Instrument collection
The Cudworth Room houses the Faculty of Music’s collection of instruments. Essentially, there are three elements to the collection:
Historical instruments
Over the years the Faculty of Music has acquired a wide range of instruments of historical interest. The collection includes rare (but playable) woodwind instruments, lutes, a Snetzler organ that once belonged to Capt. Oates (of Antarctic fame), and a broad range of other keyboard instruments that reflect the principal changes in construction from c. 1700 to c. 1840.
Copies of historical instruments
Over the past decade or so, the Faculty of Music has rationalised its holdings, and used the money raised from sales of little-used instruments to buy a collection of ‘period’ instruments for everyday use. This collection, which is not yet complete, consists of the following:
8 violins
3 violas
3 cellos
1 double bass
2 flutes
2 oboes
1 bassoon
3 trumpets
The stringed instruments are from a variety of makers based in the UK, and they reflect Italian models of c. 1730. The wind instruments were constructed by leading instrument makers throughout Europe and the US. All are regularly used by members of the Faculty’s Collegium Musicum. In addition, the Collegium makes regular use of the Faculty’s harpsichords and its new Klop continuo organ.
Instruments from non-Western traditions
As reflects its pioneering role in the study of ethnomusicology, the University has been the recipient of instruments from many different cultural traditions, including a Javanese gamelan.