The Bate Collection of Musical Instruments is a collection of historic musical instruments, mainly for Western

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

, from the

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

onwards. It is housed in

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

's Faculty of Music near Christ Church on St. Aldate's. The collection is open to the public and is available for academic study by appointment. There are frequent gallery events and special exhibitions. More than a thousand instruments by important English, French and German makers, are on display, showing the musical and mechanical development of

wind Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

and

percussion instruments A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

to the current day. The Bate Collection is additionally the home of the Reginald Morley-Pegge Memorial Collection of Horns and other

Brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

and

Woodwind Instruments Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and Ree ...

; the Anthony Baines Collection; the Edgar Hunt Collection of Recorders and other instruments; the Jean Henry Collection, the Taphouse Keyboard Loans; the Roger Warner Keyboard Collection; the Michael Thomas Keyboard Collection; a number of instruments from the Jeremy Montagu Collection; a complete workshop of the English bow-maker William C Retford, as well as a small collection of Bows formed in his memory, the Wally Horwood Collection of books and recordings, and other instruments acquired by purchase and gift. Orlando Gibbons

An album, 'Voices From The Past, Vol. 2: Instruments of The Bate Collection' was released in 2015.

History

The collection is named after Philip Bate who began giving his collection of

musical instruments A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

to the University of Oxford in 1963, on the condition that it was used for teaching and was provided with a specialist curator to care for and lecture on it. The collection also houses an archive of his papers. Dr Emanuela Va

leads on all conservation, research and curatorial aspects at the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments. Bate Collection of Musical Instruments (former and current Curators and Conservators) Dr Philip Bate; Dr Horace Fitzpatrick; Dr Anthony Baines; Dr Jeremy Montagu; Dr Hélèn La Rue; Mr Andy Lamb; Dr Emanuela Vai

References

External links

Bate Collection websiteCollection catalog
1968 establishments in England Museums established in 1968 Music museums in England Museums of the University of Oxford Archives in Oxfordshire Musical instrument museums in England {{UK-museum-stub

History

See also

References

External links