Memorietafel Smedegilde Buurkerk Utrecht

Museum Speelklok (previously known as ''Museum van Speelklok tot Pierement'') is a museum in

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in the city of

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

specializing in self-playing musical instruments. Since 1984, it has been housed in the centre of Utrecht in a former church called Buurkerk. Among the instruments on display are music boxes, musical clocks, pianolas,

barrel organ A barrel organ (also called roller organ or crank organ) is a French mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated. The basic principle is the sam ...

s (including the typically Dutch large street organs) and a turret clock with a

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoni ...

, most of which are still able to play for visitors. The word ''speelklok'' means musical clock. Over the years the museum has become popular nationwide and also internationally. The museum's restoration workshops are a leader in their field, and are known for their excellent standards.

History of the museum

The museum had its origins in an exhibition of mechanical organs and other musical automata in Utrecht in the summer of 1956. The great success of this led to the creation of a permanent national museum dedicated to mechanical musical instruments. Since 1984 the museum's has been housed in the central

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

Buurkerk (citizens' church) and was officially opened by

Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husban ...

Royal Music Machines exhibition

For its 50-year Jubilee in 2006 the museum held a special exhibition, "Royal Music Machines". For this event, various renowned museums, including the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the larges ...

, the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York, and the

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal d ...

in Vienna, loaned very special instruments.

Influence and coverage in media

In 2016, Swedish musician Martin Molin visited Museum Speelklok and stated that the experience inspired him to build Marble Machine, an instrument constructed with plywood that plays music through the use of falling metal marbles. Molin's retired Marble Machine was transported to Museum Speelklok as a temporary attraction in Summer 2017. In August 2017, Molin announced a weekly video series on streaming site

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

that showcased various instruments from the museum in a series known as 'Music Machine Mondays'.

References

External links

Official website

Music Machine Mondays
- A playlist of videos about the machines at the museum {{Authority control Museums established in 1956 Music box museums Museums in Utrecht (city) Amusement museums Music organisations based in the Netherlands

History of the museum

Royal Music Machines exhibition

Influence and coverage in media

See also

References

External links