Music & Musical Instruments

This electronic tuner was made by Inventronics, Inc. in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, in 1999. It is a Sanderson Accutuner III, serial #5006, with a medium blue plastic shell with two digital displays, power and miscellaneous selection buttons, and 8 red lights indicating pitch on front of tuner. MIDI and other audio connections are on the back of the tuner. The tuner is marked:

Sanderson Accu-Tuner III

The Accu-Tuner III can be used in three modes: Tune mode, FAC (stretch) mode, and Memory mode. The Tune mode functions like most conventional tuning instruments. The FAC mode uses three measurements known as stretch numbers to derive a tuning based upon computer calculations and stretch tables from the measurement of three stretch numbers on notes (F3, A4, and C6) on the piano being tuned. The Memory mode enables a tuner to store and retrieve complete 88-note tunings. The Accu-Tuner III comes with 198 pages of memory.

This violoncello mute was made by an unknown maker, undetermined provenance and date. It is a slip-on style mute, made of metal with 4 metal prongs.

This item was sold by Albert Moglie (b. December 16, 1890, Rome; d. June 9, 1988, Washington DC), instrument maker and restorer, and proprietor of a violin shop in Washington DC for 65 years from 1922 until 1987. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to Antonio Sgarbi and subsequently worked under Luigi Enbergher, Giuseppe Rossi, and Rodolfo Fredi, all of Rome. Following these apprenticeships, Moglie was a student of Hippolyte Sylvestre in Paris and Leandro Bisiach in Milan.

Albert Moglie came to America at the age of 24 to work for the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, first in Cincinnati and then New York City in 1916. By 1917 he had established his own shop in New York at 1431 Broadway. He moved to Washington DC in 1922.

Moglie enjoyed a fine reputation in Washington as a violin restorer and is especially remembered as the caretaker of the Gertrude Clark Whittall Stradivari quartet of instruments at the Library of Congress, an association that began in the 1930s and lasted more than 50 years.

The Smithsonian, National Museum of American History, Archives Center houses additional information on the life and career of Albert F. Moglie:

https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAH.AC.0283

This wood block was made by Walberg & Auge, in Worcester, Massachusetts, around 1900 to 1910. It is made of rosewood with two holes drilled at both ends and a metal clamp.

This wood block was used by William T. Armstrong (1879-1965), orchestra leader and musician in vaudeville and silent film theaters. Armstrong grew up in South River, New Jersey and began playing drums at the age of 14. He continued his musical career through the mid-1910s, after which, Armstrong began work in banking and finance. This artifact is part of a collection of drums, sound effect instruments, and other percussion instruments used by Armstrong.

This tuba was made by the Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory in Boston, Massachusetts, around 1880-1890. It is a helicon tuba in E-flat, made of brass, with 3 string-action rotary valves. This instrument is engraved:

made
by the
BOSTON
Musical Instrument
Manufy

Boston Musical Instrument Manufactory was formed when the E.G. Wright Company and Graves & Company merged in 1869. By 1902, the company name was changed to the Boston Musical Instrument Company.

This New England Bass Viol was made by Hervey Dawes in Windsor, Massachusetts, in 1793. It is made of a table of two pieces of yellow pine, back of one piece of slab-cut maple, ribs of similar plain maple, original maple neck, peg-box and scroll, and varnish of opaque reddish-brown color. Inside this instrument has a handwritten ink label:

Made By Hervey
Dawes Windsor
Mafs.
1793

[* 1793 in pencil]

In style and execution, the instrument displays very well refined woodworking skills and attention to aesthetic detail. In place of inlayed purfling, the edge is ornamental with alternating yellow and black dots of ink concluding with an inlaid brass pinhead in each of the corners of the table and back. The delicately shaped neck-foot is complemented by an ornamental carved peg-box. The unusual scroll is formed by a lathe-turned series of four volutes in diminishing diameters glued in place on the peg-box. In other respects, this bass viol is typical in construction: i.e., the ribs are inlaid into both back and table, with the neck and top-block fashioned in one piece allowing the body to be constructed “in the air” without specific templates and formal interior mold. The long extended “f” holes have upper and lower wings that remain connected to the table, and the body is without interior linings. The small corner blocks, shaped inside in a half-circle, were glued to the rib miters after the rib and back assembly had been completed.

The modern term for this instrument is church bass. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this instrument was also known as the American bass viol, New England bass viol, or Yankee bass viol. These church basses were used in churches and meeting houses to provide a bass line for maintaining a consistent key by New England congregational singers. The church bass was also used by popular singing groups such as the Hutchinson Family singers.

This linoleum print with black ink on white paper was made by Peter Bodge in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1986. It is a portrait of American jazz tenor saxophonist Lester Young (1909-1959) entitled Good-bye Porkpie Hat. Print number 10/10.

Peter Bodge is a jazz drummer, art teacher, and printmaker in Massachusetts. Bodge creates linoleum prints and other works on paper. His work most often features portraits, action shots semi-abstract interpretations of such famous jazz musicians, such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Elllngton , Count Basie and John Coltrane. In 1977, Bodge created a short animated film based on the life of Charlie Parker entitled Bird Lives!:

https://www.cambridgecollege.edu/bird-lives-film-peter-bodge