A museum of music?
There are museums of all sorts, and it seems wherever you go, you will find a museum dedicated to something that you might never thought would be in a museum. We have Art Museums, Natural History Museums, Science and Industry Museums, Air and Space Museums, etc. The list goes on. Did you know, however, that there is a Music Museum? It’s true! The National Museum of Music was started as a partnership between the university of South Dakota, providing staff and facilities and the Board of Trustees of the NNM, a non-profit organization that handles acquisitions, and exhibiting, and programming.
The museum is located in a complex that incorporates a building that was originally the university’s library, as well as a concert hall, a specialized library, a laboratory for the conservation and restoration of the instruments. The library can boast, in its collection, some of the rarest musical instruments in the world, including not one, nut two 18th century grand pianos with the same type of action designed by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who is credited with inventing the pianoforte. One was actually build in 1767 in Portugal built in France in 1781 is the earliest extant French grand piano. The keyboard collection also contains harpsichords, clavichords, virginals, and even a “Military” piano, with pedals used to mimic the sound of drums, cymbals, bells, etc.
The museum is not just about keyboard instruments, though. There are exhibits on just about every type of instruments, including: plucked-string instruments, Percussion, Electric and Electronic (which includes electric guitars, synthesizers, and Theremins), Mechanical (music boxes, nickelodeons, player pianos) brass instruments that date back to the pre-Renaissance, folk and indigenous instruments, musical toys, bowed strings, and free-reed instruments, including accordions and harmonicas!
In addition to instruments, the NNM has an expansive collection of archival materials and musical related objects, including violin making tool, over 1,000 brass instrument mouthpieces from every turn of the century manufacturer, early harpsichord and pianoforte tuning hammers. Scholars from around the world make frequent use of the museum’s collections and facilities. The museum provides an important opportunity for student to work with experts on the latest scholarship on musical research.
Discovery Saturday takes place on the first Saturday of every month and features tours and activities for participants of all ages, as well as music storytime, featuring interesting stories about the various instruments and the composers who wrote for them and played them.
The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm, and is located on the University of South Dakota campus, 14 East Clark St. at the corner of Clark and Yale in Vermillion SD, 57069 and their website is NMMUSD.ORG. You can call them ar (605) 658-3450.
If you’re planning a trip out west, maybe a stop in South Dakota might be just the place if you’re a music lover, which you are, since you are reading the WBJC Newsletter.
