Duke University Musical Instruments Collections (DUMIC)
For more information, contact Brenda Neece, curator of DUMIC and the Eddy Collection.
About DUMIC
The Duke University Musical Instrument Collections (DUMIC) are founded on the flagship collection, the G. Norman and Ruth G. Eddy Collection of Musical Instruments, which arrived here in Durham in 2000. The Eddy Collection has inspired further generous gifts and the acquisition of the Frans and Willemina de Hen-Bijl Collection of Musical Instruments, which arrived at Duke in 2003. While the Eddy Collection consists primarily of instruments and paintings of instruments from America and Europe, Duke’s de Hen Collection includes over 200 musical instruments from all over the world. The de Hen Collection together with the Eddy Collection and other individual gifts make up the DUMIC.
It
is the aim of DUMIC to provide students, scholars, performers,
and interested members of the public with access to these
instruments in order to foster awareness and interest
in music of the past and an understanding of the complex
network of interrelationships among the areas of cultural
history, composition, performance, and the art of instrument
making. Highlights include instruments from the time
of Mozart and Beethoven, the American Civil War, and
instruments from around the world, including objects
from the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Asia.
The collections have already inspired performances by professionals such as Don Eagle, Randall Love, and Rebecca Troxler. The interdisciplinary area of organology, or the study of musical instruments, seems to be gaining popularity among the Duke University student body. The first courses taught using DUMIC instruments have been very well received by students. The curator usually has the maximum number of independent study students allowed by Duke working on diverse projects related to the Eddy and de Hen instruments, each applying his/her expertise gained in other departments to his/her study of the instruments. To students, the most appealing aspect of the collections of instruments is that as undergraduates, they are able to do primary research on museum quality objects. DUMIC has already provided inspiration and primary materials for award-winning student projects such as a study of Indian string instruments by David Boldt (Civil Engineering, 2003), a study of the symbolic role of musical instruments in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century English church bands by Alexandra Jones (Religion, 2003), and a social history and photographic study by R. Thad Parsons, III (History of Science, 2003) who will be continuing his studies at the University of Oxford later this fall. Recent student work also included Michael Zordan’s (Biomedical Engineering, 2005) and John-Paul Kimbrough’s (Music, 2005) project to create a new catalog website, and a research project that resulted in a display and a lecture recital by Michael Johnson (Music and Chemistry, 2004).
About the De Hen Collection
Duke’s recently acquired Frans & Willemina de Hen-Bijl Collection includes over 200 musical instruments from all over the world that were collected by prominent Belgian organologist and ethnomusicologist Professor Ferdinand J. de Hen whose main interests are the history and structure of classical European, Indian, and African musical instruments.
About the Eddy Collection
The G. Norman & Ruth G. Eddy Collection consists of about 400 American and European instruments and 100 paintings. It was acquired by Duke alumnus G. Norman Eddy (1906-2000) and his wife Ruth over a period of many years; in addition to musical instruments, it includes some 100 remarkable trompe l'oeil paintings by Dr. Eddy depicting the evolution, cross-sections, and other technical details of the instruments. The Eddy Collection is unique in the Southeast and creates an opportunity for in-depth study of the development of musical instruments, history of instrument technology, historically informed performance practice, and instrument conservation. The collection is also particularly strong as a resource for students of 19th-century American culture and brass bands.
One of the stipulations of the gift made by the Eddys is that some of the instruments should be maintained in playing condition, so that performers can experience 18th- and 19th-century music on historical instruments. This creates many dilemmas for the curatorial staff, but is ultimately a wonderful resource for the University and the wider community.
The Eddy Collection, which arrived in Durham in 2000,
has already inspired further generous gifts, notably
the 1794 Kirckman square piano given by Alexander and
Kathy Silbiger in memory of Gian Lyman (1931-1974), “The
Red Cello” – possibly one of the earliest
American-made cellos – given by Jim Craig, and
the acquisition (from Belgian organologist Ferdinand
J. de Hen) of the Frans and Willemina de Hen Collection
of Musical Instruments from around the world (about 200
items).
The maintenance of the Eddy Collection at Duke is made possible through the generosity of the Ethel Sieck Carrabina Fund.