If “Music is the language of the soul,” the Musical Instrument Museum speaks it fluently. The MIM, as it’s known, is home to more than 8,000 musical instruments from every country on the planet and calls itself the world’s only global music museum.
Wonder what a theremin sounds like or even what it is? Put on your headset and watch and listen as virtuoso Clara Rockmore brings this custom-built instrument to life, moving her hands between two antennae to control pitch and volume. You’ll learn the history behind the instrument, the artist, and even see what she wore as she toured the USA with major symphonic orchestras in the 1930s.
The MIM’s interactive technology instantly syncs your headset to any video screen you stand before, allowing guests to see, hear and experience instruments we may never have even heard of, let alone seen and heard being played!
Throughout the museum, thousands of instruments– historic, rare and sometimes common place– are displayed along with clothing, costumes, cultural artifacts, maps, and most importantly, information that gives perspective to the ceremonies, rituals and the role in everyday life the instruments play. The videos that accompany each exhibition take visitors on a musical journey to countries and cultures around the world and sometimes, back in time.
We started our visit at the MIM’s special exhibition, Treasures: Legendary Musical Instruments. Rare, historically significant and stunningly beautiful instruments from around the world, spanning thousands of years of musical history, are on display along with videos that allow you to hear these incredible instruments being played.
Nowhere else will you experience the sounds and sight of a Salpinx, an ancient Greek trumpet (300 BCE-200 CE) believed to be the only one of its kind still in existence! You’ll see and hear renowned musician Jake Shimabakuro play a Kumu tenor ukulele handcrafted of Koa wood, mahogany, mother-of pearl, ebony, turquoise, abalone and onyx, built specifically for him. View fragments of a 4,500-year-old lyre from Ur, Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), along with the oldest intact guitar on earth, and Jimi Hendrix’s iconic Black Widow guitar.
The collection includes a 1584 harpsichord from Belgium made from wood, bird quill, iron, felt, paper and paint, and anthropomorphic harps from the Ngandi people of the Central African Republic (1850-1875). There are fiddles, mandolins, drums, bells, lutes, and flutes– some shown being played by world-class musicians. In the center of it all is a spectacular bronze-gilded grand piano built by the Erard Company in Paris for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, where the Eiffel Tower was introduced to the world.
Next door to Treasures, the Artist Gallery features musicians from nearly every genre you can think of from hip hop to country. Missed Woodstock? The MIM has it covered with instruments, costumes, memorabilia and video of that epic event thanks to donations by people who performed there including Carlos Santana, Joan Baez and John Sebastian.
The white, marine pearl Swingerland drum set the legendary Buddy Rich played many times on The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson (also a drummer by the way) is here. So is the Steinway piano John Lennon composed Imagine on and the guitar Eric Clapton used to record Layla. Country music fans will find the Chet Atkin’s Signature electric archtop guitar donated by Duane Eddy and hear Glen Campbell strumming, singing and playing the bagpipes, via video at the MIM.
Elvis Presley, Dick Dale, Black Eyed Peas, Johnny Cash and Maroon 5 are just a few of the artists sharing the spotlight in this enormous gallery which rotates its 40 exhibitions to include music icons from around the world.
In the Mechanical Music Gallery, the MIM has treasures ranging from intricate music boxes to player pianos to my personal favorite, the orchestrion named Apollonia. Built in 1926 in Antwerp, she is 25 feet wide, seven feet tall and weighs two tons. After retiring from a career touring the dance halls of Europe, Apollonia was refurbished in 1950 and found her way to the USA. Now she entertains MIM’s visitors daily at noon and 3 p.m. How extraordinary to experience the same music played on identical instruments audiences enjoyed nearly one hundred years ago!
Upstairs, in the Geographic Galleries, you’ll tour the world through music—the bridge that connects us all. Start in Africa, where human civilization began, and wind your way through the continent from Angola to Zimbabwe.
Stunning stringed instruments, drums, Nigerian bronze bells from the eighth century, an enormous 18- key xylophone from Ghana, Ngoni lutes from Mali, and more held our attention as we traveled from country to country learning about cultures, languages and the music people make a world away from our home. Move on to the Middle East then continue your tour through Asia.
Cross the seas to Oceania and Latin America. Experience Europe’s musical treasures–opera, ballet and orchestral instruments and performances– and finally, explore genres from country to classical to jazz and even marching band music in North America. Who knew Elkhart, Indiana played such a significant role in our musical history?
Personally, I was astounded to see how musical instruments traveled and evolved across borders and through time. We saw bagpipes in one form or another, made from materials ranging from fabric to animal skin, not only from Scotland, but also Tunisia, Croatia, Slovakia, France, Spain, Romania and Sweden.
Though closely associated with the Scottish Highlands, bagpipes have been around for 2,000 years and may have originated in Turkey, according to the MIM.
Don’t leave the MIM before stopping in the Experience Gallery where visitors of all ages are not only invited but encouraged to make their own kind of music.
Bang a gong, play a zither, try your hand at the theremin or Javanese gamelan. Join your friends around the communal drum and make a joyful noise! Express your own ‘Language of the Soul”—after all, that’s what this magnificent museum is all about. Learn more at mim.org.
Note: Treasures: Legendary Musical Instruments was a special exhibition that has closed since I originally posted this article, but the majority of the rare instruments highlighted in the exhibit are part of MIM’s permanent collection and can still be seen and experienced at the museum.