Treasure-trove Of Musical Instruments

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32322, 13 June 1970, Page 4

Treasure-trove Of Musical Instruments

Old Musical Instruments. By Gybrgy Gabry, Translated by Eva Raez. Corvina Press. 29 pages of text, catalogue, 48 pages of illustrations. The National Museum of Hungary, possesses a collection of musical instruments that for historical importance and value is unique. Many valuable gifts of early instruments have been made at. various times, but the collection achieved real importance in 1902 when the Hungarian painter, Istvan Delhaes, bequeathed to the Museum over 50 old instruments, chiefly string instruments made by Italian and German masters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including lutes and a few keyboard instruments. Later the firm of Schunda presented nearly 100 old instruments, mostly wind-instruments, including some rare examples of eighteenth century Hungarian craftsmanship. In this small, beautifully-produced book, the author has grouped the instruments into their • particular categories and then has described each instrument with infinite care, giving its historical significance and any anecdote of special interest. Finally each instrument is illustrated, sometimes in colour, showing the exquisite workmanship and beauty of materials used in earlier centuries. Perhaps the rarest piece in the collection is an old cornet dated about 1600. Of carved ivory, 23 inches long, it is bent in the form of an arc of almost octagonal shape—its lines are simple and beautiful, and it was probably very difficult to play.

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Another instrument of historical importance and great beauty is the virginal, thought to have been made for Catherine of Brandenburg in 1617, when she was 13 years old. Closed, it looks like an ornamental chest with a velvet cushion top—opened, it reveals itself to be a fine and beautiful instrument. The childhood harpsichord of Joseph HapsbUrg 11, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, was donated to the Museum in 1875. The external beauty of this rare instrument indicates its distinguished origin—the keys are covered with mother-of-pearl, tortoise shell and ebony; figures playing music are painted on ivory tablets attached to the front. It was this type of instrument of the mid-1700’s that was fully suited to the chamber music of the eighteenth century, and in fact, Haydn, Mozart and the young

Beethoven used similar specimens when composing. Then there are beautful lutes, harps, lyre-guitars, all superbly shaped and inlaid with mother-of-pearl and tortoise-shell. An unusual bowed instrument is the baritone, in use for only a short time and in a relatively small circle. This one belonged to Miklos Esterhazy the Magnificent who played this difficult instrument well, and in his service Haydn wrote over 100 works for it It has seven bowed and 10 plucked strings and the head is a typical Hungarian male head carved complete with moustache and shako. Each one of these beautiful instruments in the Museum represents in the highest degree the skill of each maker and attests to the care and attention that were lavished on this specialist work. This is a delightful book.