Instruments strike chord at National Music Museum

VERMILLION, South Dakota (AP) -- One visitor might be drawn to the six-string Spanish guitar on which Bob Dylan composed some of his earliest songs.

Another might gaze in awe at one of just a handful of Stradivarius violins still with its original neck, or a 1767 Portuguese grand piano considered one of the earliest, best-preserved pieces known to survive.

Each is important to the National Music Museum, which focuses on a piece's place in musical history rather than just its beauty.

"When you think of other collections, especially other collections in the United States, they are in art museums," says Sarah Richardson, curator of musical instruments. "And so a lot of times when the instruments are collected, they're collected for their artistic value rather than their musical value."

The 800 instruments on display at the museum -- tucked away in the small university town of Vermillion -- make up just a fraction of the more than 13,500 items in its collection, which museum director Andre Larson calls "by far the largest, most comprehensive one anywhere now."

"This is the only place really where you find all these things brought together, American, European and non-Western," Larson said.

Many of the items were once scattered throughout Larson's childhood home.

His father, Arne B. Larson, served as the longtime head of the school music department in Brookings, but his hobby was collecting instruments.

A circa-1700 Rawlins Guitar on display at the museum is one of only two documented guitars made by Stradivari known to survive. Another exhibit case houses a 1680 choral mandolino called The Cutler-Challen -- also one of only two known to exist -- which is even a rarer find because it survived with its original wood case.

Visitors can see one of only two violin bows known to come out of Stradivari's workshop.

The museum also houses the world's oldest known surviving violoncello (commonly known as a cello). Nicknamed "The King," the bowed string instrument was crafted in Europe in 1545 and played by King Charles IX of France in 1562.

The museum let it out of its display case for one night in 2006 so it could be played for an episode of Garrison Keillor's radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion."

"This instrument was played on that program because we have always wanted it to be played at least once," Larson said. "We hadn't ever had it played before that and we figured, well, this is a time when millions of people will actually hear it as opposed to doing it in the concert hall for a hundred people."

The Lillibridge Gallery features a recreated workshop of John D'Angelico and his successor James D'Aquisto, "probably the greatest makers of American guitars that ever lived," Larson said.

Though not household names like Gibson, Fender or Martin, the pair crafted their arch-top guitars by hand in an era when companies began moving toward mass production. The workshop features benches, guitar racks, tools, molds and even ledgers showing customers' orders.

"To me, it's a wonderful mixture of the grimy typical workshop, and then juxtaposed with the gorgeous instruments both in the same gallery," Larson said. "And it brings a little sense of reality, I think, to what actually goes on. Those things just don't sort of show up like plastic things do today."

Keeping track of 13,500 objects ranging from miniature harmonicas to gigantic pianos and theater organs is no easy task, said Margaret Downie Banks, senior curator of musical instruments.

Each instrument that is donated or purchased has to be logged, and the museum archives tens of thousands of pieces of music, technical drawings, sound recordings and other music-related items.

The museum opens its archives to visiting scholars and researchers, who might want to see multiple examples of the same instrument or take a comprehensive look at one maker or one company.

Banks, who has been with the museum for nearly 30 years, has research expertise in the C.G. Conn Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co., of Elkhart, Indiana.

"Instruments are the main focus, but we are collecting the whole history of music," Banks said.

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