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Barrel Organ, 1880
MADE BY BACIGALUPO-SÒHNE
GERMANY
At a time when most popular music was performed in concert halls
by professional musicians, the portable, self-playing barrel organ
gave people the opportunity to listen to music and—for those
without training—to play it. The Italian organ builde Giovanni
Bcigalupo, who immigrated to Germany in 1873, manufactured
this particular organ sometime around 1880 in Berlin. His family
continued to produce such instruments in their Prenzlauer Berg
factory for over a century, closing it in 1977.

GRETA KRAUS
HARPSICHORD, 1954
DOUBLE MANUAL
MADE BY KURT WITTMAYER
GERMANY
This “revival” harpsichord was custom-made by renowned
German builder Kurt Wittmayer for Canadian harpsichordist
Greta Kraus. A native of Austria, Kraus immigrated to Canada in
1938—where she taught at the Royal Conservatory of Music and
was a founder of the Toronto Baroque Ensemble. She also helped
popularize the revival harpsichord, a recreation of earlier historical
instruments that employed early 20th-century piano-building
techniques and materials.
On loan from ... and ... Canada | Prêté de ... et ... le Canada

CLAVICHORD, 1926
UNFRETTED
MADE BY ARNOLD DOLMETSCH
UK
Considered an early ancestor of the piano, the clavichord began to
fall out of favour around 1700—after the emergence of the more
mechanically efficient piano. The clavichord seen here, however, was
manufactured much later by the French-English instrument builder
Arnold Dolmetsch. Dolmetsch was one of the key figures in the
20th-century revival of early music and a pioneer in reconstructing
instruments using historical designs. He was also single-handedly
responsible for making the recorder—an instrument little used after
the renaissance era—the entry level learning tool for amateurs.