A selection of recorders from the Horniman Music Gallery. © Horniman Museum.
Carolyn Bandel goes in search of her early musical roots and discovers a rich musical legacy at the Horniman Musuem.
Remember playing the recorder, while tormenting yourself to get your fingers in the right position? Blame Arnold Dolmetsch, who brought the instrument back into fashion.
On June 5 2005 its centenary will be celebrated, when it is exactly 100 years ago that Dolmetsch kick-started the revival of early music instruments such as harpsichords, viols and, of course most famously, the recorder.
Already celebrating, his granddaughters Jeanne and Margueritte Dolmetsch gave a performance at London’s Horniman museum, which has many Dolmetsch instruments on display.
The twin sisters, accompanied by harpsichordist Nigel Foster, played Baroque music on instruments from the Dolmetsch workshop to coincide with this month’s Museum and Galleries Month celebrations.
The grade-II listed Horniman Conservatory, venue of the Spring Concert Series at the museum. © Horniman Museum
Arnold Dolmetsch (1858 – 1940) is seen by many as the founder of the Early Music Movement. Even though there was a revival in finding and preserving music and instruments from before the 18th century, at the time Dolmetsch’s approach to early music was unique.
As the son of a piano maker, French-born Dolmetsch (1885 – 1940) had a natural interest in music. However, he did not want to take over his father’s business, so he married a wife ten years his senior and left for Brussels.
In 1883 he moved with his family to London where he remained throughout his working life. “For £2 he bought a Bressan recorder on June 5 1905 and that started it all,” explains Jeanne Dolmetsch.
His genius lay in practicalities rather than theory: he collected and reconstructed instruments from the Baroque and Renaissance periods.
Oboe and recorder from the Horniman Carse Collection. Photography © Heini Schneebeli.
After the Bressan – the Stradivarius of recorders – was lost, Dolmetsch needed a substitute for his concerts. “He had actually taken measurements of the recorder. It took him about three months to make the eventual prototype and many failed ones were thrown away,” says Jeanne.
Dr. Bradly Strauchen, deputy keeper of the Musical Instruments collection at the Horniman Museum, explains: “Dolmetsch was a collector, performer and scholar. But one couldn’t just go to music workshops as you can today; and you could not have tuition on a lute or a viol as you can today.”
So Dolmetsch started to make instruments and taught himself how to play them. Reproductions of the recorder Dolmetsch made are now used in schools all over the world.
Dolmetsch is unique, however, as he resurrected a forgotten repertoire by performing with his instruments.
Horniman Music Gallery, © Horniman Museum.
“Early music is true chamber music, which is played in small rooms,” says Jeanne. “It’s informal, like everyday life. It’s a true pastime.” Part of Dolmetsch's style was dressing up and performing in Baroque costumes.
In doing so, Dolmetsch revived interest in music for lutes, recorders, viols and early keyboard instruments. Think of popular Baroque compositions, fiery Italian Renaissance music and Louis XIV favourite tunes; without Dolmetsch we would never have known what they sounded like.
Unsurprisingly, Dolmetsch was an extremely well received figure by the Arts and Crafts movement and the intelligentsia at the time, as he represented the Arts and Crafts ideology, advocating a revival of traditional handicrafts.
“William Morris even encouraged him to build harpsichords and George Bernard Shaw wrote great praises about him,” according to Strauchen.
German Baroque Lute by J.C Hoffmann, Leipzig, Germany. © Heini Schneebeli.
Until July 24 2005 these traditional handicrafts of the late 19th and the early 20th century can be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the International Arts and Crafts exhibition. There will be tapestries by William Morris, a stained glass window by M.H. Baillie Scott and many more beautiful artefacts from the Arts and Crafts era.
About 100 Dolmetsch instruments, amongst which both the Bressan recorder, which was recovered five years after it was lost, and recorders by Dolmetsch himself, are on display at the Horniman – which with almost 7000 pieces is one of the largest collections of musical instruments in the world.
Jeanne Dolmetsch, in the meantime, just adores chamber music. “I find it therapeutic. It’s like playing bridge.”
Carolyn Bandel is the 24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Writer in the London region. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
Carolyn is participating in the 24 Hour Museum/ MGM Arts Writing Prize 2005.
