Hello, everyone.

Today I would like to write about Musical Instrument Museum in Berlin (founded in 1888; Musikinstrumenten-Museum), for some keyboards in its collection are just too intriguing.

(At least intriguing enough for me; I have an old piano)

I again found all of pictures from Flickr's Creative Commons:

(By bsktcase, Flickr ID)



(By M Kuhn, Flickr ID)

These two are just to show Berlin. : )


(By Hustinetten, Flickr ID)

This is the museum.



(By J.P. Dalbéra)

It is a clevincin by Gaveau (harpsichord), but why does it have so many pedals?



(By J.P. Dalbéra)

This also is a clevincin by Pleyel, but still it has six pedals.


(By melomania-music notes, Flickr ID)


(By melomania-music notes, Flickr ID)

This piano has the Janko keyboard system.

If you are interested, you can read about this keyboard by clicking this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janko_keyboard

Why don't today's piano manufacturers use this keyboard system?


(By Ragtimer, Flickr ID)

I don't know how to play this organ... ;(

(By melomania-music notes, Flickr ID)


(By melomania-music notes, Flickr ID)


(By melomania-music notes, Flickr ID)


(By melomania-music notes, Flickr ID)

Is this an instrument that has two harpsichord keyboards?

I am sorry that I cannot find much aboudt it...


(By Mike Kamermans)

I like this string instrument. : D


(By melomania-music notes, Flickr ID)

This piano is also intriguing, mostly because its shape is so... eccentric.


(By melomania-music notes, Flickr ID)

If you have ever visited this museum or quite knowledgeable about historical instruments, then please kindly leave comments or explain about some of these mysterious instruments. : )

Thank you. : )

I enjoyed this. I lived in Berlin for five years and walked by this museum a hundred times, but never went in. It's right next to (part of) the Philharmonic complex. I enjoy the architecture of those buildings a whole lot.

Thank you for posting.

Great collection.
Thanks for posting!

gorgeous!

Avantgardenabi, I have visted the museum but can't offer any additional information on the instruments. Thanks for posting, though, and bringing back the memories!

I've been to the museum a few times - it is a great place to visit.

The large number of pedals on the harpsichords you showed are to change registers (instead of little levers next to the keyboards) - not that uncommon on more modern harpsichords (after all, the ones you refer to are from the 19th century).

The harpsichord with two keyboards at an angle is actually a harpsichord with a spinett (not in the US use of the term for an undersized piano) attached to it.

Grand pianos with a symmetric shape have been made by a number of manufacturers. I think Schmimmel also made on in the 1950's or 60's.

One thing to note is that the museum is the exhibit of the collection belonging to the State Insitute for Research in Music (Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung), so it actually is a research institution as well.

The museum also has a working exhibit of a full size cinema organ which gets played occasionally ( Wurlitzer Organ ).

If you ever go to Berlin, go and see it (it is right next to the Philharmonie and very close to the Gemäldegalerie (one of the best exhibitions of painting up to about 1800 I have ever seen) and the Neue Nationalgalerie as well as the Kunstgewerbemuseum, and only about 10 minutes by public transport from the Museuminsel (the museum quarters with the Pergamon Altar, the Nophretete, the Ishtar-Gate from Babylon, the market gate from Milet to name only the most famous exhibits).

Thank you, mjs. (and everyone)

Yes, by reading the only description written by pictures' author, I knew that those harpsichords are from 1923 (Gaveau) and 1888~1891 (Pleyel), but I never saw harpsichords with pedals.

Your explanation was the most helpful. Can you tell me more about the piano (?) on the last picture?

It seems that the action in this piano is actually a downstroke action, given its shape.

Thanks again!

I visited there few years ago myself - interesting place allright!

Best piece is the monstrous player piano in basement which starts playing by itself from time to time...

Of course you can't touch any of the other instruments but what started to really bugging me was the guard inconspiculously following me from behind.

Eventually I turned around quickly and asked him head on: "did you work on the Berlin wall before?"

To my shock and amazement he answered "yes"

Never found out if the guy was serious....

Norbert

Das war kein Witz, der meinte das ernst :p

Very impressive I found this thing called Glasharmonika:



The glas rolls through water and you play the glasses with your wet fingers. Here you can here how it sounds like (click on the red speaker symbol):

http://www.sim.spk-berlin.de/glasharmonika_774.html

Gregor