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Classical music in the capital is riding high just now. Musical standards among London orchestras and ensembles are arguably higher than ever. And with ticket sales largely bucking recession trends, widespread fears that concert culture would collapse together with an ailing record industry have proved misplaced.
Meanwhile, best-selling books by psychologists such as Oliver Sacks and neuroscientists such as Daniel Levitin seek to ask why our brains and bodies have always found music's abstract play of pitch and rhythm so deeply expressive of our common humanity.
Yet when it comes to the instruments that have allowed musical culture to flourish down the centuries, the outlook is less rosy: the gallery of musical instruments at the V&A Museum looks certain to close next month in order to make way for an expanded display of the museum's fashion and costume holdings.
While a number of the instruments will remain exhibited as part of other sections — such as the Venetian virginals owned by Elizabeth I which now stand in the Medieval and Renaissance galleries — most of them will be placed in storage, available on request, or distributed among other museums and collections.
Unlike Brussels, Paris and New York, where national instrument collections are displayed centrally, London's rich store of instruments is distributed among several smaller collections. The V&A's collection, of international significance purely by itself, gains in importance in this respect because it is the only collection of historical musical instruments to be housed in a major national museum, thereby attracting general as well as specialist visitors.
Besides the virgin queen's sole surviving keyboard instrument — Elizabeth I was a keen amateur musician as well as an active patron of the art — the jewels in the collection include an ivory oboe and tortoiseshell recorder that belonged to the composer Gioachino Rossini and two pianos owned by the Pre-Raphaelite Edward Burne-Jones, both lovingly decorated by the artist himself.
One of the collection's greatest assets is its visual attractiveness. The V&A was founded as and remains primarily a museum of decorative arts and its musical instrument collection developed around pieces striking for aesthetic as well as historical reasons. As most people visit museums seeking instruction and entertainment for the eye, the collection has for years played a unique role, by appealing first to the eye and then opening an imaginative window on past musical worlds.
There is some good news in the discovery that a proportion of the collection will go to south London's Horniman museum, whose already excellent musical instrument collection will be enriched by the loan. But despite its national status and its considerable charms, the Horniman remains somewhat off the beaten track of London's major visitor attractions.
Music is our common heritage, the oldest and perhaps most deeply engrained form of human culture. The prime physical embodiment of this culture remains the musical instruments which come down to us.
While I understand the V&A's need to keep its focus on its core collections, the decision to close the musical instrument gallery is a mistake. It will deprive many an accidental tourist of past music's rich rewards. Surely our musical heritage deserves better than this.
Reader views (18)
To quote The Simpsons:
"To close it down now would be twisted/
I just learned the thing existed!"
Seriously, to close and disperse a major collection of musical instruments to make way for a fashion display sounds like very poor judgement. I hope the excellent Horniman will get the bulk of it, and trust they will do a better job of making it available to the public (judging by some of the comments above).
- James Eisner, Cambridge UK, 27/01/2010 23:08
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I think that the Instruments that would be put in storage
be given to the St Cecelia's Hall collection in Edinburgh.
- David E Resnick, Red Bank, NJ, USA, 27/01/2010 21:59
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Please stop being swayed by the emotive tone of this article and read what's going to happen: the instruments will be "placed in storage, available on request, or distributed among other museums and collections". Museums, galleries and libraries are possessed of finite space and have no option but to bow to public demand in terms of what is made available for the casual visitor to view. How else can they get visitors through the doors? - the only means by which they can measure impact. What cannot be put on display is placed 'behind the scenes', conserved, and made available to researchers. No-one is throwing these instruments away. Instead, other areas of the collection that have been stored away will now be visible to you.
- Emma Coonan, Cambridge, UK, 26/01/2010 21:13
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I visited the V&A Museum many years ago and am saddened
to learn of their closing the V&A Instrument Gallery.
There are enough costume and clothing textile collections
anywhere to go around for all, but such a rare and
unique collection of instruments as in the V&A museum is one of a kind and great loss to any student of applied music or student of the arts.
- J. Wesley Krulic, Pharm D, Savannah, Georgia, 25/01/2010 18:12
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I made the mistake of visiting the V&A Instrument Gallery just after having spent a day at the Horniman, and they're really not at all comparable. The Horniman collection was thoughtfully arranged and labeled, while the V&A's was dingy and minimally informative. Yes, it's a shame for the instruments themselves to be removed from display, but when the display is so shoddy in comparison to others nearby, I can absolutely understand the choice. Give the lot to the Horniman and see what they can do with it!
- Sarah, USA, 19/01/2010 16:44
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This is a great shame as the collection was very varied. I wonder what will happen to the decorated Stradivari violin which was there. I must say, though, that the V&A have done their best to discourage people from seeing the collection. While working in the area a few years ago, I tried several times to see it during lunch breaks, but was told on a number of occasions that it was shut.
- Andrew Morris, London, 19/01/2010 16:08
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This collection was on my "must see" list! Women's fashions... instead? Hard to think of going out of my way for that. Perhaps the Discovery Channel, will do a program on the instruments, complete with talented musicians playing them, scientific analysis, and commentary on their history and evolution. Then I'll be able to enjoy them a bit at least, from home!!!
- Robert Rose, .Chardon, Ohio U.S.A., 18/01/2010 22:03
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A very worthy cause indeed. But, for the record, the national collection of the United States is not in New York -- where the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a private institution -- but in Washington, at the Smithsonian Institution.
- Roger Evans, New York, NY, U.S.A., 18/01/2010 18:08
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This news is sad indeed. I have always treasured visits to the V&A Museum, and the Musical Instrument collection was, for me, the high-point in terms of objects displayed and the elegance and detail of the galleries' presentation. I cannot fathom a mind-frame that would willingly disperse such a collection, let alone to provide more space for fashion and costume displays, which are already so well served by other institutions. As the man in the street becomes increasingly removed from the idea that music is informed by profound beauty both sonic and visual, I would hope a museum would increase, rather than erase, its commitment to the place where the creation of sounds finds physical manifestation. I am glad that the Horniman collection may benefit from some of this, although I'm not sure how definitive that will be since the article refers to that distribution as a loan.
- James Keller, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, 18/01/2010 17:43
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I have visited and been marvelled by the musical instrument collection at the V&A since my university days. It's a superb collection -- including some beguiling curiosities -- which has always been attractively and prominently displayed. I think it's an error of judgment to take it down and disperse it.
- Daniel Hathaway, Cleveland, OH, 18/01/2010 16:07
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This collection was one of the first things I went to see on my visits to London. I do not think a costume display would be on my list of things to do in London.
- Danis Kelly, milwaukee, WI USA, 18/01/2010 13:57
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Closing the Musical Instrument gallery at the V&A would be a huge mistake, for once there is no longer a central place for people to 'view' this priceless collection we will lose the focus and the sense of enormous importance these instruments have to our national heritage. Separately each piece is hugely invaluable to our musical history, but together, the energetics of this collection is awesome! Please do not distroy even more of our nations great heritage. And for musicians, where else can they go to view such an amazing collection all under one roof.
- Suzie Litton-Wood, Alfreton, 18/01/2010 10:51
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Myself and some fellow musicians have tried on more than one occassion to visit this exhibition without success. Now we have learned that it is closing.
In all honesty, this comes as no surprise as it has not been readily available to visitors for some years.
I have heard that it was an outstanding collection which appeals to new and established musicians alike.
In my humble opion, the decision to close it is a travesty.
- Scott Houghton, Oakley, Hampshire. ENGLAND., 16/01/2010 14:56
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I have visited the V&A musical instrument gallery regularly since 1990 spending a considerable time there whilst studying for my degree and more recently my MA. I've had the privilege and shame of viewing and photographing instruments in the reserve collection, some of which have been left to deteriorate succumbing to substantial worm damage. I have watched the gallery open times be reduced to the point when it is closed more than it is open. I am ashamed and disappointed by the V&A's decision but believe it is time to find the funding and central London location (or other major UK city)to house this and other musical instrument collections. In the UK, London (in particular) has a great heritage of musical instrument makers and composers. Perhaps it is time we recognise this.
- Mike, London, 15/01/2010 23:14
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I suppose it is a sad fact of culture that women's fashions are held in higher esteem than musical instruments. It is even more sad that the V&A's important and beautiful collection of instruments will suffer this diaspora. While access to the instruments at the V&A has never been easy, putting much of the collection into storage makes it even less accessible. This is a serious blow to researchers and instrument makers, and unfortunate testament to the V&S's priorities.
- David Jensen, Bloomington, USA, 15/01/2010 15:23
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Copy of an email sent to the V and A Museum:
I have only just heard of the closure of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s historic musical instrument collection.
I have never been able to visit the collection, and probably never would have been, but this closure is nothing short of outrageous. And, as I understand it, to make space for a pop fashion collection. I would have thought that music, and its history, were of crucial and ongoing interest to the British. Even abroad we show an avid interest in Britain’s rich musical culture and heritage. Apparently not so the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The Victoria and Albert Museum management has proved to the international community that, indeed Britain is a nation of shopkeepers, and that the Victoria and Albert Museum management is certainly among them.
- Robert Moore, Melbourne, Australia, 14/01/2010 23:10
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Absolutely shocking! Futhermore the notion of splitting the collection its totally non-sensical. Very disappointed with the level of cultural management shown by what I thought was a leading country in cultural matters. I am having a «lucidity moment»...
- Jorosa, Palmela, Portugal, 14/01/2010 19:15
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I have visited the V&A Instrument Gallery many times, both in my student years in London decades ago and in my many more recent visits to London. I always quoted it as an absolute must for any musician visiting England. I strongly believe that, no matter how well the instruments are re-distributed elsewhere, closing the Gallery is a mistake and a serious loss for the early-music world, I mean worldwide, not just for London residents or visitors.
Claudio Di Veroli,
harpsichordist
- Claudio Di Veroli, Bray, Rep. Ireland, 14/01/2010 18:53
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