Music

Our collection of musical instruments primarily consists of string and wind instruments: including harps, lutes, violins, flutes, horns and trumpets. The Schaudepot presents a small sample of the 240 instruments in our stores. The Leydecker harpsichord (on the left side of the display case) is one-of-a-kind: made by the court organ builder Johann Leydecker in 1755, this instrument is one of the few remaining ones with a Viennese bass octave. The glass harmonica on the right behind the harpsichord is relatively unknown: a series of glass bowls of different sizes are threaded onto an iron spindle. A pedal is used to make the spindle rotate. Sound is produced through friction by touching the rims of the bowls with water-moistened fingers.