicians have sought to play violins set up as they were 200 or 300 years ago. Douglas Cox, a noted maker experienced in constructing violins with baroque setup, undertook to make a precise copy of the Harrison, reconstructed in its original form. Several days were spent examining,

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measuring and photographing the original. Final selection of the woods to be used in the copy was made at the same time. In making the copy, Douglas Cox made slight adjustments to the measurements to com- pensate for presumed slight shrinkage and distortion in the original instrument. A paper about the process of copying was presented by Douglas Cox to a gathering of violin specialists and was later published.

The Strad copy now serves several purposes at the museum. It illustrates visually the differences between a Stradivari violin in its original codiguration and in its modern state. The instrument is used by members of the music faculty of the University of South Dakota (of which the Shrine to Music Mu- seum is a department) for performances both at the museum and elsewhere. Al- though no one can claim absolutely to have made a new instrument that renders exactly the tone quality of the original when it was new, at least it illustrates to listeners the

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Plan uiew of the Wolf baipsicbord showing the sotiidboar-d decoration copied by Sheridaiz Gemnniz after the original Germain decoratioii.

39

John Koster

sound of a well-made baroque violin, argu- ably closer in kind to the original tone of the Harrison Strad than the tone that would be produced by the altered and aged original, even if it were restored to its initial configu- ration. For players, the copy objectively communicates the ‘feel’ of a Stradivari violin in its original condition. Further, the copy will serve in the future as a fine example of late-twentieth-century violin making.

As for the Germain harpsichord, it had already been restored to playing condition shortly before its acquisition by the museum in 1983. This restoration was undertaken mainly to reverse an earlier misguided rebuilding that had been done in the 1950s. Much of the subtle evidence that can be destroyed by restoration had already been effaced. Most of the mechanical parts that might be subjected to wear during further playing of the instrument were modem reconstructions. On the other hand, the soundboard and structure were in excellent condition and there was no reason to doubt that they were stable and could continue to function as they did originally. The tone quality of the museum’s Germain is exquisite, and it is highly likely that the present tone production and mechanical operation of the instrument are very close to what they were when the instrument was new. In contrast with the plethora of Stradivari violins that can still be heard, there are very few playable historical harpsichords to serve as standards of historical quality from which present- day musicians and craftsmen can learn directly. Thus, the playable instrument was judged both to be a reliable exemplar of its type and to present no significant conser- vational quandaries and the decision was made to maintain the instrument for strictly controlled use by qualified persons in concerts, demonstrations, and tryouts. Sub- sequent experience has confirmed the appropriateness of this decision.

The Germain harpsichord, like the original Stradivari violin, must remain within the carefully regulated climate of the museum. For use by music faculty and students for teaching, practice and performance elsewhere on and off the university campus, a copy of the Germain harpsichord was commissioned from the prominent makers, Thomas and Barbara Wolf. For practical reasons, a number of minor compromises were made: the plec- tra, which pluck the strings, for example, were made of a modern plastic rather than the crow quill of the original, and a more easily transportable trestle stand was provided in place of a cabriole stand. On the other hand, the painting on the original harpsichord’s case exterior and lid interior are from an early- twentieth-century bout of redecoration. The copy’s much plainer black exterior and vermillion interior, decorated only with gilt bands, are more representative of actual eighteenth-century French harpsichord decoration. The beautifully preserved painting on the original Germain soundboard was reproduced on the Wolf soundboard by Sheridan Germann, the leading modern historian of early keyboard instrument decoration.

Although a direct comparison of the Germain harpsichord and its copy shows that the tone of the copy does not quite match the surpassing elegance of the original, there is no doubt that the copy is a very fine example of French-style, harpsichord making. It and the Museum’s copy of the Harrison Strad will long continue to serve artistic and educational missions that the originals cannot.

Note

For more on the subject of copies, see CIMCIM Publication No, 3 (1994) entitled Copies of Historic Musical Instruments. - Ed.

O UNESCO 1996 40

Caring for musical instruments A Museum International YepoiT

A new publication issued by the Museum and Galleries Commission in London addresses the question of standards for the museum care of musical instruments. The booklet represents a consensus of current professional opinion of the best practice to which every museum should aspire and is based on the conclusions of an expert group of some thirty curators, conservators and restorers; more than seventy specialists from museums in Europe and North America were consulted in its preparation. Part 1 covers standards for managing collections and hicludes collecting, fieldwork curation and conservation, care of musical instruments permitted to be played, documentation, access, loan of musical instruments and research. Part 2 deals with various aspects of protection: theft, fire, flood, disasters, physical damage, dust, dirt, pollutants and pests; it also discusses buildings and environment, moving musical instruments, protection of primary records and, protecting people from musical instruments. Appendices providing a sample care programme, relative-humidity and temperature tables, categories of use and a glossary of terms complete the information. The Foreword by Stanley Sadie reflects the tone and scope of this timely publication and is quoted in full here:

i'

Among the countless kinds of object conserved in our museums, a musical instrument occupies a very special position. It was not designed to be looked at, but to be used, specifically to be played upon, to produce some sort of vibration that creates sound. Instruments were not intended by their makers to last forever, or even forvery long: no one would have been more sur- prised than a Ruckers or a Stradivari at the longevity of their creations, let alone the value that society places upon them after some three centuries, while the craftsman in China or Africa who created an instrument would be no less baffled at the worth

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ascribed to it and the care bestowed on it in an alien culture. These men and their colleagues made instruments to serve a particular cultural function which seemed to be of its time and was never envisaged as being more than that.

Today we take a different view of our own past, one that has been forming over some two hundred years, as tastes, in music as elsewhere, instead of moving with the times, have become set. The music chiefly valued by a large public today is that of the past, a selection of which has come to have canonical significance. This music was composed for instruments of the kind w e preserve. The desire to preserve the instruments is a by-product not only of a civili- sation that looks to its past and preserves many different kinds of artefact, but also of our interest in the re-creation of the per- forming traditions, and the sounds, of the period to which the music belongs. Also, as cultural boundaries have softened with the end of colonialism, the freer intermixing of cultures and the improvement in world communications, the readiness to aban- don cultural insularity has increasingly fed curiosity and care about non-Western instruments. Yet the preservation of instruments of any kind is inherently enigmatic, for like other objects, they have been used, and in many cases used to destruction or at least substantial deterioration; the very act of using them places them under a kind of stress that belongs more, say, to machines than to art objects. Further, they may well have been repaired, or even modified to meet changing tastes.

To the ordinary musician, and to the ordinary listener, a musical instrument exists for only one purpose: to be played upon and to produce sound. Until quite recent times such attitudes remained unques- tioned, and there are still quarters where even now they are regarded as almost#

41 Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 IJF (UK) and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142 (USA)

A MizcSeirm International report

axiomatic, where a silent instrument is seen as a useless instrument; and indeed the traditions of English organology (which are long and distinguished) are based in a broader tradition of antiquarianism with which such ways of thought were consist- ent. The historian or the conservator today, however, takes a different view, in which the chief emphasis belongs with the preservation of an instrument as a tool for future research. The diversity of approach poses dilemmas which the present publication fully acknowledges, and it provides valuable guidelines for dealing with them. A central question must remain: of what use is an instrument of the past, or of another culture, as a guide in our efforts to reconstruct the soundworld of its period or provenance if we do not permit ourselves to hear it, so that w e know what we are trying to recreate? And, on the other hand, how can we permit ourselves to risk destroying what we have?

There are no simple answers: except to say that to compel a long-silent instrument to sound may often be to court its destruction,

and that no responsible custodian can allow that unless under severe safeguards. The purpose of this publication is to establish a basis for custodianship and conservation without denying the purpose of the objects. Its hard practicality and caution are salutary. Musicians may, in its light, have to deny themselves certain of their hopes and ambitions, but long-term considerations have to be paramount and the responsibilities of custodianship must prevail. This volume represents an enlightened collabo- rative statement of them and how best they may be realized.

Note

Staizdards in the Museiim Care of Musical Instniineiits 1995> edited by Crispin Paine, is available from the Museums and Galleries Commission, 16 Queen Anne’s Gate, London SWlH 9AA, at the price of &16 in the United Kingdom; 620 elsewhere. Cheques should be drawn on a U.K. bank or on an international bank draft (Eurocheques accepted). For further information: Tel. 0171-233-4200; Fax 0171-233-3686. - Ed.

42 O UNESCO i996

The 1995 European Museum of the Year Award Kenneth Hzidson

ille Europeaii Museuin of the Year Award r-ecognizes, first aiid foreniost, ‘the piiblic virtues’ of CI mziseimi. Keiirzett!! Hzidsoiz has been director of the aulard since its inception. He claims to bave had ‘!io career but a wotide@lIy enjoyable life: working for- universities, broadcasting, travelling the world and, for the past twerity-fiue years, devoting hiniselftojoul7ialist?i and writirigfij7y- thee books oiz miseu?ns, social and itidustrial histog) and social litiguistics, iiicludiizg the well knozun Museums of influence.

Ol~mipic Switzerk gallen’es.

Museum, nid: view

The European Museum of the Year Award was first presented in 1977 and has been organized annually since then. The scheme functions ‘under the auspices of the Coun- cil of Europe’ and its administration is provided by an independent authority, the European Museum Trust, a non-profit- making body registeredin the United King- dom. Its headquarters are in Bristol, Eng- land, and the members of its international policy committee are drawn from Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Neth- erlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. They receive no payment for their services, but their travelling expenses are met. This committee also acts as the jury for the award and under- takes the considerable task of visiting all the candidates. There are usually between fifty and sixty of these each year. The number for 1995 was rather lower than usual, whereas the 1996 figure is considerably higher.

The award is restricted to new museums and to museums that have recently been completely reorganized. A new museum is

defined as one that has been first opened during the past two years. To qualify for the award, a museum must be regularly accessible to the public. Its form of ownership and control is unimportant. Any museum that meets our requirements is free to apply. Its candidature does not have to be approved by a government department or by a professional organization. Small museums and large museums are equally welcome.

The EMYA Committee has always regarded itself as standing midway along a line which has the museum profession at one end and the museum-going public at the other. In this respect it differs from ICOM, which represents the museum profession throughout the world. EMYA functions entirely independently. Its judgement and opinions are completely unaffected by political considerations or professional interests.

It receives detailed applications from candidates during the first four months of each year and visits the museums between the

ISSN 1350-0775, Mtiseirm Azienzariomzl (UNESCO, Paris), No. 189 (Vol. 48, No. 1, 1996) 43 O UNESCO 1996 Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142 (USA)

Kennett!! Hzrdson

' . . J,. C.h

Mimiini of Uizdeniinter Archaeology, Bodrzinl, Turkey: elerieritli-centii y glass zoreck.

beginning of June and mid-November. As a general rule, every museum is inspected by two members of the jury. Nobody visits a museum in his or her own country. Written reports are circulated as visiting proceeds and at the end of November the jury meets for two days in Strasbourg, in order to discuss the reports and move towards a decision on the winner.

The first task is to draw up a list ofwhat are called Nominated Museums, that is, candidates of above-average merit. There were twenty-seven of these for the 1995 Award, selected from a total of forty-five. The jury then proceeds to reduce this number to about ten. Six to eight of these will be designated Specially Commended museums, one will be the overall winner and one will receive the Council of Europe Prize, given to the museum which, in the opinion of the judges, has achieved something that emphasizes or illustrates the cultural unity of Europe.

44

In doing all this, the members of the jury have been following certain well-understood principles, which are summarized on a standard reporting form. Each museum is regarded as a package of the following nine qualities:

1. What the museum contains, its collections.

2. HOW it presents and interprets these collections.

3. The general atmosphere of the museum. Friendly and welcoming, or cold and clinical? Suitable, pleasant building?

4. The relationship between members of the staff. Easy and democratic? Hierarchical and formal?

5. The director. Suited to the job? Good public relations sense?

6. Effective publicity and public relations policy?

7. Quality of public amenities. Car park- ing? Café or restaurant? Cloakroom facilities? Lavatories?

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The 1995 European Museum of the Year Award

8. Museum shop. Well-stocked, with material relevant to the museum?

9. Educational provision. Well-planned? Imaginative? Well-used?

These we consider to be the public virtues of a museum, which we are judging. W e are only incidentally interested in what one might call the professional virtues - conservation, cataloguing, security, research, academic qualifications of the staff. In order to obtain the information they need, our visitors must make an appointment to talk to the director and his or her colleagues and they must spend several hours in the museum. Rapid, anonymous visits are useless for our purpose. After many years’ experience, the members of the EMYA jury are skilled at getting complete and truthful answers to their questions.

Discovering new directions

Our system of visit is a fascinating, time- consumsing and expensive business, but it allows us to keep our finger on the Euro- pean museum pulse to an extent that would not otherwise be possible. Time and time again we have found that a museum on paper and a museum in reality can be two entirely different institutions. W e must go in order to understand. Our main function, we believe, is first to discover new ideas and then to help to move them around from one country to another. This, and not the giving of a prize, has been the purpose of all our activity since 1977. The annual award itself is, of course, important, especially to the museum that wins it, but much more significant are the reasons for which it is made. To give the award- to Museum X and not to Museum Y is to indicate that it embodies certain qualities, points in certain directions which appear to us to be particularly important to the future of Europe’s museums.

O UNESCO i996

Certain trends became apparent last year during the visiting and reporting process. One was the welcome emergence of italian museums from what has seemed to us for so long to have been a period of deep sleep. The 1995 award’s crop of new Italian museums was refreshingly lively, varied and stimulating - weighing machines in Campogalliano, perfume in Parma, papy- rus in Syracuse, acceptable modern art really well shown in Bologna and Milan, archaeology presented as human history in Viareggio. The cultural giant, one felt, had woken up at last.

Tfe degree of imagination and originality demonstrated by the Finnish candidates provides convincing evidence that large sums of money are not required in order to create excellent museums. The Children’s Museum and the rejuvenated part of the City Museum in Helsinki, set by the side of the powerful reminder of the former Rus- sian bourgeois culture in Karelia, the Wolkoff House at Lappeenranta, and the preserved old working-class housing in Tampere, show that Finland is a country that tries to keep all aspects of its past meaningful for today’s citizens.

Austria continues to provide an excellent supply of new local museums, supported, as in Switzerland, by an enterprising mixture of public and private finance. W e were very impressed by the effective use of volunteers at Spittal/Drau and Zwettl, and by the ingenious financial arrangements at the Children’s Museum at Baden in Swit- zerland, which allow the private owners to retain control of their impressive collections, while making them hlly accessible to the general public.

The year’s French candidates, in Marseilles, Nimes and Saché, were disappointing. Their shortcomings were felt to be mainly due to a shortage of enterprise and money at the

# 45

Kenneth Hudson

Hnus der Geschichte der Btindesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, G e m m y .

local level, but also to a failure to give sufficient thought to what the museum was trying to do and to achieve a realistic estimate of the number of visitors. They gave the impression of belonging to the declining years of an old tradition. The three Spanish candidates, on the other hand, were all tackling something new and out of the mainstream, ‘mainstream’ in Spanish terms being art, history and archaeology. The Museum of Textiles in Barcelona has successfully broken out of the traditional mould, the Catalan Museum of Science and Technology is pushing steadily ahead with its interesting concept of an industrial museum organized as a cluster of separate mini-museums on different sites, and in the Asturias, the new Museum of Mining and Industry at El Entrego is wrestling with the enormous task of creating a big museum quickly and with a mixture of national and European funding.

There is an interesting group of special museums, which follow no particular for- mula - the splendidly planned and organ- ised Lapidarium in Prague, the Brewery Museum at Pilsen, the museum built around an enormous Roman public lavatory at Rottenburg, the maritime museum on the Greek Island of Oinoussai, once famous and prosperous for its wooden shipbuild-

ing industry, the Famine Museum at Strokestown in Ireland, the museum of Antarctic exploration in Dundee.

Commendations and prizes

The first of our Special Commendations this year was the Museum of Traditional Local Culture at SpittaVDrau in Austria. SpittaVDrau is close to the Slovenian bor- der. With the help of a devoted body of volunteers, two remarkable directors, fa- ther and son, have built up large collections of very high quality and installed them in a historic building which is fully worthy to contain them. The museum has a large and successful publishing and educational programme and a steadily increasing network of international contacts. All this has been achieved within a very short time and on a tight budget.

Most Lapidaria are dismal and chaotic affairs, ill-signposted dumps of potentially interesting pieces of carved stone, forwhich the authorities can find no other home. The National Museum in Prague decided the time had come to organize something better. It has replaced the previously largely meaningless disorder by a methodical arrangement of the fragments illustrating the history of building stone and of building in

Q UNESCO 1996 46

The 1995 European Museum of the Year Award

stone in the Czech Republic, particularly in Prague. It has tried at the same time to create displays that are aesthetically pleasing.

The City Museum in Helsinki has made a courageous and imaginative attempt to solve a problem that has worried history museums for many years. How does one persuade modern people to identify themselves with past events, to see yesterday’s difficulties and struggles as their own? By creating a series of glimpses of life in Helsinki at different historical periods and by using appropriate sounds to reinforce the mood and the associations of these visual images, the museum has achieved great success in giving its visitors a sense of the past and in providing emotional links with people who died before they were born.

Westfalen-Lippe, which includes a large part of the heavily industrialized Ruhr area of Germany, has what it calls a Landscape Association. This admirable public institution is responsible for the protection and presentation as museums of a number of important industrial monuments, one of which, the candidate for our award, was the enormous nineteenth-century boat-lift on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, with an associated museum to explain its context and its functioning. W e felt that the association’s achievements deserved wide publicity outside Germany.

The Museo Morandi in Bologna is refreshingly different from most museums of contemporary art, both in Italy and elsewhere. It occupies part of a beautiful and cherished building in the centre of the city and deals with the work of a well-loved and distinguished local artist, who belonged to no movement and followed no trend and whose paintings have an immediate appeal to ordinary people. Giorgi0

O UNESCO i996

Morandi is presented in the museum as a complete person, in an environment where the visitor feels immediately at ease.

The museum at Harnosand caters for a large, economically important but thinly populated area of northern Sweden. It has used modern techniques to present the story of its region, but in a way that is integrated with its atmosphere and its geographical characteristics. W e thought highly of the subtle manner in which this has been accomplished and of the architectural and design skills involved.

Our colleagues who visited the Lindwurm Museum at Stein am Rhein in Switzerland mentioned especially the ‘poetry’ and the ‘charm’ that characterized the conversion of this complex of small-town buildings into a museum that illustrates the living style of a comfortably-off family in the middle of the last century. They remarked on the painstaking attention to detail, both in the architectural restoration and in the internal arrangement. The appeal was not only intellectual. W e were given an opportunity to feel and smell our way back into the past.

The inclusion of the Museum of Underwa- ter Archaeology at Bodrum in Turkey in our list of Specially Commended museums not only allowed DS to draw international attention to an excellent museum, but provided us with an opportunity to do justice to the Institute of Underwater Ar- chaeology, with which the museum has always been closely associated. The museum and the Institute together have made Bodrum a focal point for scientific and museological excellence in the eastern Mediterranean.

The city of Southampton in the United Kingdom has recently made a large invest- ment in the extension, reorganization and * 47

Kenneth Hudson

complete refurbishment of its Municipal Art Gallery, in order to make it more pleasant and convenient to use and to attract a wider range of visitors. W e were impressed by the director’s dynamic and practical approach and by the way in which the gallery has been integrated into the social life of the city.

The jury also decided to award a Per- sonal Citation to Gabriele Mazzotta, the director ofthe Antonio Mazzotta Foun- dation in Milan, for his work in developing an exhibition centre of exceptional quality, which is likely to have a pro- found and far-reaching influence on the museum situation in Italy, for his successful efforts to encourage international co-operation in the museum field and for the consistently high standard of his exhibition programme.

The 1995 Council of Europe Prize was awarded to the House of History of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn. W e based our recommendation on the enterprise shown by the German Parliament in approving the project and in making the necessary funds available and on its insist-

ence that the museum should be a centre of discussion, not a didactic vehicle. W e felt that other European countries would benefit from having a national museum of history.

The European Museum of the Year Award for 1995 went to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. W e had three reasons for coming to this decision. First, the co-ordination between the architect, the designer and the museologists has been exceptionally effective. What has resulted is a building which is pleasant to look at, good to work in and satisfying to visit. Second, the museum blends past and present in a very successful and attractive way. It has been con- ceived as an international centre of activities connected with sport and the Olympic Games, not merely as a place of history. And, third, all the technical resources that lie at the disposal of museums today have been employed in Lausanne with taste, discipline, discrimination and great effec- tiveness. The machine has not, as in so many other modern museums, been allowed to become the dominant partner. It has been kept in its place as the obedient servant.

48 O UNESCO 1996

*The new research laboratories of the Museums of France An iizteruiew with Jean-Pierre Moheiz

, On î%ursdaj< 16 Februa y ï995, Jacques Toubo??, the Minister of Czdture and the Ft-ench-speaking Coni??iu?iity7 inaugurated the new Research Laboratory of the Museums of France in the Palais du Louvre, near the Lion’s Gate of the Pavillon de Flore. 173e laboratory, which has 5,000 rn‘ offloor space, is built undeiground aiouiid a naturally lit shafr in the Carrousel Gardens, followi?zg a desigil bji the architects Eric Saunier and Jérôme Bnrnet.

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(UNESCO,

The Laboratory was set up in 1931 to make scientific studies of museum collections and developed rapidly thanks to people like René Huygue and Madeleine Hours. As Minister of Culture, André Malraux encouraged its work and facilitated its establishment in the Louvre in 1968, in the Pavillon de Flore, with floor space totalling 800 m2.

The activities of the institution, now the Research Laboratory of the Museums of France, have continued to expand and diversify since then. Since February 1994, the Laboratory has been headed by Jean- Pierre Mohen, the general curator of the heritage. Its work consists of:

Observing, examining and dating paintings, sculptures and other old objects by scientific means at the request of those in charge of public, national and local collections.

Observing the invisible by means of infra- red, ultraviolet and X-rays, using increasingly complex equipment (microscopy, fluorescence under ultraviolet light, infra-red photography, radiography).

Dating by thermoluminescence.

Making analyses using chromatography or A G M , the Louvre Museum’s element analysis accelerator, which is equipped, inter alia, with an extracted beam that has been specifically designed for examining art objects.

Devising new methods in partnership with those most qualified to help. The examination of works of art involves co-operation between art historians and scientists which can lead to the devising of new methods of research and publication or the adaptation of existing ones.

Paris), No. 189 (Vol. 48, No. 1996)

Communicating through publications (particularly the laboratory’s new magazine, Techue) and providing information by teaching and by taking in students.

The laboratory’s new premises have a floor area of 5,000 m2 on three levels under the Carrousel Gardens. They are housed in a concrete shell, to which the architects Jérôme Brunet and Eric Saunier have brought natural light by using glass as a structural material. This bold solution is visible in the Carrousel Gardens in the shape of a 64 m2 glass slab, a particular feature of which is that it is supported entirely by glass beams, with the use of no other material.

W3at will the increase in floor area from 800 to 5,000 ni2 mean for the laboratoiy?

W e were in the Pavillon de Flore for over twenty-five years, and because the laboratory’s activities have expanded over the years, we were increasingly cramped for space. With the 5,000 mz that w e are going to have, we can carry on our work in much better conditions. W e shall also be able to organize ourselves around A G M which, as you know, was installed here in 1990 in an underground room, and, with this piece of equipment at the centre, we shall be able to develop a really close-knit team. W e shalt be in a position to develop a number of areas like photographic examination, radiography, chemistry and so on, and, generally speaking, be of greater use to curators, who are turning to us in ever- increasing numbers.

This moue marks an imporstantstage iii the lije of the laboratoiy. How would you describe it?

The move into the new buildings does represent an important stage. It provides us with the opportunity to take stock,)

49 Published byBlackwel1 Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142 (USA)

An interview with Jem-Pierre Mohen

Afi@eenth-centu y enamel-on-copper triptych of the cyzicIJm‘on undergoing ion-beam analysis through A G M (Accélémtetw Gvand Louvre Analyse Elémentaire) which prouides non- destnictiue colouv analysis.

‘tighten up’ our organization, and plan our work better. The new organizational chart that we have just drawn up proposes a fresh balance in the way responsibilities are shared and clarifies the role played by each individual. The move into these new premises is also giving us an opportunity to make ourselves better known and to tell not only ‘museum people’ but also the general public more about our work. The inauguration is going hand in hand with appreciable publicity work, for example, a press release compiled by the French R/Iu- seums Directorate, a guide to the laboratory, published by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, a special edition of Con- naissance des Arts and articles in the Feb- ruary edition of the magazine, a special edition of Techne, the laboratory’s new publication called Autoportait d’un laboratoire, articles in the February edition of Ln Reuue du Louvre, etc. I should also like to remind you that 17 February has been set aside for curators to visit the new laboratory, and that two ‘open days’ will be held on 6 and 7 March so that the general public can see who we are.

HOLU manypeople will be workiizg in these new buildings?

There will be about sixty permanent members of staff. As you know, the originality of the team is that half, who are curators and documentalists, represent the human sciences and the other half, the engineers and technical specialists, represent the exact sciences. W e form a genuinely multidisciplinary team and w e are going to try, in the next few years, to work together even better. In this connection, the new layout, in which the offices are all interlinked, the meeting rooms and the amphitheatre with its hundred or so seats, will be of considerable help.

What branches of activity do yotipartictl- lady wish to develop?

The study of materials, using A G M , is going to expand. Hitherto, it was very largely a physical study but is increasingly going to involve chemistry. Analysing the transformation of materials, modifications in the ingredients and changes in shape and matter etc. is of fundamental importance in describing works of art as well as in preventive conservation. Greater understanding of the processes of ageing in different materials is of crucial importance in providing better protection. W e can provide proper protection only if we have a clear understanding of what is happen- ing. Another main avenue for development is that of the visual image, which is becoming more and more prominent in our work and is also one of the principal means by which we communicate with the outside, meaning not only with curators and re- searchers but also with the general public. This is a form of communication we would like to expand. In addition to all this, other developments are probable although we don’t know yet what they will be. It is part of our job to innovate all the time and to

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The new research laboratories of the Museums of France

open up new fields of research in order to meet the needs of curators more successfully. The development of the AGLAE extracted beam, which can be used to analyse a work without taking samples, is unique in France, and there is no doubt that it is going to be used more and more.

Is it one ofjiozwjobs to make t h laborato- y’s work kizown?

Absolutely! The laboratory has a very important responsibility to make its work known, and this goes hand in hand with teaching responsibilities. The Laboratory’s scientists hold teaching posts at the École du Louvre, the École du Patrimoine [Heri- tage Schooll, IFROA, the Institut de Palé- ontologie Humaine, and a number of universities, such as Paris I. The laboratory also has a great wealth of documentation that we try to manage in a unified way in order to provide better information both inside and outside the laboratory. At present, we are giving a great deal of thought to ways of uniSing information which is still too widely dispersed, consisting of pictures, documents, figures, commentaries and so on. The results of this work are being made accessible through the Narcisse European multimedia programme being run by the laboratory. Externally, this is leading to new multimedia products like the CD-ROM on Poussin, brought out in September 1994 for the exhibition at the National Galleries in the Grand Palais. W e are going to have a special area for Narcisse in our new building. This will make it easier for us to compile material about

individual work, digitize it, create databases on site and make available CD-ROMs designed by the kdboratory. After Arts et Sciences and Poussin, we are considering bringing out a CD-ROM on Corot, which might be followed by one on Piccaso.

So a laboratory like the LRMF is mxessai-iiy an iiistitutioii uey opefi to the outside world. , .

The laboratory has links, established by convention, with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Atomic Energy Commission. My deputy, Jean- Michel Dupouy, is, as you know, a scientist from the Commission. W e also maintain close links with the restoration workshops of the Museums of France - a branch of the laboratory works directly with the Restora- tion Department, in Versailles - with the Research Laboratory for Historic Monu- ments and with the Research Centre for the Conservation of Graphic Documents, in Paris. Of course, w e also have very close links with a number of universities like Orsay and Paris VII, and with major laboratories abroad in Oxford, Florence, Ot- tawa, Washington, Brussels, Rome, Los Angeles, etc. The laboratory is really quite the reverse of an inward-looking institution. A whole network of partners has been established over the years and it functions in a systematic way.

Note

This interview first appeared in La Lettre des Misées de Fmnce> No. 52, February 1995. - Ed.

O UNESCO 1996 51

Ancient monuments create a new museum in Peru Mavco Albini

The excar~ations sponsored by the Banco Wiese of Linin, tinder thepersoiznl supervision of its owner, Du Atgusto Wiese, have brought to light an extremely intevesting example of monuments of the relatively unknown Moche period. These include an extraordina y series of painted reliefs on several levels that bear witness to the social life of the era. Spumed on by W E S C O , a group of Italian architects, led by Marco Albini, haue devised an unrisrial - and LinafizLalÏ$ simple - solution to transforming the site into an open-air museum. The author is on the Faculty of Architecture at Milan Polytechnic and hm taught industrial design at the international University ofArts in Venice; he has sewed as Visiting Professor nt the Cornell Univevsity School of Architecture and at New York Unir~ersity in the United States.

Phase 1 of the El Bnljoproject showiizg the experimental system.

The Moche culture (A.D. 200-7501 of the Piura and Nepena valley, on the northern coast of Peru, represented one of the most flourishing periods in the Andine area. The ceramic work and monumental adobe constructions are famous for the skill of their craftsmen and for the colourful adobe paintings with religious themes. Since almost no other culture of that period shows evidence of paintings on adobe reliefs, the importance of this discovery, which represents the first example to be scientifically studied, cannot be overestimated.

The pyramid shaped monument at Trujillo, called Huaca Cao, is part of one of the most important archaeological settlements of the northern coast of Peru called El Bnijo, which includes the pyramid of Huaca de la Luna, with important archaeological discoveries and frescoes on adobe, and several other pyramids awaiting excavation. The Huaca Cao is a large pyramid on adobe, 30 m high and more than fifteen centuries old. Half of the pyramid has been excavated and shows a terraced architectural feature, stepping up to the top similar to the Egyptian step pyramid. The part of

the pyramid now exposed to view presents various series of adobe reliefs and paintings on the vertical wall of the terraces.

The main theme of the frescoes concerns the dominant religious hierarchy of that time: prisoners being conducted to punish- ment as well as deity symbols and representations of religious ceremonies. What is really astonishing is the brightness of the colours, which have remained undamaged through the centuries - a colourful image that contrasts strongly with the monochrome desert is the first impression visitors get from a distance. The grandeur, uniqueness and completeness of these findings constitute a monumental specta- cle that should be preserved as such and presented to the view of experts and other interested persons.

For this reason the Banco Wiese requested advice from Dr Silvio Mutal, Regional Co- ordinator for UNESCO cultural programmes in Latin America, who then turned to a group of Italian architects to seek assistance in developing a project that would satisfy two basic requirements: on the one

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Ancient monuments create a new museum in Peru

hand, to construct a system of weather- proofing that would ensure the conservation of the polychrome reliefs and, on the other, to maintain the natural appearance of the excavations and the monument in the open air, avoiding the use of imposing architectural structures which could alter the environmental context. The main concern was to find an alternative solution to the one that seems to be proposed throughout the world for site museums and which consists of placing the findings in a glass building in order to protect them from weathering.

This solution, which had also been proposed for the El Brujo excavation, would represent terrible damage both for the environment and for the conservation purpose itself. In fact, the practice of surround- ing antique remains by a glass surface totally changes the environmental context and modifies the appreciation of the antique artworks by inserting them into a modern setting in a completely artificial way. In addition, the sudden change of microclimatic conditions from open air to an enclosed air-conditioned volume would

bring about uncontrolled changes of the bioclimate with unforeseen effects on the surface texture of the reliefs and colour paintings. But the most discouraging result of such a proposal is the environmental impact of enormous glass boxes rising up in the middle of the desert or other natural surroundings - an artificial and incompat- ible image is created which would destroy completely the pleasure of ‘discovering’ the antique works of art. It was therefore proposed that in the case of El Brujo the archaeological materials were to be maintained in the open and not enclosed within a building, which would give rise to difficult problems of ambient control and certainly have an unfavourable effect on the landscape.

A site becomes a museum

Taking into consideration the findings with regard to the microclimate created by a temporary covering of polyester fabric, set in place for more than a year, and also on the basis of results and experiences in Italy in the covering of archaeological #

77je Hicaca Cao Pj’ramid with the tenipora y roo$

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Marco Albini

View of the life-size adobe polychrome reliefs.

excavations, it was proposed to install a simple roof protection which would be as light and translucent as possible and which would not be visually cumbersome. The specially designed and constructed roof would protect only from above with no side enclosures, thus allowing free views of the landscape and the reliefs. The fundamental objectives of the project were to ensure the conservation of the paintings and archaeological material and to render the site as a museum, with as little environmental impact as possible, and with the best conditions of visibility and visitability .

To ensure the conservation of the reliefs and paintings, three factors would have to be kept under control: relative humidity and temperature variations, including protection against the sun and rain; surface condensation on the paintings; and wind and sand storms which would cause the sand to damage the painted reliefs. The validity of the roof covering solution would depend upon the efficacy of the consolida- tion treatment already carried out on the paintings and of the product used (ethylsilicate 40) in order to ensure resistance in the open air. Such treatment had already proved satisfactory in the consoli- dation of the excavations at Chanchan and we thus concluded that control of light and weathering was all that was required for the El Brujo project. This could be guaran-

teed by an appropriate roof-covering that would, ideally, be constructed at the outset while the excavations were still going on, in order to test its efficacy over time, monitor the effects and keep a check on the results. This would also enable the excavations already carried out to be immediately visitable by a public of experts, a very important objective which represents the social finality of the archaeological mission.

Once an adequate roof has been devised, the further conditions to be satisfied as far as the museum structure is concerned are the following: it should be as transparent and light as possible in order to reduce the environmental impact to the minimum, allow free views of the findings and obtain a soft diffused light; no breaks should appear in the continuity of the covering surface, nor should other elements or intermediate support pillars interfere with the view of the paintings and archaeological material, in order to ensure the greatest possible unity of vision and perception of the whole.

The solution proposed satisfies these requirements and will most likely be constructed in Peru in 1996 as a first experimental phase to replace the temporary roof now in use. It has already been adopted to protect the excavations and mosaics of a Roman villa in Italy.

A low cost, 'lo-tech' solution from Italy

The project for the Archaeological Park at Desenzano del Garda in Italy resulted from the need to protect the mosaic floor decorations that cover most of the excavated area of a Roman villa dating from the third century A.D., and to trans- form it into an archaeological park where

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Ancient monuments create a new museum in Peru

the public could walk freely under the roof covering, following pathways indi- cated by graphic signs and free-standing panels. Four basic principles inspired the design: (a) flexibility of use; (b) transformability and extensibility of the structure; (c) reversibility, lightness, ease of assembly; and (d) minimum environmental impact and interference with the archaeological material.

The scheme adopted consists of a modular grid composed of parallelepipeds of square plan, with 4-m sides and a height of 1.8 m, formed by painted steel tubes. assembled by means of multi-way ball joints. Once assembled and mounted, this grid or lattice forms a rigid slab able to bridge large spans, with limited vertical supports placed only on the peri- meter. An important feature is that of being able to apply the vertical supports to any of the ball joints, making it possible to change their position at the last moment or even during assembly in the event that the base of the support comes into contact with archaeological material. The modular grid can be ex- tended as required, following or even preceding the excavations.

The roofing material, of high-resistance polyester internally reinforced to prevent deformation under stress, is very light and easy to mount, and provides a constant, gentle and pleasantly diffused light below. The covering is formed of cones with square bases attached by cables to the upper corners of the grid of metal tubes, and helps to stiffen the system in addition to facilitating the runoff of rainwater, thus being self-cleaning. It provides a complete screen against the sun's rays and allows the temperature to be controlled so as to avoid thermic changes and excessive gradients of relative humidity. The tubular support- ing pillars, similar to those of the roofing

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slab, do not require large foundations (a cubic base with sides of GO cm is sufficient) and can tolerate moderate misalignment or eccentricity of load. Rainwater is elimi- nated by means of gutters situated beneath the polyester elements, which transport the water beyond the limits of the covered area.

Roman villa at Deseizzmo del Garda: view of the arcbaeological site.

The advantages provided by the system are many: protection against sun, rain and wind; control of temperature and relative humidity, which remains almost constant; elimination of intermediate pillars or other obstructions, thus allowing a unitary or complete view of the monument without interference; maximum lightness, reversibility, facility of transport and construction; clarity of architectural language which rejects any sort of mimetic or analogical approach. The contemporaneity of the intervention is clearly affirmed. Finally, it can be built at very low cost and requires scant maintenance. (The roof of the Peru- vian site may be built for some $130 per m2, or a total of $100,000 for the entire project of about 800 m2.) Moreover, unlike glass constructions, the only maintenance required on the structure of the roof covering is cleaning the outer surface of the polyester pyramids. Thus, construction and maintenance are easily affordable and offer positive results in term of environment and visitability - that is to say, the essence of a site museum.

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Books Art restoration The Culture, the Business and the Scandal, by James Beck, with Michael Daley. London, John Murray, 1993.

Art Restoration: The Cultzwe, the Bicsiness and the Scnridal is essentially intended to be a polemical work. The criticism directed at the restoration of The Tomb of Ilnrin del Cavetto by Jacopo della Quercia in Lucca Cathedral, of Michelangelo’s paintings for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome and of Masaccio’s frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence should be seen in the context of the history of restoration, since the cleaning of such famous works has always given rise to impassioned discussions. However, the book’s tone and the extreme positions adopted by the authors do not stimulate reflection so much as stifle it.

Controversies about restoration tell us a great deal about the way in which each period reacts on the basis of the aesthetic culture of the day. Thus, the cleaning of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has for some people been a source of what Kathleen Brandt has rightly referred to as culture shock. Generations of art historians had, in fact, accepted a view of one of Michelangelo’s paintings as a monochrome harmony of subdued shades of brown. The psychological shock due to the alteration of its familiar appearance was therefore predictable. It is therefore essential to proceed with caution in such restoration projects, carrying out serious preliminary studies, laboratory examinations and interdisciplinary discussions, and then entrusting the work to restorers of recognized competence. That was the procedure adopted for the Michelangelo frescoes. James Beck is not convinced, however, and in order to prove his point he develops in one chapter after another a polemic reminiscent in some respects of those of the nineteenth century and in

others identical with the ideas that fuelled the disagreements at the end of the war over the cleaning of the paintings in the National Gallery. Scorning all the theories built up by Brandi and Philippot, whose ideas have most influenced the work of restorers in recent decades, the author sets out his own arguments while failing to inform the reader of the evidence put forward in defence of the restoration techniques he criticizes. He often rejects even scientific arguments on the grounds that they have been doctored to fit the needs of the restorers.

It is in this spirit that Beck treats us to a long introduction describing the proceedings instituted against him in Italy for his criticism of the restoration of %e Tomb of Ilaria, of which he provides a detailed description. He then discusses the restoration of two other Renaissance masterpieces: the fresco ne Expulsion from Paradise by Masaccio and the paintings by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. The author points out common denominators in these restoration projects. The work was sponsored, which prompted efforts to make news, particularly by eliminating touched-up areas to reveal ‘what had never been seen before’ and thus help to ‘sell’ the restoration. Use was made of chemicals about whose action too little was known; according to the author, The Wedding at Cana by Veronese, in the Louvre, was also treated in this way. The restorers also altered the actual substance of the works to satisfy contemporary tastes, thus falsifying the original aesthetic intentions of the artist. For example, the fig leaf covering Adam’s genitals in the fresco by Masaccio was removed, thus robbing the picture of its psychological truth: according to Beck, this detail painted a secco could very well be a late addition by the artist which altered with time and was modified in the course of subsequent restorations.

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As Beck devotes most of his attention to the restoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, we shall briefly summarize his arguments. The colours revealed by the recent cleaning are far too bright. For some scholars they reveal Michelangelo as an unsuspected and skilful colourist, an image of the painter at odds with traditional criticism, which sees him as assigning greater importance to draughtsmanship than to colour. Detractors of the restoration, of whom Beck is one, see it as the product of overzealous cleaning, which removed a glue-based finishing glaze applied a secco (referred to by Condivi in 1553 as the ultiino mano). The function of this glaze was apparently to balance the chromatic composition of the work, deepening the shadows and bringing out the sculptural qualities of the figures.

Beck provides no documentary proof in support of the idea that the present colours are not those Michelangelo sought to achieve. He does not even compare the final impression with the quite similar results obtained with the Toizdo Doni, painted by the artist in 1505, whose vibrant colours were revealed by the restoration in 1985 to the great astonishment of the critics: they had previously cited the painting as an example of Michelangelo’s preference for a subdued palette.

The author also fails to mention the absence of literary sources and the silence of artists who were Michelangelo’s contemporaries concerning a ‘veil of colour’ applied to frescoes to tone down or modify their effect. Furthermore, no such technique has been observed by modern critics in other works by the master.

To back up his thesis that the restorers have removed an original layer, Beck points to the absence of period sources referring specifically to the application of a layer of animal glue to the ceiling in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to remedy the saline efflorescence due to the infiltration of water. He does not O UNESCO 1996

accept the findings of the examinations carried out by the restorers under the direction of Gianluigi Colalucci, which confirmed that the glue layer was later than the frescoes. Nor does he pay any attention to the work done by the Colalucci team to list - in order to protect them during the cleaning operation - the areas painted over a secco by Michelangelo. Lastly, Beck asserts that the solvent used, AB57, was a dangerous, untested product that attacked the surface of the frescoes. AB57 was developed in the 1970s by Paolo and Laura Mora at the Central Institute of Restoration in Rome and was then used by those same restorers, whose cautious approach is internationally recognized, to clean the Cainera degli Sposi by Mantegna at Mantua and also the frescoes by Giotto and Simone Martini at Assisi. The author seems to be unaware that, in the difficult field of restoration, the results achieved depend less on the quality of the chemical, once that has been scientifically established, than on the rigour and technical skill of the restorer in applying it. In the case in point, the concentration of the chemical, the length of time for which it was applied and the neutralization of its action were all decisions taken on the basis of long experience.

In conclusion, Beck criticizes conservation and restoration work in his book but adds nothing to the debate on the subject of cleaning, which was launched in the nineteenth century and has not yet been brought to a conclusion. Moreover, his premises are sometimes strained since he adopts an outdated attitude, contrasting art and science, which Coremans attempted to reconcile in 1965, and setting art historians against art restorers. Apparently, only the former are to be considered the guardians of historical and aesthetic opinion on works of art, whereas the latter are mere technicians, concerned only with the physical and technical structure of the objects they treat.

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This outmoded and rather simplistic view takes no account of changing attitudes in the profession that have led to the creation of interdisciplinary training courses taught in specialized schools and even in universities, thus giving practical expression to an idea proposed by Philippot in 1960.

The restorer today must reconcile the approach of the art historian (to preserve the aesthetic dimension of the work) with the approach of the scientist (to assemble all the factual data that will enable him to decide on a satisfactory course of action) and with that of the artisan (in order to acquire the manual skill essential for successful restoration work). These three approaches were applied in full during the restoration of the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

In the penultimate chapter of the book, Beck criticizes harshly what he refers to as the Restorator Establishment, that is to say all the professions that gravitate around restoration work. Of these, collectors, art dealers and the sponsors and manufacturers of chemicals are particularly harmful. Works of art have to be protected from this lobby, and Art Watch International, an organization of which the author is both founder and president, aspires to the role of protector. The book ends with a chapter entitled Preueiztiue Action, in which Beck defines a Bill of Rights for a Work of Art, starting from the principle that ‘all works of art have the right to an honourable and dignified existence’. This right is already universally recognized, and most of the ideas advanced in this bill have long since been accepted by the profession itself, even if it is true that practice sometimes falls short of the

ideal, resulting occasionally in quite drastic restorations. Some of these may be explained by the fashion for restoration, the increasing number of retrospective exhibitions and the public’s taste for ‘restored’ works - but that is another story.

At present, conservation comes before restoration in the order of priorities. And yet restoration is still necessary sometimes (in places the glue layer had shrunk and lifted off the painted surface of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel) or is aesthetically justified when a general darkening caused by progressive alteration of the actual substance of a work completely obliterates its spatial structure and chromatic range.

To suggest, therefore, as Beck does, that the restorer should refuse to carry out restorations because he cannot operate neutrally on the work of another person or another culture is to fall back to the philosophy of Ruskin without proposing any alternative solution. The only way of preventing the sort of intervention that is open to criticism is to get the profession to pull together in order to ensure a high level of training for restorers and to maintain an open and interdisciplinary dialogue, which is an essential vector of progress. Moreover, the general public and the cultural authorities must be encouraged to take a greater interest in the vast realm of restoration and the issues involved by the provision of regular information rather than merely focusing attention exclusively on the dramas and scandals associated with restoration.

Book review by C. Périer-D’leteren, Professor at the Free Uniuersity of Brussels, and Chailperson of the Consewation Committee of ICOM.

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Museum-Museums

On 25 January 1995 curators, architects, artists and art historians assembled in the Louvre auditorium to spend the day dis- cussing light and the museum. At a time when concern that paintings should be properly viewed sometimes calls artificial lighting into question (did not Pierre Rosenberg, organizer of the Poussin exhibition at the Grand Palais in 1994, choose to display some of the paintings in daylight, which some found rather gloomy?), when we are well aware of the effect of light, be it natural or artificial, on our chances of preserving works of art, when optical fibres are used to provide lighting in exhibitions, and when, above all, architects and curators are perhaps talking to each other more than they did before, the use of light in the museum would seem to be definitely a topical subject.

Architecture, which is our subject for these pages of ‘Museum-Museums’, really is at the heart of the problem since, as Louis Kahn put it, ‘structure creates light’. Two architects, Christian Devillers, an ex-stu- dent of Kahn’s, and Henri Ciriani, gave lectures illustrated by slides which pro-

vided examples of sensitive and discrimi- nating distributions of light and of the sense of harmony created by a proper use of external light.

Louis I. Kahn and light

Louis Kahn (1901-74) has three art centres and museums in the United States to his credit: the Yale University Art Gallery (1951- 531, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth (1967-72) and the Yale Center for the British Arts (1969-77, completed after his death). In the first building, he opted to let the structures and materials (concrete and brick) make their presence clearly but discreetly felt. To do this he used daylight, which penetrates a curtain wall of iron and glass, as well as artificial lighting, while the staircase stands in a pillar of overhead light. At the end of his life, the Yale Center for the British Arts, which was to house a collection of English art, a library and shops, was Kahn’s last project. Behind a façade of raw stainless steel which glistens with different colours from one day to another, and beyond a discreet entrance, i)

Kini,ball Ait Museum, Fort Worth, Texas (United States), designed by architect Louis I. Kahn.

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wall linings of oak and sleek concrete create the atmosphere of intimacy which befits genre paintings. Here, natural light falls in profusion from the shylights which make up the ceiling.

But it was in the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth that Kahn was to use the potential of natural light to the full -and glory in it. Richard Brown, the curator who commissioned the building to exhibit the Kimbell collection, wanted in- candescent artificial light, not overhead light. It was not then known exactly how much light objetsd’mt could take. Kahn’s building is actually based on the supply of natural light. The structure consists of six vaulted bays 6 m wide, the first of which is the entrance, and at the top of which there is a diffuser that disperses daylight. These bays are broken up by ‘courtyards of light’ which are tinged with different colours, depending on whether they house foliage or a stretch of water - a green courtyard here, a blue one there. The overall tone is set by the light concrete and the travertine. Al- though all the elements follow a common thread, each area has its own iden- tity. Pauses, with a feeling of intimacy with the work being studied, can thus be combined with movement. After following a path through a grove of holly trees visitors reach the entrance and a feeling of warmth and intimacy is immediately perceptible. They proceed through a succession of exhibition rooms, all on one level, without fatigue, thanks to the soft lighting and the intervening patios which are restful for the eyes.

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The museums of Henri Ciriani

Henri Ciriani is an architect who has won prizes for the Musée de l’Historia1 de la Grande Guerre at Péronne (Somme), and

for the Musée de l’Arles Antique. His approach to light is that of a poet or dramatist, and he expresses it just as brilliantly in speech as he does in his architecture. He readily acknowledges that he was able to use light freely in the two museums he has built, as they are not art galleries. The Musée de l’Historia1 de la Grande Guerre stands close to the Château de Péronne, whose ponderous, disfigured bulk can be seen silhouetted outside from the very first room, like a harbinger of the dreadful battles to follow. Nature also makes its presence felt here: for Ciriani, architecture must complement nature. This ‘light of emotion’ is followed by the ‘light of clarity’, rational, functional and cold, illuminating the story of that murderous war. Wall-paintings, objects, cards and interactive displays tell the tale in a room in which light is projected with precision so as to create a kind of ‘compression’. The last room, bathed in radiant light, conveys the relief felt at the end of the war, and then one emerges into nature rediscovered.

‘Once one has recognized light’s ability to give definition to things which, without it, would have no architectural materiality, it becomes possible to distinguish between different kinds of light’, says Ciriani in conclusion.

Henri Ciriani’s other creation, the Musée de l’Arles Antique, replaced the first museum of Classical Antiquity, established in 1784 in the church of Saint- Honorat des Alyscamps. The curator, Maurice Rouquette, wanted to ‘present a meaningful picture of the town from prehistory to the end of the sixth century’, to put the inhabitants of Arles in contact with their past. He realizes, also, that the town of Arles can only survive today thanks to its heritage, which at- tracts high-level economic activities like

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the Actes Sud publishing house and the Harmonia Mundi record company. The museum, opened in March 1995, is a prestigious symbol of this heritage.

The building stands on a triangular penin- sula on the Canal du Rhône, in the immediate vicinity of the Roman amphitheatre. The twelve years required to devise and implement the project were, according to the two speakers, curator and architect, twelve years of exemplary teamwork, which one would like to think is always the case, to ensure the success of this sort of undertaking. The Mediterranean light on the ancient marble, the colours - the blue of the enamelled glass of the museum’s façade, the white of the reception areas and the terracotta of the walls of the archaeological research centre -were designed by Ciriani

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as reminders of the shy and earth of Provence. The terrace which crowns the building is the finishing touch for this ‘site museum’, allowing visitors to study the landscape, and making them feel part of an area steeped in history.

View of the secoizd gallety of the Mztsée de l’Histo?+al de la Grande Gzierïe, Péronne, France.

For the clearest statement of the crucial role of light in museums, we must turn to Kahn’s description of his museum in Fort Worth:

Natural light is spread inside the concrete arches by a shape that reflects it. This light gives the room the sheen of silver without falling directly on the objects on display, reinforcing the impression of knowing the position of the sun in the sky. W e knew that the museum would be full of surprises. The

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blues would be one thing one day and the next something else, depending on the nature of the light. Nothing is static, like an electric lamp which casts only a speck of light. The museum has changing moods, just as there are different moments in time, and, as long as the museum exists as a building, no single day will resemble any other. . . .

Sometimes the light fades - why shouldn’t it? - and to see something clearly one has to stand closer. . . . A passing cloud gives visitors a feeling of the broader context, reminding them that there is life outside. It expresses painting’s bestowal of life, for I see art as a bestower of life. . . . Light, that great bestower of presence. . . . Natural light is what the painter used in his picture. . . . And the painting can reveal its different facets if we are prepared to look at it in different moods of the light. This is an example of what we mean by the nature ofsomething. Ithinkitis that, really, the nature of a museum’s rooms.’

To quote this architect rather extensively is not only a pleasure - museologists can, in each word, see reflected their routine preoccupations: the quality and effect of the light on the object, as well as its variations which, by changing the aspect of the works, make them more ‘alive’ and the observer more alert; the pictorial vision which might have been that of the artist. Does this not give every visitor the possibility of experiencing for a moment the passionate interest of the collector, who has the privilege of living with the work?

Report by Mathilde Bellaig~ie of the Laboratoire de Recherche des Musées de France.

Note

1. Ln lumière selon Kahn [Light according to Kahn]. Texts chosen and adapted by Christian Devillers (to be published in 1995: Ecrits de Louis I. Kahn [Writings of Louis I. Kahn], Paris, Éditions du Linteau).

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Technology update Multimedia technology and museums

A multimedia application is necessarily interactive and combines sound and image or text on a screen; it may also give rise to transactions. Compact discs are support media capable of holding a considerable volume of information.

A CD-ROM is a 12-cm digital laser disc that can be consulted by means of a computer. A ‘visit’ to its contents is carried out on a small screen at a desk, and it is generally used in the course of searching for information. The CD-i, the CD-Photo and the CD-Portfolio come in the same form as the CD-ROM and are readable via a television set. They can be used in much the same way as video cassettes, with the added bonus of interactivity. The videodisc is a 30-cm analog laser disc. It is used less and less except for certain interactive terminals. Finally, there are multimedia applications that can be consulted from a distance. They are stored on the publisher’s hard disc and sent over a digital network, such as the Internet, to a computer equipped with a modem. Their use is similar to that of an advertising or information message.

Multimedia technology applied to museum collections enables them to be used in a new way, interactivity rendering the viewing spontaneous and personal. The compactness of digital data permits access to a wealth of information that enriches one’s appreciation and understanding of, and learning about, the cultural heritage presented. Computer graphics give new life to objects by constructing a corrected or virtual representation of them.

What should in fact be remembered is that these applications are not intended to replace traditional museum visits but to arouse renewed interest in them.

CD-ROMs diid niuseunas

There are two types of CD-ROM museums can use. The first comprises CD-ROMs for in-house use to improve a display in various ways: works of general interest, reference works, introductions to specific scientific fields and directories of firms and bodies which could contribute to some aspect of the business of the museum. The second comprises CD-ROMs that show collections. Representations of collection pieces are digitized and constitute the CD-ROM data base. The criteria that determine the overall quality of the end- product are the quality of the images, the quality of the commentaries, the quality of the references and that of the content generally.

An example of a successful multimedia application for museums is the Musée de Z’Honznze CD-ROM (F and UK versions!, produced by Havas, ODA and the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle (F). The selection of 800 objects from the anthropological, prehistoric and ethnological collections provides an introduction to the richness of humankind’s common heritage. The possibility of juxtaposing miniature representations and of moving around within the application make this CD- ROM more than a mere exhibition catalogue: it is a very attractive educational tool.

In the same vein, Le Louul-e (F, UK and G versions), coproduced by Montparnasse Multimédia and Réunion des Musées Nationaux, offer a choice of two possibilities: a tour of the Louvre and a look at 100 or so paintings. Each is accompanied by a biography of the artist, a biography of a sovereign or an architect, a general commentary on the work and sometimes a closer study of some of the detail. The scale models of the Louvre, which are accompanied by a

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Technology update

commentary, virtually travel across history. This CD-ROM presents the Louvre Museum in an original manner and is nothing less than a most interesting living encyclopedia.

CD-ROMs on museum exhibits also make it possible to bring together works that are physically scattered. The publishers AKAL (SI and Fernand Hazan (FI, in collaboration with Thames & Hudson Ltd (UK) and Vidéomuséum (F), have issued B e Multimedia Dictionary of Modern and Contempora y Art on CD- ROM. This interactive dictionary contains 2,500 descriptive entries on artists, movements and works from museums, galleries and collections throughout the world.

Computerization of inventories

Before compiling a data base for a CD- ROM it is necessary to draw up an inventory of the pieces making up the collection. For this purpose, an increasing number of museums have adopted inventory-management computer programs, which facilitate the utilization of collections that have in the past been inadequately described or listed, and make it possible to optimize services within the museum. A growing number of these products incorporate digital-image management so as to facilitate documentary access and preserve a record of objects in case of theft, loss or destruction.

The choice of software is made by matching the museum’s specific needs with the software’s distinctive features. The basic uses of programs are for cataloguing, information retrieval, management and the filing of information. The most common supplementary uses are for the automated integration of digital images, remote consultation, management of the movement of objects and management of the museum’s ancillary services.

Maintenance, training, assistance, the frequency of updating, the flexibility of the application and the total number of users are additional criteria that should be taken into account. To give an example: a modern art museum will prefer to inventory its collections on a specialized application program like Vidéomuséum’s GCOLL (F) rather than Willoughby’s Snap! (US), which is a more general collection-management program.

For the computerization of inventories the Société des Musées Québécois (SMQ) has carried out a detailed market study of museographical software’ and has opted for Mobydoc’s Microniusée (FI. Today 160 museums throughout the world use this versatile collection- management software. It exists in English (Welsh National Museums), French (chosen and recommended by the Direction des Musées de France and in Switzerland and Belgium) and shortly Arabic (the Algiers Museum of Antiquity). In addition to the fact that it exists in several languages, it is characterized by a respect for international standards and a concern for adaptability to technological developments that make it an all-round product and even, in the opinion of some, a de facto norm. rn

Note

1. La gestion automatisée des collections: analyse d’applications infornzatiques pour les musées québécois, SMQ, version 2.0, January 1994.

Report by Marine Olsson, technician at the National Centre for Study and Research in Advanced Technologies, Dijon, France, responsible fol- the feasibility study aîid the netuiorkiizg of computerized and photographic inventories of mafieurn collections in the Burgundy regioii.

in t e r m tio n d Correspondence

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