Today I went to visit a new exhibition ant the Museum of Ethnography, that I had my eye on from the beginning of the year. It's a particular one that I wanted to visit because seeing century old instruments in original is not something you bump into every day.
The exhibited items were brought to Targu Mures from Hungary, as these are property of Museum of Ethnography of Budapest, Hungary. The exhibition is open till the 30th of April, if you're passing by and you can find the museum at the interior of the medieval fortress, 5 minutes walking distance from the city center. Ticket is 3€.
As soon as I stepped into the first room I knew I'm going to see something interesting and unique. Then after a minute or two I had to realize it'll be the biggest challenge as well and as a photographer, my skills will be put to test.
Most, if not all the musical instruments were under glass protection, which I understand as quite a few were more than a century old, made of wood, which can deteriorate easily. Protecting such treasure is always a must as you can't just go back and get another one. Here you can see different kind of horns from Finland, Russia, Papua New Guinea, Hungary, Africa and Tibet, collected in the 19th and 20th century.
There were photos on the wall, of musicians from all over the world, playing different instruments. To be able to appreciate the photos, I need to tell you that most of them were taken decades ago, even a century ago. This one was taken in 1955 in Samoa. A man playing music using a conch shell.
Here not only I had to deal with reflection, but the descriptions caused headache as well.
As you can see here, the description was transparent and glued to the glass. Didgeridoo is the long instrument you see on the photo above, it was brought from Australia at the beginning of the 21th century, from the Numbulwar community.
One strange musical instrument after the other and you've seen nothing yet. I'm sorry for the quality of the photos, unfortunately, under the circumstances, this was the best I could do.
While looking at these instruments, I was thinking how these were born. Everything was done manually and most of the instruments were made of wood or some kind of metal.
That wooden piece with the face of a man is a mace used during traditional dance.
This is where you see how inventive people back in those days were. Have you ever wondered how these instruments were invented? People heard the sound those pieces of wood or metal made and used it to create music. This is common today as there are bands using all kinds of objects to create music.
These instruments were brought from Congo, China, Cameroon, Tanzania, Ethiopia, North Africa, Liberia, French Guyana and Indonesia and are from the 19th and 20th century. Although I could not try them out to see how they sound as touching them is never possible, thanks to the 21st century digitization, I could still hear how they sound.
There was a tablet available, where you could listen to short recordings or short videos and hear the sound of the instruments.
These two you can see on the photo above. I must admit, listening to these instruments was a lot of fun. Unusual sound, but still interesting.
A band from Bandung, Indonesia, 1910.
Wind instruments were very popular and look at the design some of them are decorated with.
Some very unusual ones here.
Anklunk from Indonesia, from the middle of the 20th century.
Instruments from Hungary, Russia and Papua New Guinea.
These also looked interesting. Mouth organs from Borneo, Indonesia, from the end of the 19th century.
These are just a few, but imagine putting together an orchestra to play all these instruments. I don't know what kind of music they could play, but would be an interesting concert for sure.
This time I'm not going to ask you which one is your favorite as there's no way you would know, but I hope you liked the photos and that I could show you something new today.
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This is a fascinating post, one of the best I've read today. I would love to see and hear these. I know some of them but these are really cool as artifacts and I think it's a nice touch that they've incorporated the sounds in tablets that you can hear them. Most of these things I've never even heart of before so will go look them up. I think you did a great job with the photos. Reflections off glass always make it tricky.
I'm glad you like it. It felt bad not to be able to record the sound and post it along with the photos, but at least I was able to listen to the recordings.
There were so many cool instruments, some from your country :)
Reflection is always a challenge, especially if the artifacts are under glass. It's killing me but I've learnt to deal with it.
I'm keen to hear some of the ones I don't know. I've had so many people try to teach me to play the didge, but I've never been able to get the circular breathing thing right. It is a freaking cool feeling when it start reverberating though, love it 💙
Beautiful museum, existing musical instruments I also think a little strange🤭 Maybe it's because I saw that instrument for the first time, and that blown one, whether it was some kind of clam
There are a lot of musical instruments we don't know. Imagine how many exists and we have no idea. This is why I liked this exhibition.
You're right, I also actually like unique things, but here there has never been an exhibition performance, of any kind
Oh those are cool instruments from the past and it's just amazing how they preserve it. Putting them in the museum is really a good choice since it can attract tourist and can teach a lessons or more to people about instruments before.
We have a lot also here in the Philippines and I hope I can share it too.
Bring them on as we can all learn from it. This is why it's good to visit museums. School kids are also expected to visit, imagine the fun this means for them.
This is my first time seeing a Museum of Old and Ethnic Instruments.☺️ And some are unusual just like the red one that looks like a big Chili 🌶️.😁 And the one that looks like a basket too with handles on the sides. 🧺 Imagining how creative the ancient people are that made them produce suck kinds of instruments is unbelievably incredible.
I also noticed that several came from Indonesia even the photo of the Music Band. That's amazing.😍
I thought there will be people recognize a few. And I agree, to make them with their rudimentary tools, they needed a lot of skills and creativity. There were quite a lot from Indonesia and from East, in general. Those instruments have traveled to the other side of the world as this is in Europe 😃
Undoubtedly, attending a concert where these instruments are played must be something very interesting to listen to. It is impossible for me to say which one is the most unusual or striking, each one has its appeal. The museum has done a great job in bringing together so many relics from different countries. The photos look very nice. Thank you for sharing them.
I fully agree with you on that, we just need an orchestra and a concert master to make it happen. I would gladly attend. And I'm lucky I could visit this exhibition and learn about these cool instruments.
Wow some of these instruments are quite unique and I have never seen them before. I am laughing at some of the textures but honestly just thinking about the ways how people deal with these stuffs is giving me chills.
Thanks for introducing us to these unique pieces of instruments. Learned something new today!
There were geniuses in the past as well, who make the most of what they had back then. Nowadays musical instruments are made in factories, based on preliminary research, that tells which material is the best, etc. They didn't have that, so their job was much more difficult.
I'm glad you liked it, it's an interesting one.
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@erikah beautifully captured 😍
Thank you!
I don't see a piano here... :D
Wow, a wonderful exhibition, brought from Budapest. I would so much like to have the opportunity to visit these kind of exhibitions. No much of these in the little town where I live now. However, it can be a inspiration to drive a bit to the bigger centres and visit museums 😉
I love the museum, it's great to see how people used musical instruments in the past and to be able to listen to them. Really, sometimes unexpected sounds can come out of musical instruments that we don't expect. I would love to hear them. I will do a research on the internet about this, I am sure there is a site where their voices are shared.