The Bate Collection of Musical Instruments

On Saturday I had the absolute pleasure of being at the Bate Collection Family Day! 

The Bate Collection is a collection of over 2000 musical instruments of which at least 1000 are on display, covering the Western orchestral music traditions from the renaissance, through the baroque, classical, romantic and up to modern times. Have a look at some of the lovely items on display...

    I loved the decoration on this reproduction...

There was a family trail on the go...

This is Phillip Bate (1909-1999) the collection belonged to him and comprises instruments given and leant by him to Oxford University throughout his life. It was eventually bequeathed on his death on the condition that it was used for teaching and was provided with a specialist curator to care for and lecture on it.

Check out this gem of an oven glove in the gift shop here...

The instruments below and more were on hand for kids of all ages to have a try! 

There was a talk on Theramins by the maker of some in the collection: Richard Hellyer.

There is a great Wikipedia Page on Theremins if you feel like you want to understand more about them. They are instruments which require no contact from the player, so "the controlling section usually consists of two metal antennas which sense the position of the player's hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand, and amplitude (volume) with the other, so it can be played without being touched. The electric signals from the theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker."

This was really exciting, especially for the kids at the museum, as it's almost a magical feeling playing them, and the sound produced is very otherworldly and therefore is popular for film soundtracks.

The Theremins above were simpler designs and great for introducing children to music.

The Theramin above was so fantastic, and in fact all of them are, so much so that only a video can really depict what they can do, I have just acquired a better digital camera so I did just that. Here is a short demo of the above one, I might actually add another video to this post in due course.

Richard Hellyer Theremin at Bate Collection from Ingrid Says on Vimeo.

For more details on these Theremins in particular see this local news report including an interview with Andy Lamb, curator of the Bate Collection.

If you'd like to visit the Bate, admission is free and opening hours can be found here.

Next weekend a concert is being held on Saturday evening to celebrate the Bate's 40th Anniversary and tickets are FREE, accomplished musicians will be showcasing instruments from the collection and it sounds like it will be marvellous. I wish I could go, but I've already planned a visit to Manchester.

 You must email to register for your ticket... further details are here.

So yes, I love this place, it may well be my new favourite museum!

If you are in Oxford and can visit it you won't regret it.