Obligatory linky: http://themim.org
I went there today, with my mother and her husband (a violinist) who were visiting from Buffalo, NY: I had a gift card that had been given to me as a Christmas present and that adequately covered the price of admission.
In the future, I'll do more of a write-up and add some pics (with captions!) on my blog, but I just wanted to mention that I went there -- and give you my overall opinion, which is ... it was OK, I guess.
There were a few things that I really didn't like:
* A LARGE percentage of the instruments were 20th/21st century reproductions. I'm sure that the major reason for this is because it keeps costs drastically lower, but it makes me feel like the instruments aren't quite as authentic.
* A good percentage of Island and African instruments were made out of "found" objects, like metal bottle caps and metal coffee cans. This could have been a great way to talk about how indigenous instruments are being affected by more modern countries or something like that, but there was absolutely zip about that anywhere: you are given a headset and player to walk around with. There were only a couple exhibits where the player actually said anything about the instruments or the people that used them. The were more there for audio samples of the instruments.
* A lot of the instruments were in exceptionally poor condition. I've attached two pictures to this post: a Conn-O-Sax from 1928 and an Adolphe Sax (Adolphe-Edouard, the son of the inventor) tenor sax. The Conn-O-Sax looked ... wrong. While the picture looks like the horn's bare brass, it looked almost like copper in real life. It's not supposed to. The AE Sax horn is badly, badly oxidized -- but I could probably make it shine with a couple hours and some non-abrasive silver polish. These are just examples. I saw a lot of stringed instruments missing strings and such, and other instruments with obviously broken parts. I think one of the reasons for the poor state of repair is because all these instruments are just hanging on walls or lying on tables. They're out in the open for people just to touch.
* Some of the scholarship is abysmal. For instance, the Conn-O-Sax (as mentioned above) is listed as being patented in 1914. Erm. No. That's the William S. Haynes patent for forming toneholes, which is the process Conn used. The horn was made around 1928. Another example: the little info card for the Adolphe Sax soprano says "1864" when the horn is clearly stamped "1866." While you might say this is nit-picky, you have to think what I did: "If they screwed up these, which other instruments are also screwed up?" Example: one of those $20 saxophones from "Singapore" that's listed as an indigenous instrument.
* There were also at least 30 empty exhibits. "Coming soon!"
However, it was fun seeing all these exhibits, and I did see interesting stuff and learned things: for instance, you may have heard of the QRS Play-a-Sax. I was unaware that QRS was a big, big name in self-playing instruments and I've got some great pics of some of QRS's instruments. It was nice seeing two Adolphe Sax instruments and Albert-System clarinets from Albert, all of which I had never seen in person. Additionally, I was going through the exhibits at a rather fast pace and it still took me over two hours. Hey, two hours and a free (this time, at least: there are non-free concerts, too) concert? That's a lot of bang for 15 bucks.
I went there today, with my mother and her husband (a violinist) who were visiting from Buffalo, NY: I had a gift card that had been given to me as a Christmas present and that adequately covered the price of admission.
In the future, I'll do more of a write-up and add some pics (with captions!) on my blog, but I just wanted to mention that I went there -- and give you my overall opinion, which is ... it was OK, I guess.
There were a few things that I really didn't like:
* A LARGE percentage of the instruments were 20th/21st century reproductions. I'm sure that the major reason for this is because it keeps costs drastically lower, but it makes me feel like the instruments aren't quite as authentic.
* A good percentage of Island and African instruments were made out of "found" objects, like metal bottle caps and metal coffee cans. This could have been a great way to talk about how indigenous instruments are being affected by more modern countries or something like that, but there was absolutely zip about that anywhere: you are given a headset and player to walk around with. There were only a couple exhibits where the player actually said anything about the instruments or the people that used them. The were more there for audio samples of the instruments.
* A lot of the instruments were in exceptionally poor condition. I've attached two pictures to this post: a Conn-O-Sax from 1928 and an Adolphe Sax (Adolphe-Edouard, the son of the inventor) tenor sax. The Conn-O-Sax looked ... wrong. While the picture looks like the horn's bare brass, it looked almost like copper in real life. It's not supposed to. The AE Sax horn is badly, badly oxidized -- but I could probably make it shine with a couple hours and some non-abrasive silver polish. These are just examples. I saw a lot of stringed instruments missing strings and such, and other instruments with obviously broken parts. I think one of the reasons for the poor state of repair is because all these instruments are just hanging on walls or lying on tables. They're out in the open for people just to touch.
* Some of the scholarship is abysmal. For instance, the Conn-O-Sax (as mentioned above) is listed as being patented in 1914. Erm. No. That's the William S. Haynes patent for forming toneholes, which is the process Conn used. The horn was made around 1928. Another example: the little info card for the Adolphe Sax soprano says "1864" when the horn is clearly stamped "1866." While you might say this is nit-picky, you have to think what I did: "If they screwed up these, which other instruments are also screwed up?" Example: one of those $20 saxophones from "Singapore" that's listed as an indigenous instrument.
* There were also at least 30 empty exhibits. "Coming soon!"
However, it was fun seeing all these exhibits, and I did see interesting stuff and learned things: for instance, you may have heard of the QRS Play-a-Sax. I was unaware that QRS was a big, big name in self-playing instruments and I've got some great pics of some of QRS's instruments. It was nice seeing two Adolphe Sax instruments and Albert-System clarinets from Albert, all of which I had never seen in person. Additionally, I was going through the exhibits at a rather fast pace and it still took me over two hours. Hey, two hours and a free (this time, at least: there are non-free concerts, too) concert? That's a lot of bang for 15 bucks.
. I'm probably going to at least forward the date/patent info.
