More than looking: how an instrument museum becomes a listening laboratory

Instruments are technical and cultural objects

The musical instruments exhibition at the Deutsches Museum spans the Renaissance to the present and places selected objects in thematic contexts. Its approach is fruitful because instruments are both technical devices and cultural objects. A casing reveals something about materials and manufacture, but not automatically about the music for which it was used. Even familiar categories can be misleading: two keyboard instruments may require similar hand movements yet produce sound in fundamentally different ways. Rather than collecting as many names as possible, it is worth looking closely at individual objects. Where does the person touch the instrument? Which parts vibrate? What can be altered during playing? Such questions create a connection between the visible construction and a musical action that, for the moment, can only be imagined.

Taking the silence of the display case seriously

A historical instrument does not have to be ready to play at all times to remain valuable as a source. Use can conflict with conservation concerns, and a performance today is always a present-day interpretation. The silence of a display case should therefore not be too hastily regarded as a failure of interpretation. It can prompt a search for supplementary sources: illustrations, documentation, recordings or information about comparable instruments. Europeana brings together sound recordings, sheet music and depictions of instruments, among other things, in its music section. This makes it possible to trace the histories of objects beyond individual collections. However, different sources answer different questions. A recording documents a particular sound under particular conditions; a photograph may show a posture; a catalogue entry usually describes only selected features. Only by comparing them can these differences be put to productive use.

A short route rather than a complete tour

For a focused visit, it can make sense to choose three very different instruments. With each one, for example, you can observe how a note begins, how its duration is influenced and what physical movement seems necessary to achieve this. If demonstrations are offered, you can then compare your own assumptions with the audible result. Without a demonstration, questions remain open, which need not be a disadvantage. A brief note recording the object's name and a specific observation is often more useful later than a large collection of images without commentary. You can then pursue more targeted research in digital collections. In this way, the museum becomes not a competition for completeness, but a place for comparative reflection on how people produce sound and what traces this activity leaves behind.

Keep exploring

• Listen more closely, claim less: a culture of attention
• When Lines Sound: Daphne Oram’s Different Vision of Composition
• Searching with patience: making sense of digital music collections