Sigal Music Museum (2/19/2025)

Wednesday, February 19, 2025 (continued)

The Sigal Music Museum is also located in Greenville, SC.

A Flemish harpsichord reproduction in the
lobby was built by the museum curator,
Tom Strange, and it asks you to "Play Me"

Living Presence on the first floor included all working pianos. However, due to age and historic value of these instruments, playing them was prohibited. Yet QR codes allowed you to listen to these pianos being played.

Grand Piano (c 1815, by Anton Walter & Son, Vienna)

The curator also fashioned a complete key for most
instruments in order to see how they worked, here is
the Viennese action of the Anton Walter & Son piano

Virginal (c 1575 by Giovanni Antonio Baffo, Italy)

Grand Piano (1863, by Erard Freres, London)

Double Manual Harpsichord (1769,
by Pascal Taskin, Paris)

Square Piano (1824, by Loud & Brothers, Philadelphia);
this piano was produced particularly for the visit of
General Marquis de Lafayette on his return to America

Clavichord (c 1780, of Spanish origin, possibly Avila)

A piano works by striking the strings, while a harpsichord works by plucking/lifting the strings. A clavichord is a smaller harpsichord with a softer sound. The virginal also plucks the strings, but is rectangular in shape and the strings run parallel too the keyboard. The harpsichord strings run front to back in a triangular-shaped instrument.

A family of saxophones: sopranino, soprano saxophone,
alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone,
and bass saxophone, which were patented in 1846
by the Belgian inventor and musician Adolphe Sax

A Measure of Music: STEAM and the Musical Mind  (STEAM standing for science, technology, engineering, arts, and math):
First: Chordophones (instruments that produce sound through the vibration of strings):

Electric Guitar (KOLOSS Prestige series
DLS1, England) that was donated by
Davide Lo Surdo who holds the title of
fastest guitarist in the history of music for
being able to play 129 notes per second

Épinette des Vosges (c 1890, by Amant
Constant Lambert, France) is a predecessor
of the Appalachian dulcimer

Storytone Piano (1939, by Story & Clark, Michigan)
included a radio and phonograph in the bench, and it
was popular at the 1939 World's Fair in New York

Vielle à Roue/Hurdy Gurdy (c 1850,
by Jacques Decante, France) is a string
instrument played by turning a crank
that rotates a wheel across the strings

Membranophones (instruments that produce sound by vibration of a stretched membrane or skin): 

Ntenga Drums (2018, Uganda)

Long Drum (20C, Haiti)

Aerophones (instruments that produce sound through a vibrating body of air):

Alto Recorder (c 1710, by Nikolaus Staub,
Germany) is made from ivory; another
Alto Recorder (1700, by Jacob Denner)

Electrophones (instruments that produces sound using electronic circuitry):

Kent tries out the Theremin (c 2009,
by MOOG Etherwave)

The Sigal Music Museum is developing an instrument
digitalization program that allows virtually playing of
the antique pianos and harpsichords from the collection,
without causing wear and tear on the actual instruments

Idiophones (instruments made of naturally sonorous materials, which can be played in various ways):

Actually a lamellaphone that bridges between a chordophone
and idiophone, the Kalimba/thumb piano (late 19C, Africa)

Bala (late 19C, West Africa), a type of wooden
xylophone where the slats are smoked to petrify the
wood and to tune it to a precise pitch

Cromametro (a chordophone, c 1828,
by Giovanni Ricordi, Italy) is a
device for piano tuning