Musical Instruments

Yesterday was one of those days where the weather was, for Brussels’ standards, pleasant. The sun was shining and there was no wind, making it actually rather warm at times. (And it was very ironic that most of Armand’s co-workers mentioned, when I first met them, that I’ve been lucky with the “nice weather we’re having”.)

Seeing that I finally shook off most of my pesky cold I had since my arrival, I decided to get my bearings straight and go and discover a bit of Brussels before lunch and visit a museum afterwards. I read on the Brussels City website that October 11 marks World Site Day and that the iconic Mannekin Pis is going to wear a yellow ribbon, so I decided to go and take a look. I set off to the Grande Place (which was the first time I saw it in daylight) to find the side street where Mannekin Pis is hidden. It took a little bit of navigation to get to the correct street but I quickly found the small sign pointing to the infamous statue. And there he was, in full glory, proudly urinating in front of a rowdy crowd of obnoxious tourists (Yes, yes, I know I am a tourist as well, but some of these people can be extremely rude, pushing and shoving and standing right in front of your camera while you spent some time getting the settings and angle just right…). The unashamed little statue was blindfolded in a yellow ribbon! I’ll have to return again to get a proper photo of him (and hopefully a proper photo before all the tourists crowd the poor little statue).

Mannekin Pis

After lunch I decided to visit the Musical Instruments Museum (also known as the MIM). The museum consists of more than 6000 instruments and musical items in its collection. It originated from a private collection of a musicologist which was eventually bought by the Belgian government in the late 18^th century. Later a very generous maharaja made a donation of about a 100 Indian instruments to the Belgian king. The amount of instruments grew significantly over the years thanks to passionate and persistent curators.  The museum was originally part of the Royal Music Observatory where the music students were able to see the variety of instruments. Today the museum is situated in a very famous Art Nouveau building, known as Old England. The building itself is beautiful with its rich contours and ornamentations.

 

'Old England' Building - home of the MIM

The concept of the museum is truly entertaining. You pick up a headphone set (which is included in your ticket price) and you enter one of the four exhibition spaces which is divided into four categories (which follows chronologically) and your headphones automatically plays music of some of the instruments on display in front of you (it also shows a picture of the instrument that is being played on the screen of the headphone set). The listening points for the various instruments are marked with a sticker on the floor. Some cases display various types of instruments and you can press “skip” or “back” to hear some of the different instruments on display.

The museum is divided into various categories. In the one room there are musical instruments from Egypt to countries across Europe, ranging from flutes, horns, string instruments (such as beautiful ornate sitars to fiddles and crafty violins) to accordions.

In the second room there are various keyboard instruments such as harpsichords, organs and pianos (even miniature “portable” organs are on display). On this floor there is also an interesting exhibition area of a violin maker’s workshop. In the third room there are traditional instruments, from Indian, Asian and African cultures, such as Chinese gongs and chimes, Tibetan horns and African drums to name but a few.

Beautiful shadow puppets on display
with the Asian Instrument exhibition

The last room displays mechanical and electronic instruments, from the peculiar and interesting to the well known and legendary instruments of modern music. There are music boxes on display (one featuring a bizarre, if not disturbing, scene of moving puppets – where the one male character threads a woman’s mouth. Maybe she talks too much?).  

Truly bizarre figurine in one of the music boxes

This museum is really delightful and interesting to visit (and the 7^th floor has a restaurant with a fantastic view. One of the other floors also offer open windows with great views of the area. This museum is definitely a must for any music-fanatic, the curious or just anyone who enjoys some new knowledge and appreciates instruments and sounds!

What is your favourite musical instrument? And why do you like it so much? Listen to the song on this video link below and find out what "new" and beautiful instrument I discovered (a Doudouk - a type of wind instrument) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTVBLbQ1wBQ