Where can you see a bougarabou, a kosika, a cimbalom, a shofar, a dulcimer, a theremin, aTaonga pūoroa and a balalaika in action?
Where can you see a bell from Taylor Swift’s concerts, George Harrison’s first Rickenbacker guitar, the first Steinway piano, a cello from Pablo Casals, Elvis Presley’s gold lame suit, Eric Clapton’s guitar and John Lennon’s piano?
Where can you hear a zither, a calliope, an apollonia, player piano and a nickelodeon?
Where can you travel around the world in music?
What group sold the most records?
What individual sold the most records?
Who wore a dress of raw meat for a concert?
Why, it must be the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. With 200,000 square feet on 2 floors, 25,000 instruments from almost every country in the world, this is the place to learn about and hear just about any instrument you’d like to hear. In 2010 we combined a visit to Taliesin West by Frank Lloyd Wright with a visit to the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. Big Mistake. Way too much to cover. We didn’t get to the MIM until 1:00, it closes at 5:00 and we lost ourselves in the first gallery which showcases musical instruments from just about every country in the world. At 4:30 we found ourselves finally in the US gallery. Since it wasn’t quite complete and we had run out of time, we decided that we needed to make a follow-up trip to the Museum.
Today, we headed over to the MIM in the morning intending to be there at the opening. Caught in traffic, we didn’t make it until 9:45. This time we started on the first floor where they had a special exhibit from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Women Who Rock. It was a history of women in Rock and Roll. It covered everyone from Bessie Smith and Billie Holliday to - well I didn’t even recognize their names, I’m so out of current pop music. The had some sheet music, a costume, an instrument, an album and a musical clip from most of the artists spotlighted here.
We next headed to the Artist’s gallery where they spotlighted artists and their instruments. Here we could see instruments, performance outfits, photos, video concert footage and other artifacts from the artists spotlighted. Here’s a guitar from Eric Clapton, one of my favorite blues guitarists. And they have a piano of John Lennon’s.
When I was a teacher in New Hampshire, Gary and I drove up to Portland, Maine where he was playing a concert on a Thursday night. I, of course, bought a concert t-shirt. The next day I wore one of my teacher suits into school but in the first 5 minutes of each class that day, I took off the jacket and there was my concert t-shirt. Boy, did the kids laugh. A teacher with a concert t-shirt? They had a great time with that one.
Here are the lyrics to Pretty Woman by Roy Orbinson in his own handwriting.
Also on the ground floor was a room devoted to electronic music, and here were calliopes, player pianos and a large instrument called an apollonia, pictured below. But, seeing the instrument is nothing compared to hearing it played which we were able to hear when at 2:00 they had an apollonia concert. We all gathered around, the docent turned on the computer and the instrument started up. First the lights came on, the music started, we all started grinning and tapping our toes. What a treat.
Also in this room we saw what is called a Theramin, an instrument pictured below being played by Clara Rockmore whose story is as interesting as the instrument itself. She began as a violin virtuouso but, because bone problems due to childhood malnutrition caused her to abandon the violin, she took up the theramin. The instrument consists of two ‘antennas’ one vertical and one horizontal. Interestingly, the artist never actually touches these antennas but waves her or his hands next to them to cause variations in pitch and frequency. Now, if you understand this, then you probably did better than I in physics. I saw a video of her playing this instrument which sounded somewhat like a vibrating saw, though I’m sure that a concert Theraminist would take exception to this description. Extremely interesting instrument and there are instructions online even today for building your own Theramin. It is also being played today as an electronic instrument and maybe you saw it being played in a recent episode of the TV comedy ‘The Big Bang Theory.’
We also made it up to the USA exhibit where we finally finished off what we had missed the first time there. Here is an example of a typical exhibit in the museum: you can see the costumes, the instruments, a video and, because you’re wearing a headset, as you near an exhibit the music from that exhibit begins to play.
What an excellent museum. It is interesting, comprehensive, informative and just plain fun to hear all the ways that we humans can make music. There’s an introductory display on the ground floor showing all the different types of guitars that have been developed around the world. Just about every country has a stringed instrument like the guitar, a flute and a type of drum.
Obviously, the answer to the first 3 questions is the Musical Instrument Museum, the next 3 answers are: the Beatles, Elvis and Lady Gaga. We even saw this raw meat dress - yecch.
We then saw this car in a sales lot. I’ve never seen an Arabic license plate. And, on a Chevy.
Nor have I ever seen a $120,000 convertible next to a $360,000 sedan.
But, in this car lot you can find Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Aston Martins, Ferrraris, etc.
We weren’t sure where to park our Jeep.
Interesting timing for your visit to the MIM and the theramin. We're fans of a British detective series called "Midsommer Murders". It has a very haunting theme song. We watched an episode last night that had an "extra" segment about the series. The theme is done on a theramin. We spent two full days at the MIM. We've been to Cibo's. There is a Penske Racing Museum in the car complex where you took Gary's picture. It's not a huge museum, but it tells the story of the racing dynasty of Penske's champion drivers and has some of the famous cars. You're probably not racing fans, but it's interesting, and it's FREE (it's a little tricky to find, but we think we remember it was by the Jaguars). It's worth a stop if you're in that area again. Roger Penske owns the dealership complex.
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