BRUSSELS
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MUSEUM
Musical Fascination and "Old England" Art Nouveau
On
a recent trip to Brussels, not my first, but the first in a long time,
I had just left the new Magritte Museum at the Royal Fine Arts Museum
(see Magritte
Museum) on the Hofberg Square and got into a conversation
with a group of Brits who’d come over to Brussels from London on
the Eurostar for a quick weekend holiday. The conversation began with
an
inquiry who was the fellow on the horse, a great statue of green bronze
of Godfrey of Boullion, the medieval knight on steed with
sword raised, a national hero of Belgium who sold his hereditary lands
in the southern Ardennes (see Godfrey
of Bouillon Crisader Castle) and
went off on crusade to wind up as the first “King of Jerusalem”.
The conversation turned to what else might they do with their short time
in Brussels, what was not to be missed. I mentioned a few things I had
discovered, but was only beginning discoveries. As it happened, I might
have suggested where I found myself, next just a short half block away.
The
Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) of Brussels has been part of the Royal
Museums since only 1992, but the collection originated in 1877 as
part of the Music Conservatory for music students to see examples of
ancient instruments as part of their instruction. The private holdings
of a celebrated Belgian musicologist and the first director of the conservatory,
François-Joseph Fétis, joined with a hundred instruments
from India presented to King Leopold II in 1876 by the Rajah Sourindro
Mohun Tagore.
The collection grew over time until by 1924 it had over
3,000 instruments and took a catalogue of five volumes to describe. By
the 1970s the collections was housed in fifteen separate buildings all
over Brussels, until the Old England Building on the Hofberg Montagne
de la Cour hill near the Royal Art Museum was purchased in 1978. The
Old England building is as much a fascinating museum example as the instruments
it contains. One of the gems of the Art Nouveau movement, built in
1899, designed by architect Paul Saintenoy, the Old England is seven
stories of filigreed iron work, brass, steel, wood and glass in that
purely distinctive unmistakable style which flourished in Brussels architecture
at the turn
of the last century.
The
museum collection is a wonder of some of the most curious of musical
instruments over the ages, from sitars to bagpipes, player pianos, Bohemian
accordions to tribal gourds, as well as the familiar classics of orchestral
instrumentation, horns, clarinets, flutes and drums. When many museums
have audio guides with a voice droning on about the various exhibits
to be found on display, slipping on the headphones at the Musical Instrument
Museum takes you on a aural rhythmic journey like no other.
As you approach
each instrument display the audio guide plays the sound of the instruments,
most instructive when combined with the written historic description
of the instrument’s use and origin. The museum on each floor is
filled with fascinated students of music pouring over the origins of
the discipline. For a little bit of curious entertainment, if you move
quickly through the exhibits, the changing sound of each instrument quickly
passing one to the next makes for a cacophonous symphony of random dadaist
orchestration. Not what was intended and shh! don’t tell them I
mentioned it.
Visiting the MIM Musical Instrument Museum
The museum is open Tuesdays thru Sundays until 4:45pm with ticket sales
ending by 4pm. Admission cost is €5 for Adults, €4 for seniors, €1.50
students, higher education music students can get in free. The music
only audio guide is included with the admission. The collections can
be explored for free on the first Wednesday of every month. On the top
floor of the museum in the Old England building, the café is a
very popular spot for lunch even for those not visiting the museum. The
restaurant is open during the museum hours and until 11pm on Fridays and
Saturdays. With a view over the city from inside the art nouveau glass
dome enclosed restaurant or the outdoor terrace on the roof, a meal with
the city spreading out in all directions is one the list of many visitors
to Brussels “to do” list. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Musical Instrument
Museum
Visit Flanders
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SEE ALSO:
ROYAL MILITARY MUSEUM - BRUSSELS
SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVALS - FLANDERS
COUNT EGMONT & HOORN STATUE BRUSSELS
HALVE MANN BREWERY TOUR – BRUGES
MUSEUM WILHELMSBAU MUSIC BOXES - SPEYER
