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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: COUNTRIES
Africa
A large group of 19th century instruments from Africa includes a fine example of a quwaytara (four-course lute) from Morocco and other instruments associated with the art music of North-west Africa.
An Azande harp from the Sudan in the collection of the Horniman Museum was recently assessed by Eric de Dampierre as 'a masterpiece'. Whistles collected from the same cultural area by the anthropologist E.E. Evans-Pritchard date from the mid-1920s.
Research projects by the following individuals in the latter half of the last century have brought further collections to the museum:
- Jean Jenkins, the curator of musical instruments from the late 1950s to 1978, made a large collection of musical instruments relating to religious ritual in Ethiopia in the mid 1960s, together with sound recordings now housed in the National Museums of Scotland and the National Sound Archive.
- Shirley Marx (1989) - a collection showing the manufacturing process of the contemporary mbira dza vadzimu in Zimbabwe.
- Keith Nicklin (1970s-1990s) Ibo pot drums and Yoruba bata drums from Nigeria.
- Professor Michael Pennie (1999) a systematic collection of instruments made by the Lobi peoples of Ghana.
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