[Skip to content] [Skip to main navigation] [Skip to user navigation] [Skip to global search] [Accessibility information] [Contact us]

Displays

The Horniman's internationally renowned collection of musical instruments is displayed in a dynamic gallery. Its breathtaking displays include some 1,600 instruments from around the world, the largest number on display in the UK.

The gallery also features short films linking instruments on display to the cultures and contexts in which they are played. You can listen to the music of some instruments at sound stations. Instruments can be played in the Hands On Space, and live performances are held in a dedicated space at the far end of the gallery.

On display in the Music Gallery:

  • The rhythms of life: a glimpse of how music and musical instruments accompany the milestones of life around the world, from Yoruba naming ceremonies to weddings in Uzbekistan and funerals in Cameroon
     
  • The ideal sound: explores how instruments are made and developed and the roles that musicians, makers and inventors play in this process through the following themes.
     
  • Seeking sounds: the creation of the English concertina by Charles Wheatstone
     
  • Sound designs: instrument making at Boosey & Hawkes
     
  • Trading sounds: the migration of people and musical instruments, from the African diaspora to the music of the Americas
     
  • Listening to order: various ways of organising, or classifying musical instruments illustrate how they function and how they have changed over time. The classification display groups instruments from around the world according to how they produce sound. The Carse Collection display traces the development of wind instruments from the 18th through the 20th centuries.

Objects from the following collections are displayed in the Music Gallery:

  • Dolmetsch Collection
  • Wayne Collection
  • Adam Carse Collection
  • Percy Bull Collection
  • Boosey & Hawkes Collection

V&A loan

Over 40 instruments are currently on loan to the Horniman from the Victoria & Albert Museum. A handful of these can be seen in the Music Gallery. The majority are featured in the Art of Harmony exhibition, which occupies its own display space on the Horniman’s Balcony Gallery.  

 

Activity Packs

Download this activity pack to use during your visit to the Music Gallery.