Orpheon Foundation
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VENERABLE AMBASSADORS
FROM A DISTANT CULTURE
The following plan has been conceived in light of a study of over thirty museums of musical instruments all over the world, which we carried out several years ago.
Museums of musical instruments in general do not attract the general public at all. (Only very few are interested in the measurements of a Stradivari violin!). Therefore, if this museum were to be successful, considerable imagination and creativity need to be employed in order to make a visit to the museum truly unforgettable for any individual, regardless of his previous background in music or the fine arts. Our museum has to be experienced through all five senses in a very spectacular way. Below, you will find a sketch of the overall plan of the displays, which will give you an indication of what our visitors will experience.
Again, our plans for the total integration of the museum with the communities of the region, ideas drawn from the dynamic - almost aggressive, in a marketing sense - initiatives of the Shrine to Music Museum (South Dakota, USA), will set a path for others institutions to follow. These include aspects like the collegium musicum, membership to the museum, school programs and the concert series.
The Foundation
The purpose of the Orpheon Foundation is:
-to collect, restore and preserve historical musical instruments of the 16th, 17th and 18th Century
-to insure that these musical instruments remain in the hands of professional musicians, by making them available for concerts, recordings and study purposes
-to support and promote research on these instruments and their music
-to organise concerts, exhibitions, lectures, seminars, etc.
Vienna, on the 1st of January, 2003
Prof. José Vázquez
University of Music and the Performing Arts Vienna, Austria
Orpheon Foundation
Praterstrasse 13/1/3, A-1020 Vienna, Austria
Tel./Fax: +431--21 430 21
homepage:
MEMORANDUM
The ideas of this project are based on the study of over thirty museums of musical instruments all over the world.
Two museums in particular :
- Musée d’Unterlinden in Colmar, France
Two necessary conditions destined this to be one of the most successful museums in the world. First, the location: in Alsace, where no other competition is to be found . Second, the large number of tourists crossing Alsace every year. Third, the fact that this museum posesses one work of art, the Isenheimer Altar by Grünewald, that everyone simply must see. During the summer months five thousand tourists visit the museum every day, yielding sufficient revenues for the functioning of the museum throughout the year.
- The Toy Museum in Prague
This museum, owing its existence to the mere whim of one rich American, is only successful because it is located directly on the main square in Prague, which guarantees a large number of visitors.
Museums of musical instruments do not attract the general public at all. (Only very few tourists are interested in the measurements of a Stradivarius violin!)
Our museum is different!
If this museum were to be successful, a considerable imagination and creativity need to be employed in order to make a visit to the museum truly unforgettable for any individual, regardless of his previous background in music or the fine arts. Our museum has to be experienced through all five senses in a very spectacular way. Below, you will find a sketch of the overall plan of the displays, which will give you an indication of what our visitor will experience.
Again, our plans for the integration of the museum with the communities of the region, ideas drawn from the dynamic - almost aggressive initiatives, in a marketing sense, of the Shrine to Music Museum (South Dakota, USA), will set a path for other institutions to follow. These include aspects like the collegium musicum, membership to the museum, school programs and the concert series.
Orpheon Foundation
Praterstrasse 13/1/3, A-1020 Vienna, Austria
Tel./Fax: +431--21 430 21
homepage:
MUSEUM OF HISTORICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Tasks of the museum:
-Open to the general public throughout the year
-Concerts in the museum: daily or as need requires (weekends: several a day)
-Exhibitions of the collections locally and abroad
-School Program:
bringing the schools to the museum
bringing the museum to the schools
- Research on and experimenting with new ways of promoting these instruments, their music and their heritage
-Publications, educational materials
-Audio-visual materials: production of music compact discs, videos, dvd
-Colloquia, seminars, congresses at the museum
-Library on instruments, music, art, history (available to the public)
-Museum shop
- Museum cafe
ACADEMY FOR HISTORICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Tasks of the Academy
-Designs plan of studies: curriculum for historical performance practice
-Appoints the faculty
-Selects the students
-Awards scholarships
-Integrates studies with the music conservatories of the region
-Conducts joint projects with local/foreign institutions (universities) working in the region
-Collegium Musicum: program for local citizens of the host city for participation in choirs, orchestras, smaller ensembles directed by the faculty members of the Orpheon Academy.
-International competitions
-Program: Music to the schools of the region
-Library for performance: practical and theoretical, music history
-Concert activities
The staff of the Museum and the teachers of the Academy would like to plan and carry out concerts throughout the year. This may include a series of concerts dedicated exclusively to music of the church, both in large and small formations. Works like the Messiah by Händel and the Passions by Bach may be included in this series. Other series could present orchestral repertoire of the Baroque and Early Classical Periods, chamber music of the Renaissance and Baroque, etc. It would be our wish to work closely with the local authorities to co-ordinate the planning of these series.
WORKSHOP FOR THE RESTORATION OF
HISTORICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Tasks of the Workshop
-Restores the musical instruments in the collections
-Designs the plans of musical instruments in the collections
-Builds copies of historical instruments
-Teaches building of historical instruments
-Teaches restoration of historical instruments
-Publications, research
-Establishment of a “philosophy of restoration” of our museum
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Orpheon Foundation
Praterstrasse 13/1/3, A-1020 Vienna, Austria
Tel./Fax: +431--21 430 21
homepage:
MUSEUM: OUTLINE OF THE DISPLAY HALLS
- San Francesco
This is the first station on the visit to the museum, where the guests are greeted, informed on what they are about to experience. The hall has three-dimensional projecting equipment which reproduces a cloister of the 13th-14th Century and the tympanum of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The displays contain replicas of all the mediaeval instruments seen on that tympanum.
Audio equipment plays laude and mediaeval instrumental music which could have been played and sung by pilgrims coming to Santiago in the 13th and 14th Centuries.
Basic idea for our visitor: music elevates the human soul, praises God.
- Urbino: Studiolo/Hall
Replica of a hall in the Ducal Palace of Urbino. Instruments on Renaissance chairs, facsimile of music on Renaissance table, portraits of the Dukes of Urbino, musicians at court, Raffaello’s portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, quotes from Il Corteggiano about the music of Urbino.
Audio equipment plays the music described by Castiglione.
Basic idea: Music is an integral part of the education of a nobleman, like languages, study of history, literature, painting
- The Legend of Orfeo
Projecting equipment recreates a landscape in Arcadia, Greek temple. Portraits of Orfeo by major renaissance and baroque artist. The Legend of Orfeo is told / shown. This room contains several of the instruments associated with Orfeo: the lyra da braccio, violin, Greek harp or lyre, etc. Audio equipment plays music: Monteverdi’s Orfeo – overture, Aria: “Possente spirto”, etc.
- The Legend of Saint Cecilia
Paintings of the saint by various artists of the renaissance and the baroque. Instruments associated with the saint: viola da gamba, clavichord, cembalo, lute.
Audio: Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day by Händel, Purcell, others.
- Kuhnau: the Biblical Sonatas
Programmatic music by Kuhnau for harpsichord with narrator (text available in various languages): for example, the Story of David and Goliath, set to music. Paintings by Caravaggio and others.
Audio: Kuhnau: David and Goliath
- Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Video of the four seasons, as experienced in various locations of the region, including birds in spring, river, storm scene, dog, etc. On display: instruments associated with Vivaldi’s orchestra at La Pietà: Italian violins, violas, violoncellos, harpsichord, lute, mandolin.
Audio: Vivaldi The Four Seasons (DVD)
- Bach: The Orchestra of Cöthen
The Palace of Cöthen, Bach, musicians at court. On display: all the instruments used by Bach in the works written in this period: strings, viola da gamba, harpsichords, trumpets, oboes, flutes...
Audio: Brandenburg concertos, Orchestral Suites, works for violin, viola da gamba, cembalo, etc.
- Marais: The Operation of the Bladder Stone
The hall reproduces an operation room of the baroque, reproductions of paintings of surgical operations. Medical implements and tools of that period.
Audio: Marais, “The Operation of the Gall Stone”, narrated in Italian, English, German, French, perhaps even Japanese!
- Viola da gamba Consort
A computer screen shows the musical score of a work for three viole da gamba. A soprano, a tenor and a bass viola da gamba on display behind glass. An apparatus with three levers, each controlling the volume of one of the three instruments. The visitor can vary the loudness of each of the three instruments independently, while reading the musical score of the piece being played, and experience what this does to the composition.
Music: viola da gamba trio by Bassano, Holborne, Byrd...
The same with a string quartet (see below)
- Hall of Glory
The finest instruments of the collections are displayed each in their own “altar”, with descriptions, information as to origin, maker, etc. These will include names like Amati, Testore, Maggini, Linarolo, etc. The lighting in the display case turns on when approached by the visitor, dims when he moves away from the case.
Music: recordings with each particular instrument via headphones.
- Haydn at Esterhazy
Recreation of the hall of the Palace of Esterhazy, where Haydn was Capellmeister for many years. Portraits of the Palace, of Haydn, Prince Esterhazy. Ambience created with chairs and tables from the classical period, facsimile music on wooden stands with candles, wax figure of a servant with wine, etc
Instruments on display: baryton, viola, violin, violoncello, violone.
Audio: Trios for baryton, viola and basso.
- String Quartet
Same as in Nr. 10, but this time with a string quartet. Four levers to adjust the sound of each instrument.
Music: Quartett by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven
- The Music of the Spheres
The main hall of the museum, where concerts would normally be held. Subdued light, three or four spotlights: on a detail of a fresco on ceiling, on a detail of the fireplace, on a renaissance viola da gamba. A set of reclining egg-shell chairs which can be tilted backwards, for relaxing. The visitors learn about Athanasius Kircher, Kepler and the “Music of the Spheres”: how the Renaissance composers studied the movements of the planets and tried to reproduce this celestial harmony in the proportions of their music, how each voice moved independently, yet harmonized with all other voices, etc. On the ceiling, a projection of the planets coming and going, moving with different speeds according to the relative density or thinness of the musical composition (a special computer programme). A very quiet and relaxing experience for our visitors!
These are only some of the ideas that will make a visit to the museum an unforgettable experience for our guests. The halls and displays may be changed at various times of the year.
The daily concerts will take place in the large hall (“Music of the Spheres”), which should accommodate around 100 to 200 listeners. This concert can take place in the morning, afternoon or in the evening. Most likely we will have to experiment during the first few seasons to see what best suits the public.
Other parts of the museum include:
-Video room
-Historical displays (What is a baroque violin? What is a viola da gamba? Etc.)
-For the children:
Touch and play room: how does a harpsichord work? A fortepiano? Play a violin, a viola da gamba, etc.
-Lecture room / Master class room
-Library: books, music, recordings; with audio equipment
-Recording studio (perhaps permanently installed in the concert hall or in another hall)
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