76 Trombones

Well, maybe not, but certainly hundreds of instruments.

After spending weekend time getting things in order, preparing for the new week, and avoiding a really cold day, I took advantage of a lesson cancellation today to keep a promise to myself: I will visit the Museum of Music. One side note -- I tried earlier and simply could not make enough correct turns to find it. I knew from my original accidental discovery that it would be worth whatever effort another attempt required.

The Museum's new home is a very old space. It was originally the Church of St. Magdalene in the Lesser Town (same side of the river, just down the hill from The Castle, side by side by side with neighbors built in the same century -- the 17th!). It belonged to a Dominican Monastery which was closed in 1783 -- we're talking way over 100 years as a church before spending time as a post office, a police barracks, and an archive, among other things. There behind an enormous, heavy, dark old door which could be an entrance to any one of hundreds of Prague buildings is a clean 20th century renovation. Just through the swish of an electric-eye door is an enormous four-story hall with clean lines and an invitation to whisper or yell -- no middle choice there. And then, just at the next turn of a corner there are little nooks, small details which absolutely breathe church/sacred music/whispering cassocks. To stand at the first-floor railing overlooking what once must have been the "sanctuary" and nearly break a vertebrae looking up -- what an incredible view. Couldn't help but wonder what those windows must have seen, those walls must have heard.

All this is all before the instruments enter the scene. Yes, I saw Mozart's piano (or at least one of them), a krumhorn and other instruments (which were until now only organ stops/registration for me), 16 incredible flutes (teeny to huge) in only one of the display cases, two (not just one) glass harmoniums, square pianos, a giraffe piano, quarter-tone pianos, first attempts which became music makers we all recognize and those which left the scene nearly as early as they joined it. Oh my oh my. Walk and walk and walk, stop/look/listen -- there are marvelous listening posts nearly everywhere, and, more than anything, feel like such a small drop of water in the marvelous river of musical history.

About those trombones -- they and many, many other brass, woodwind, few-stringed and multiple-stringed instruments are there. And you should see the harps -- a whole room of them. By the way, the cases for some of the pianos simply defy description. Incredible woodworking!

What a way to start a week! And as I closed the door behind me I renewed my promise to return.