Markneukirchen im Vogtland has one of the most remarkable collections of musical instruments in Germany. The problem: she is special. But the new head of the museum has ideas on how to awaken the splendor of history that is still dormant.
He was “overwhelmed, but also struck down,” said Kim Grote when he took up his position as the new director of the Markneukirchen Musical Instrument Museum a few months ago. The overwhelm is understandable: the museum’s collection has it all in its multifaceted splendor and shows the development of string, wind and plucked instrument making in an almost incomprehensible wealth of detail. Anyone who thinks that violins, clarinets or horns look just the way they do, will find plenty of developmental steps and oddities in the museum: For music lovers and friends of instruments, the house is therefore always worth several visits, because the collection can hardly be grasped in a few hours .
Showcases at ankle height
However, being struck down is also understandable: the picturesque “Paulus-Schlöß’l”, in which the museum is mainly housed, has been bursting at the seams for years. Even at ankle height, there are sometimes showcases to show the impressive collection in a reasonably informative way. The city of Markneukirchen has known for many years that this has nothing to do with a modern museum presentation – but the problem could only be solved with an opulent new building: a project for which the funds are simply not available.
The musicologist Grote therefore wants to try to put the city’s treasures in a better light with a different approach: “The focus of the collection is very local, you don’t find that in other cities like Berlin or Leipzig. They tend to score with outstanding ones Specialties that are not so available here,” he says: “In Markneukirchen, however, the local character is a special feature. The museum here is not a historic house. Because the craft of the instrument maker is still practiced through history, there is a direct connection between the collection and living practice.”
Show more stored
This is currently only discreetly exposed in the museum. Among other things, a glimpse into a violin maker’s workshop can be seen, but the collection contains many more exhibits from the manufacturing process that cannot be shown at the moment. Grote’s idea: “I want to show more of these stored pieces in the future. We have to become a museum for making musical instruments instead of just being an instrument show.”
He is well aware that Markneukirchen has always attracted significantly more trade visitors than other musical instrument collections, which mainly attract tourists. The house has to take this into account: “A historical context is usually more useful for a collection like this than a systematic one, as is shown in Markneukirchen,” says the director: “The visitors come with certain things
Of steel strings and recorders
Knowledge of history, knowing the music of the different epochs, makes it easier to classify the exhibits. However, for a specialist audience who is deeply involved in the material and already familiar with the instruments, the systematic approach is attractive and opens up new perspectives. We don’t want to neglect that.” Grote therefore wants to use this to open up the many stories that lie dormant in the collection for laypeople as well. After all, Christian Friedrich Martin, the inventor of today’s steel-string acoustic guitar, came from Markneukirchen, for example, and rang the bell here in the 1920s -years ago, the instrument maker Peter Harlan initiated the renaissance of the recorder as a school instrument, and this is where Germany’s first violin makers’ guild came into being.And these are just a few examples: Countless small and large innovations in instrument making have often had a very large impact on music history from here. Grote wants to better bring these exciting details together with the great history: “Currently, the exhibition simply doesn’t tell enough, there are no technical connections,” he says.
In essence, the museum staff have been trying to solve this problem for some time with personal tours that offer eye-opening experiences. But that cannot do justice to the true treasure of the collection: with a better presentation, the show should be made to “speak” itself. “The Vogtland musical instrument making has been an immaterial cultural heritage for several years,” says the director: “We have to make a lot of it in the future!”