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Currently on Display
Permanent Collections:
Keyboard Collection
Kugler Collection of Musical Instruments
Gilman Ordway Manuscript Collection
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Schubert Club Museum of Musical Instruments |
Keyboard Collection
Instruments from the Keyboard Collection are on display in both the Lower Level and Second Floor Galleries at Landmark Center. Although there are more than 150 instruments in the collection, only about 15-20 are on display at any given time.
The Keyboard Collection began with the donation in 1972 of a Kisting piano that had been played by Johannes Brahms. The collection now incorporates examples of clavichords, harpsichords, organs, and pianos that illustrate keyboard evolution from the 16th century to the present day. To supplement the historic instruments in the collection for educational and performance use, The Schubert Club has commissioned fine modern, playable copies of early keyboard instruments.
Copy of a 1726 fortepiano by Bartolomeo Cristofori, commissioned by The Schubert Club Museum from David Sutherland of Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1997
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The historic instruments in The Schubert Club's Keyboard Collection range from a pentagonal spinet built in 1542 to a 1935 Art Deco Wurlitzer piano. Although many of the instruments are not in playing condition, they provide historical evidence of the style, construction, and action of harpsichords, clavichords, organs, and pianos. Over the years, The Schubert Club has commissioned a series of reproductions of keyboard instruments. These playable examples of the evolution of the piano are used for educational demonstrations and concerts. Among the most recent is a copy of a 1726 Cristofori fortepiano. It is one of only a few copies of instruments by the piano's inventor, Bartolomeo Cristofori, only three of whose instruments survive. |
The earliest keyboard in the collection, attributed to Annibali de Rossi in 1542
An ornate cartouche displays (in Latin) the date and maker's name
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Copy of a 1784 fortepiano by Johann Andreas Stein, made by Richard Sorensen (Schubert Club Museum Conservator) in 1983
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