Music & Musical Instruments - Overview
The Museum's music collections contain more than 5,000 instruments of American and European heritage. These include a quartet of 18th-century Stradivari stringed instruments, Tito Puente's autographed timbales, and the Yellow Cloud guitar that belonged to Prince, to name only a few. Several of these rare instruments can be heard in performances of the Smithsonian Chamber Players and in other public programs. Music collections also include jukeboxes and synthesizers, square-dancing outfits and sheet music, archival materials, oral histories, and recordings of performances at the Museum. The vast Sam DeVincent Collection of Illustrated Sheet Music is a remarkable window into the American past in words, music, and visual imagery. The Duke Ellington and Ruth Ellington Boatwright collections contain handwritten music compositions, sound recordings, business records, and other materials documenting the career of this renowned musician.
"Music & Musical Instruments - Overview" showing 4 items.
Leonporri Violin
- Description (Brief)
- This violin was made by Giovanni Francesco Leonporri in Milan, Italy in 1755. Leonporri, whose attributed (signed) work is rarely encountered, is thought to have worked in Milan during the period 1750-1768. The Tyrolean character of his instruments implies that he may have been of Germanic background. It is possible that he Italianized his name when he moved to Milan. This violin is made of a two-piece table of spruce, two-piece back of maple cut on 45o with very fine irregular gently descending figure, ribs of similar maple, grafted maple neck with original plain maple pegbox and scroll, and a semi-transparent golden-brown varnish.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1755
- maker
- Leonporri, Giovanni Francesco
- ID Number
- 1980.0838.01
- catalog number
- 1980.0838.01
- accession number
- 1980.0838
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Guadagnini Violin
- Description (Brief)
- This violin was made by Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini in Milan, Italy in 1752. Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini (known as “J. B.”), the son of the violin maker Lorenzo Guadagnini was born in Piacenza in 1711. He became the most famous member of this family of makers which extends into the 20th Century. J. B. was trained by his father, Lorenzo in Piacenza. In 1749 he moved to Milan and remained there until 1758. This violin is made of a two-piece table of spruce with wide, even grain, one-piece back of maple cut on the quarter with medium figure descending to the right, ribs and grafted pegbox and scroll of similar maple, and red-orange varnish.
- Description
- This violin has an original label:
- Joannes Baptifta Guadagnini Pla-
- centinus fecit Mediolani 1752
- Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini (known as J. B.), the son of the violin maker Lorenzo Guadagnini was born in Piacenza in 1711. He became the most famous member of this family of makers which extends into the 20th Century. J. B. was trained by his father in Piacenza where he remained until 1749 when he moved to Milan. In 1758 Guadagnini traveled to Cremona where he remained for about one year, only to continue on to Parma in 1759, evidently to accept the patronage of the ducal court. In 1771, Guadagnini moved to Turin where he remained until his death on 18 September, 1786 at the age of 75.
- This instrument is a very handsome example of the Milan period. The characteristic pear-shaped lower lobes of the f-holes are clearly evidenced. (This characteristic was to be retained until the last decade of his life when he was living in Turin.) The f-hole notches are centrally located as invariably found in this period. The pegbox bears central layout marks on the back; the scroll with broad even chamfer extends characteristically to full, even ears. Texture in the strongly undercut volutes of the scroll are enhanced by fine marks of the gouge. The instrument bears full archings and typical thickening of the back edge at the button. A plentiful amount of the golden transparent orange-red varnish remains. Fortunately, the lower bout ribs are original and uncut; the presence of lower bout ribs in one piece is also a typical characteristic of many Italian makers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1752
- maker
- Guadagnini, Joannes Baptista
- ID Number
- 1984.0769.01
- catalog number
- 1984.0769.01
- accession number
- 1984.0769
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Marshall Violin
- Description (Brief)
- This violin was made by John Marshall in London, England in 1759. John Marshall worked in New Street, near Covent Garden, London, in the mid-18th century. This instrument retains the original bass-bar, interior blocks and linings. The original neck was reset and fitted with a wedge under the ebony fingerboard. Table wear between the f-holes indicates variable bridge placement. It is clear that a bridge was once located 14 mm. below the f-notches, a geometry not infrequently found in iconographic depictions of 18th-century bridge locations. The instrument is equipped with 18th-century fittings, including a solid ebony tailpiece inlaid with a marine snail-shell diamond ornament and two mother-of-pearl eyes. This violin is made of a two-piece table of spruce, two-piece back of maple with irregular medium gently ascending figure, ribs of maple with irregular fine figure, faintly figured maple neck, pegbox and scroll, and a transparent orange-brown varnish.
- Description
- John Marshall worked in New Street, near Covent Garden, London, in the mid-18th century.
- This violin has many unaltered, original features including an original printed label,
- "Joannes Marshall in Vico Novo juxta
- Covensem Hortum Londini Fecit 1759"
- and its original bass-bar, interior blocks and linings. Its original neck was reset and fitted with a wedge under the ebony fingerboard. The instrument also has 18th-century fittings, including a solid ebony tailpiece inlaid with a marine snail-shell diamond ornament and two mother-of-pearl eyes.
- Table wear between the f-holes indicates variable bridge placement. It is clear that a bridge was once located 14 mm. below the f-notches, a geometry found in iconographic depictions of 18th-century bridge locations.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1759
- maker
- Marshall, John
- ID Number
- MI*68.02
- catalog number
- 68.02
- accession number
- 274966
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Gagliano Violin
- Description (Brief)
- This violin was made by Nicolo Gagliano, in Naples, Italy in 1750. Nicolo Gagliano worked in the period around 1740-1780(?) and was the eldest son of Alessandro (ca. 1640-1730), founder of the Gagliano family of violin makers in Naples. Nicolo usually worked quite neatly on a model based on that of Stradivari. This instrument bears unusually high archings, but is characteristically finely finished with delicate attention to the clean lines of the f-holes and purfling. Typical for instruments of the Gagliano family, this violin by Nicolo has poplar purfling in the center strip, with outer adjacent strips of black paper (instead of wood) to complete the traditional purfling three piece composite. The violin also bears a delicately chamfered scroll with fine detail and ears of extended length. This violin is made of a table of spruce in two pieces of dissimilar wood of fine to medium broad grain with mild figure, back of maple in one piece cut on the quarter with even medium figure ascending to the left, ribs of similar maple cut on 45o, grafted maple neck terminating in an original maple pegbox and scroll with medium fine figure, and a semi-transparent yellow-brown varnish.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1750
- maker
- Gagliano, Nicolo
- ID Number
- MI*73.42
- accession number
- 306526
- catalog number
- 73.42
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center