Evolution Of Musical Instruments

In January this year I visited a temporary exhibition about the evolution of different musical instruments. It was like a trip back in time as I could not only see some old instruments from two centuries ago, but there were photos as well, from the time when the first cameras were available for those eager to try them out.

These instruments have been collected carefully over the years from all parts of the world and represent the musical instruments of many cultures.

The room had an old and mysterious vibe and I felt that the minute I stepped in. Like time stopped centuries ago and I was taking a trip back in time.

Dancer with a drum

Photo taken in 1955, in Huon Island, Australia.

I suppose drums, string instruments and wind instruments were the most common, back in those days. It was easier to make them I suppose as these instruments were made manually by artisans.

I'm sure you've seen many drums, I've seen a few in my life too, but have never seen a drum in form of a sand glass. Looks like it was made of wood. It's from the end of the 20th century. Considering the age of these instruments, most if not all were locked in these glass boxes to protect them from any damage. Some visitors don't have any consideration and damage can happen quickly. The presence of glass made my job much harder, but I understand the need.

The other drum on the left is from Tanzania and it dates back to the end of the 19th century.

I took a photo from the other side, so you can see these sand glass drums as well. The one on the left it's from Liberia, from the middle of the 20th century.

Although reflection ruined my photo, this is an interesting one as the sepia photo I photographed was made in 1896 in Cairo, Egypt.

Another photo of a photo, just as bad as the previous one, but I wanted to show you the instrument the lady (or man, can't really figure out which one it is) was using. It's a Karagas shaman from East Siberia, in 1909.

Liberian musicians from 1936.

There were more drums here, one more interesting than the other. These are from Israel, Egypt, Bolivia, Chile and China, from the 19th and 20th century.

Drummers from Sri Lanka. Photo taken in 1900.

To complete the collection, here there were a few more drums.

I'm sorry for the bad light but there was no way to get a better photo. I wanted to show you the design of this drum. Whoever made this drum was a real artist. The decoration of the drum is something to pay attention to.

Looking at how many types of drums I saw here alone, I was wondering how many types of drum exist in the world. I think only God knows.

To make things interesting for every age category, there was this box with these instruments you could try out. I'm not a kid anymore, but could not resist trying out the xylophone and I can tell you, the sound coming out of it was more than lovely. I can imagine school kids when they visit. They most likely have a lot of fun.

The last one was this. I don't know what it is called, but makes a very loud sound and was used to notify people. This was set up for visitors, it was free to use.

So, have you ever seen such musical instruments? Do you recognize any of these? I hope so :)

If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides: