General abbreviations

Pitch

Classification Methodology

History of the Collection

Performers

Terminology and Glossary

Bibliography

Instruments in the Collection

This project came about as a result of creating a general inventory of instruments in the possession of Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University, as part of my role as Instrument Custodian. Although at the time my prime concern was to care for the many modern instruments which were in everyday use by students, the significant number of historical instruments which my job had inherited began to take up increasing amounts of my time and interest. Consulting the previous inventories of 1953, 1973 and 1994, I attempted to locate the instruments listed and to re-catalogue them noting as much information about each item as I could. This process, which was undertaken during the summers of 1999 and 2000, only went as far as simple description of the instrument classification, type and maker, and time prevented me from any serious research. The scale of the present project could only have been made possible by the funds awarded to the University by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The AHRC funded project goes much further than a simple check-list of items, recording details of the instruments which will be of equal use and interest to the academic, instrument maker, and amateur enthusiast. Specifically, the project identifies all of the historical musical instruments in the Collection, examines existing inventories and checklists made hitherto, and identifies the existing instruments against this documentation, describes and measures each instrument and, where possible, establishes its provenance. Photographs were taken of the majority of the instruments, not only for purposes of identification but also to record and illustrate specific features of each instrument, whether common or unusual. Complementing these particulars are many sound recordings of some of the playable instruments in the Collection. These recordings were made by specialist performers in the field of period instruments. They also made numerous comments on the instruments from a player’s perspective. All of the specialist performers showed an admirable amount of patience when playing the instruments, most of which were not in as good a condition as their modern reproductions.

For all enquiries regarding the Historical Instrument Collection and the HIC website, please contact the Instrument Curator, Martin Perkins