Russian Museum Association of Musical Culture named after M.I. Glinka

Museum of Musical Culture named after. M.I. Glinka was created in Moscow in 1943. On the basis of the memorial museum of N.G. Rubinstein (founded in 1912 at the Moscow Conservatory). Since 1982 in a new building (architect Loveiko I.I.)
Even at the Moscow Conservatory, the foundation of the museum collection was laid, where, from the first years of the existence of the Conservatory, rare musical materials (documents, autographs, manuscripts, collections of instruments) were collected and the foundation of the museum collection was laid. On March 11, 1912, the Museum named after N.G. was opened next to the conservatory library. Rubinstein, dedicated to the memory of the outstanding musical public figure, founder of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society and Conservatory.
Throughout its history, the Museum experienced difficult moments when it was in complete oblivion and was close to closure. Three decades Museum named after N.G. Rubinshtein served as a service department at the conservatory, akin to an educational library, and was mainly involved in storage and, to a small extent, in collecting. At the end of the 1930s, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Moscow Conservatory, the direction of his activities changed. His collection began to increase, and exhibition work intensified. In 1941, the Central Museum of Musical Culture was created on the basis of the conservatory division. In 1943, the museum separated from the conservatory and received the status of a state institution. From that time on, the GCMMC began to gain popularity and define its own special place in the musical and museum world. In the mid-1940s, the name N.G. Rubinstein disappeared from the official name of the Museum, and in 1954, in connection with the anniversary of M.I. Glinka, GCMMC was named after the great Russian composer.
In 1974, the Museum received the status of a research institute. The museum changed its address twice. After the conservatory, for several decades it was located in an ancient architectural monument - in the chambers of the Troyekurov boyars in Georgievsky Lane. And in the 1980s, he finally moved to a building specially built for him on Fadeev Street.
Today, in the museum, children and adults can get acquainted with ancient and modern musical instruments and music of the peoples of the world. There are many musical instruments in the museum. There are antique pianos with candlesticks, harpsichords, barrel organs, the oldest organ in Russia; many instruments from different peoples of the world. Visitors say that they are hearing about them for the first time, and they are also seeing them for the first time. Therefore, we highly recommend that little music lovers aged three to four years and older visit the museum, but it is better to take a children’s excursion. Children over six years old can attend concerts from the series “In the World of Musical Instruments” or piano concerts of classical music; listen to museum lectures or a symphonic fairy tale.

In November 2009, at the State Central Museum of Musical Culture named after M.I. Glinka (now the All-Russian Museum Association of Musical Culture named after M.I. Glinka) and the State House-Museum of P.I. Tchaikovsky in Klin, a two-day All-Russian meeting was held on the preservation and popularization of musical cultural heritage. In 2009, the All-Russian meeting on the preservation and popularization of musical cultural heritage was held at the Museum of Musical Culture. At the meeting, it was decided to create an Association of Music Museums of Russia with the aim of coordinating their activities and implementing common cultural programs. Later, in connection with the entry into the organization of music museums in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, it was renamed the Association of Music Museums and Collections (now the Association of Music Museums and Collectors).

Over the five years of its existence, 53 museums of musical orientation in Russia and foreign countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine) have become members of the Association.

As part of the work of the Association, both individual exhibition and educational events and festivals are held. The TERRA MUSICALE festival took place from June 2011 to June 2012. 26 museums from Russia and the CIS countries took part in it, 22 exhibition projects were presented in 14 regions and republics.

In 2013, the Association set a course for more effectively promoting the popularization of museums included in the AMMiK and the priceless collections in their funds. This is how a joint project of the Association and the Russian State Music Television and Radio Center called “Expomusic” appeared. This is a series of radio broadcasts on the waves of the Orpheus radio station about each of the Association’s museums. The project is being successfully implemented to this day. All programs are posted in the public domain on the website of the Orpheus radio station (http://www.muzcentrum.ru/orpheusradio/programs/expomusic). Work on the project continues.

The Association’s work plan for 2015 included the following activities:
- the second scientific and methodological seminar “Museums of musical and theatrical art, musical and sound instruments” (March 2015, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France);
- participation of AMMiK as a co-organizer in the International Museum Forum dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan. The forum will feature a section of music museums;
- a number of events on the topic “Updating and ways of developing apartment museums” (including a round table on the most pressing issues in the activities of apartment museums);
- launch of the official website of AMMiK;
- participation of AMMiK in the International Festival of Museums “Intermuseum-2015”.

The Glinka Museum, or the Central Museum of Musical Culture, displays a huge collection of instruments from all eras and peoples, the number of exhibits of which approaches a thousand. From historical rarities to modern sound extraction devices can be seen in this extensive collection. The main building of the museum association was built specifically for this repository, the basis of which was made up of exhibits collected by enthusiasts from the Moscow Conservatory since its founding in 1866.

The lobby of the Glinka Museum greets visitors with a bust of the great composer, music and text quotes from the author of the Patriotic Song, which for some time was the Russian anthem. The notes of this work are accompanied by an unofficial text, which, together with the music, claimed the status of a state symbol back in tsarist times.

Here visitors get acquainted with announcements of events, leave their outerwear, and purchase entrance tickets to the permanent exhibition or thematic exhibitions. The main permanent exhibition is located on the 2nd floor; temporary shows on various topics are organized on the 3rd floor.

The lobby houses one of the notable exhibits, a recent acquisition of the Glinka Museum - a European orchestra. This mechanical instrument recreates the sound of an instrumental orchestra; such devices have been used in a number of European countries as musical accompaniment to dance events.

Musical instruments located on the front side of a kind of orchestra produce their characteristic sounds, while accordions even demonstrate the movements of bellows. In Russia, such instruments were not widespread, which makes getting to know the orchestra more interesting for our lovers of musical wonders.

The second floor, which houses the main exhibition of the Glinka Museum, begins with a spacious hall where various exhibitions dedicated to musical culture are held. The main decoration of the room is a picturesque stained glass window, which is much larger in size from the outside of the building.

A massive staircase leads to the 3rd floor for visiting thematic temporary exhibitions. The composition of several bells recalls the role of church bells both in the life of the Russian people and in Glinka’s musical passions.

Also in the hall there is an organ made by the German master Ladegast, which was owned since 1868 by a descendant of the Khludov merchant family, the only surviving product of this master. Donated to the Moscow Conservatory and going through several more owners, the instrument was practically ruined.

The difficult restoration of the organ's interior was carried out in 1998 by Vilnius organ builders under the leadership of Guchas. Now this instrument is positioned as the oldest organ in Russia that has remained functional, and it is actually used during organ concerts organized by the Glinka Museum.

The permanent exhibition of the Glinka Museum, telling about the history of the origin and wide variety of musical instruments of the peoples of the world, is located in five halls on the second floor. They are clearly distinguished from each other by different colors of the background of the shop windows. The division of the halls representing the most ancient known instruments is made on a geographical basis. A separate hall is allocated to European exhibits, divided by country; the remaining continents are divided inside another hall, with expositions of individual countries highlighted.

Further halls present instruments that differ in their belonging to wind or symphonic instruments, percussion and keyboards. Mechanical and electronic musical instruments, devices for recording sound and playing it from various media are highlighted.

Vintage European musical instruments

How correct this choice of the principle of demonstrating musical instruments is is for professionals to understand, but the differences in the method of sound extraction seem more fundamental and obvious than national and state ones. After all, the shape of the pipe, no matter how great the differences, is still recognizable.

The drum or other percussion instruments cannot be confused with anything else. And finding out information about the place of origin of the exhibit, its attribution to a certain type of musical instrument and other details is still carried out by most visitors according to the explanatory inscriptions.

Russian folk musical instruments are collected in the Glinka Museum in a large assortment and variety of species. Here are the instruments of other peoples inhabiting the national republics within the Russian Federation. Percussion instruments are widely represented - after all, they use the simplest but most varied method of producing sounds, from simple collisions of objects, for which even wooden spoons are used, to rattles of various designs and designs.

Naturally, our ancestors had horns made of cow horns and pipes made of wood. Craftsmen could extract sounds even from a saw blade and a scythe blade, but this is rather in the realm of musical eccentricity. The main stringed instrument of the Russian people is the gusli, used in Rus' since time immemorial. The balalaika is also a plucked string instrument; despite the simplicity of the device, virtuosos perform any melodies on them. Finally, the Russian accordion has been the main folk instrument for a long time

Stringed instruments of different nations are visually similar, but the progenitor of all stringed instruments, the Scythian harp, differs from its other relatives. It does not yet have a resonating body and neck, and a common feature is the way it produces sounds by plucking the strings with your fingers.

Plucked string instruments have evolved from the ancient lyre and harp to the lute, domra, mandolin, balalaika and guitar, which has retained its greatest popularity to this day. Harpsichords, pianos and grand pianos are also related to plucked string instruments that impact the strings, for which keys with a drive system were invented.

In the updated exhibition, the European section has been replenished with instruments of Belarusians and Ukrainians, Moldovans and the Baltic peoples. As before, instruments from the Mediterranean and Scandinavian countries, Central and Eastern Europe are widely represented. String instruments are exhibited both plucked and bowed, with different shapes of the resonating body and bow structure. The simplest xylophones represent a group of percussion instruments.

There are several variations of bagpipes that are generally considered Scottish and Irish traditional instruments. This is true, but a similar device with air bellows and tubes with reed formation of sounds was also used by other peoples. These are the French musette, the Portuguese gaita, the duda and the dudeisac of Eastern Europe.

Musical instruments of eastern countries

The countries of the East were the first to invent bows for extracting sounds from stretched strings; historians consider musicians who lived in the territory of present-day Uzbekistan to be the pioneers. From here bows came to China and India, to Arab countries and from them to the Pyrenees. A shepherd's violin with three strings is a rabel, as well as a viol with a large number of strings. The latter were later replaced by violins and their larger relatives. Eastern string instruments often feature longer necks, although there are also designs with short ones.

The wind and percussion instruments of eastern peoples are very diverse. Bamboo trunks and other hollow plant stems were often used for wind instruments. Percussion instruments were also made from tree trunks by hollowing out the core. Tanned animal skins were also used, stretched over frames made of various materials. In addition to stationary drums, hand drums such as tambourines, sometimes supplemented with bells, were popular.

The Japanese originality of national clothing is much more striking than the differences between Japanese musical instruments and all others. Japanese percussion instruments were usually placed on shaped stands; different materials were used for the bodies, even porcelain and other ceramics. String and wind instruments have forms that are close to traditional for other peoples, and it is difficult to invent something different in these areas.

Eastern countries used a variety of materials to make musical instruments, from stone, wood and metal to silk, leather and even hollowed out pumpkin shells. Local craftsmen paid special attention to the external design of their products and their decorative appeal.

Paintings and carvings, traditional for every nation, also decorated musical instruments; it is by these elements that it is easiest to identify xylophones, drums and other instruments from the cultures of other countries.

Ancient violin workshop in the Glinka Museum

The creation of violins and other bowed instruments has been around for a long time and is now a highly complex task. Preparation of wood for various parts and parts of tools required mastery of many technological operations - cutting and drilling, measurements and various methods of joining parts. The tools and equipment necessary for these works are presented on the violin maker’s workbench in the recreated interior of a workshop for the manufacture of musical instruments.

Violin makers could make a product of any size, from a violin and viola to a cello and a giant double bass. The violin could also be either classical sizes or half or even four times smaller.

In the room restored in the Glinka Museum, you can see all the stages of making instruments, from a wooden board to a finished violin or cello. You can examine all the components - the front and back soundboard and the shell connecting them, the neck with the underneck and the bridge for laying the strings.

Classical musical instruments of the Glinka Museum

Instruments used by modern musicians are presented to visitors of the Glinka Museum in several exhibitions. Components of symphony and brass orchestras, accessories of musical ensembles of various compositions are exhibited. Strings - bows and keyboards are adjacent to wind, wood and brass.

One of the museum corners contains genuine treasures - a concert harp and a collectible piano for home use. The perfectly balanced harp is stable on its small base, the resonator made of valuable wood is in harmony with the gilding of the column and neck, the shape of which is especially whimsical and attractive.

Showcases of bowed instruments are located on either side of the painting depicting the greatest master of the Genoese violin, Niccolo Paganini. It was this violinist and composer who developed the technique of playing the violin, which has remained almost unchanged to this day.

In addition to the violin, Paganini also played the mandolin and guitar impeccably. The great performer's own compositions, written for both violin and guitar, are popular. The world's most popular violin competition is held annually in Paganini's homeland, Genoa, Italy.

The showcase of classical wind instruments shows them in order of increasing size, with varieties of wooden instruments displayed first, followed by brass instruments. This division has been preserved since ancient times and now does not correspond to reality - the wooden flutes, clarinets, oboes and bassoons included in the group of wooden ones can be made not only from wood. They can be plastic or metal, flutes can even be glass. Classified by musicologists as a wooden saxophone based on its operating principle, which had no ancient analogues, it was always made of metal.

On the other hand, copper instruments were made only from this metal only at the dawn of the development of metallurgy; now copper alloys or silver are used. The brass instrument group includes trumpet, horn, trombone and tuba. Instruments of this series have increasing sizes and complexity of the device. The trombone stands somewhat apart, having a movable slide for smooth changes in pitch.

Almost all wind instruments are included, in addition to brass bands, in symphony orchestras and ensembles. Dixieland and jazz bands also use them.

The combination of stretched strings and percussion mechanisms controlled by a keyboard is characteristic of concert musical instruments, which include pianos, grand pianos and pianos. Some experts consider the grand piano and pianoforte to be varieties of pianos, differing in the horizontal or vertical arrangement of the strings.

Since the middle of the last century, only grand pianos and pianos have been produced; traditional pianos, which have less expressive capabilities due to the shorter length of the strings, have become history. Grand pianos are primarily used in concerts as an instrument to accompany vocals or independently, while pianos are used for home or chamber music playing.

The predecessors of today's keyboard instruments, both stringed and reed, are also on display at the Glinka Museum. String instruments include the percussion clavichord and plucked harpsichord, while reed harmoniums are related to harmonicas, button accordions and accordions. The first instrument with air bellows was the table harmonica of Kirchner, a Czech who worked in Russia. Unlike it and the hand instruments we are used to, the bellows of the harmonium were powered by foot pedals.

From hurdy-gurdy to synthesizer

The last hall of the Glinka Museum displays several instruments not included in the ensembles and orchestras, ancient means of reproducing recorded sounds. Unique exhibits are presented here, quite rare in the collections of museums and private individuals. Among them, a barrel organ stands out, which many have heard about, but not all visitors have seen.

The design of the instrument is a small organ; air injection and operation of the sound mechanism are ensured by rotating the handle on the body. Organ organs were used by traveling musicians, and their sounds accompanied the performances of farcical circus performers.

The creation of the first sound recording and reproducing devices has a specific pioneer, he was the famous inventor Edison. The phonograph he designed in 1877 provided the recording and playback of sounds with a sharp needle on a roller wrapped in tin foil or wax-coated paper.

Recording on a flat round record was invented by Berliner; sound was reproduced by devices with an external horn - a gramophone. Devices with a horn hidden in the body were produced by the Pathé company, hence the name gramophone. Further progress in sound recording proceeded quickly: magnetic tapes, laser discs, high-quality digital sound recording.

The rare photoelectronic sound synthesizer ANS, named after the initials of the great composer Scriabin, was invented by the Russian Murzin back in the late 30s of the last century, and was manufactured only in 1963. Viewers of Tarkovsky's science fiction films and Gaidai's Diamond Arm may remember the unusual sounds of this device.

The composer created the music on it without writing notes or involving an orchestra. Synthesizers also developed rapidly; with the invention of transistors, they became compact and affordable. Now all musical groups of various genres have synthesizers.

Another notable exhibit of the Glinka Museum was the giant drum kit of the musician and composer, tireless experimenter R. Shafi. Manual control of such a complex complex of drums and drums is clearly impossible,

Shafi invented a unique control pedal, Zmey Gorynych, which, due to the number of tools it can handle, was included in the Guinness Book of Records. There are other interesting exhibits in this section, including personal instruments of famous musicians.

A visit to the Glinka Museum may seem unnecessary after hearing about it, but such an impression is extremely wrong. There is a lot of interesting things here that are difficult to describe in a quick review; there are new interesting forms of working with visitors. Visiting here is educational and interesting for people with any level of interest and understanding of music; after visiting, this interest will definitely increase.