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The Catalog
This catalog site is designed so that it can be searched by keyword, collection, type of instrument, and date. It contains information on instruments in the possession of Duke University, with the exception of modern practice and performance pianos.
Modern Orchestral System
Woodwinds
Brass
Percussion
Keyboard
Strings
Paintings
Books
Periodicals
Printed Music
Manuscripts
Recordings
Miscellaneous
Hornbostel-Sachs
Idiophones
Membranophones
Chordophones
Aerophones
Electrophones
The Collections
Eddy
De Hen-Bijl
Miller
DUMIC
Collegium
Replica Harpsichords and Fortepianos
Organs
Music Department Instruments
Contact Info
Dr. Brenda Neece, DPhil (Oxon.)
Curator, DUMIC
Box 90665
Durham, NC 27708-0665
USA
Tel: 919-660-3320
Fax: 919-660-3301
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About DUMIC
The Duke University Musical Instrument Collections(DUMIC) are founded on the flagship collection, the G. Norman and Ruth G. Eddy Collection of Musical Instruments, which arrived here in Durham in 2000. The Eddy Collection has inspired further generous gifts and the acquisition of the Frans and Willemina de Hen-Bijl Collection of Musical Instruments, which arrived at Duke in 2003. The Robert D. Miller Collection of replicas of early instruments and related materials, including a small library of printed music, was bequeathed to DUMIC in 2006. The other instruments in the collection were given as individual gifts, and are classified as part of the overall DUMIC collections. While the Eddy Collection consists primarily of instruments and paintings of instruments from America and Europe, Duke’s de Hen Collection includes over 200 musical instruments, 100 reel-to-reel field recordings, and 1000 slides of instruments from all over the world. The de Hen Collection together with the Eddy Collection, the Miller Collection, and other individual gifts make up DUMIC.
It is the aim of DUMIC to provide students, scholars, performers, and interested members of the public with access to these instruments in order to foster awareness and interest in music of the past and an understanding of the complex network of interrelationships among the areas of cultural history, composition, performance, and the art of instrument making. Highlights include instruments from the time of Mozart and Beethoven, the American Civil War, and instruments from around the world, including objects from the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Asia.
DUMIC Activities
The collections have already inspired performances by professionals such as Don Eagle, Randall Love, and Rebecca Troxler. A collaboration with the Duke University Libraries has resulted in the creation of the Rare Music Series that is currently in its second season, offering free, interactive programs once per month during the academic year (September-April).
The interdisciplinary area of organology, or the study of musical instruments, seems to be gaining popularity among the Duke University student body. The first courses taught using DUMIC instruments have been very well received by students. The curator usually has the maximum number of independent study students allowed by Duke working on diverse projects related to the Eddy and de Hen instruments, each applying his/her expertise gained in other departments to his/her study of the instruments. To students, the most appealing aspect of the collections of instruments is that as undergraduates, they are able to do primary research on museum quality objects.
DUMIC has already provided inspiration and primary materials for award-winning student projects such as a study of Indian string instruments by David Boldt (Civil Engineering, 2003), a study of the symbolic role of musical instruments in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century English church bands by Alexandra Jones (Religion, 2003), and a social history and photographic study by R. Thad Parsons, III (History of Science, 2003) who is continuing his studies at the University of Oxford. Other student work has included Michael Zordan’s (Biomedical Engineering, 2005) and John-Paul Kimbrough’s (Music, 2005) project to create an initial website that preceded this one, and a research project that resulted in a display and a lecture recital by Michael Johnson (Music and Chemistry, 2004). More recent work by Sheena Baratono (Biology & Music, 2007) demonstrated the universal appeal of the violin and its many manifestations around the world. Another recent project by Teniola Adedipe (Public Policy & Philosophy, 2007) explored funding opportunities for non-profits such as small museums. This website is the product of an extensive independent study by David Wehrs (Economics, 2007).
About the Eddy Collection
The G. Norman & Ruth G. Eddy Collection consists of about 400 American and European instruments and 100 paintings. It was acquired by Duke alumnus G. Norman Eddy (1906-2000) and his wife Ruth over a period of many years; in addition to musical instruments, it includes some 100 remarkable trompe l’oeil paintings by Dr. Eddy depicting the evolution, cross-sections, and other technical details of the instruments. The Eddy Collection is unique in the Southeast and creates an opportunity for in-depth study of the development of musical instruments, history of instrument technology, historically informed performance practice, and instrument conservation. The collection is also particularly strong as a resource for students of 19th-century American culture and brass bands.
One of the stipulations of the gift made by the Eddys is that some of the instruments should be maintained in playing condition, so that performers can experience 18th- and 19th-century music on historical instruments. This creates many dilemmas for the curatorial staff, but is ultimately a wonderful resource for the University and the wider community.
The Eddy Collection, which arrived in Durham in 2000, has already inspired further generous gifts, notably the 1794 Kirckman square piano given by Alexander and Kathy Silbiger in memory of Gian Lyman (1931-1974), “The Red Cello” – possibly one of the earliest American-made cellos – given by Jim Craig, and the acquisition (from Belgian organologist Ferdinand J. de Hen) of the Frans and Willemina de Hen Collection of Musical Instruments from around the world (about 200 items).
The maintenance of the Eddy Collection at Duke is made possible through the generosity of the Ethel Sieck Carrabina Fund.
About the De Hen-Bijl Collection
Duke’s Frans & Willemina de Hen-Bijl Collection includes over 200 instruments, 100 reel-to-reel field recordings, and over 1000 slides of musical instruments from all over the world that were collected by prominent Belgian organologist and ethnomusicologist Professor Ferdinand J. de Hen whose main interests are the history and structure of classical European, Indian, and African musical instruments.
Named for his parents, the collection was acquired during his research expeditions. His collecting journeys were often quite exciting. He traveled through much of Afghanistan on horseback collecting instruments. While there he also followed a Khutchi tribe on foot for days without making contact; as de Hen recalled, “They have to invite you otherwise they may shoot you . . . I finally was invited.” Once on his travels he ate bread with currants that turned out to be flies. He also had some interesting adventures in Macedonia: one night he slept in a flea-infested bed on his travels there and one day he was shown around by the mayor of Berovo who was wearing his newest acquisition – a pair of pyjamas. De Hen remembers that in Morocco he was cured by a medicine man: “I was ‘cured’ from fever by members of the Ait bu Guemmez tribe . . . beating the whole night on their drums – a dead man would have got out because of the noise!” In Irian Jaya (New Guinea) he narrowly escaped being kidnapped by the Dani tribe. He ended up spending some time among them and was amused by the fact that the men were completely naked except for calabashes; apparently they took pride in bragging about and comparing calabash sizes. He was adopted twice: once by an old Berber woman in the Ahansali tribe (Morocco) and another time by Princess Thopi in her clan in Swaziland. Even at home he was reminded of his travels: he “had a wonderful butterfly come out in Belgium from an instrument brought back from Swaziland.”
De Hen received his training in Antwerp, Louvain, Cologne, and London. He has degrees in Colonial and Administrative Sciences and Political and Administrative Sciences from the Institute Universitaire des Territoires d’Outremer, Antwerp. He also has a degree in African Linguistics from the University of Louven, and a doctorate in musicology and anthropology from Cologne University, with a dissertation on African instruments. While doing his doctorate he did a research course on African and Indian Music at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University. Now mostly retired, de Hen has worked as a scientific collaborator and research assistant at the Museum of Instruments in Brussels, as the Director of the Artistic Humanities (Brussels), as Professor of the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth (Waterloo), and Professor & Head of Department in Musicology at the State University (Ghent), as Professor of the Hoger Instituut voor Dramatische Kunst (Antwerp), and a guest Professor at the University of Keele (UK). In 1987 he was appointed to the Peter Paul Rubens chair at the University of California, Berkeley, he became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences (Brussels) in 1989, and a member of the Academie europeenne des Sciences et des Arts (Paris) in 2003. He has also given lectures at Osaka, Kyoto, Cologne, Belfast, Denver, Brussels, Antwerp, and The Hague. He has published seven books and some 250 articles, including a book with Roger Bragard on the history of instruments that has been translated into several languages.
About the Miller Collection
Duke alumnus Dr. Robert D. Miller (1941-2006) bequeathed his collection of replicas of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque musical instruments to the Duke University Musical Instrument Collections. The Miller Collection arrived on campus late in 2006, and many of the instruments have been on display in the upper lobby of the Mary Duke Biddle Music Building from January 2007.
The Miller Collection includes over 30 musical instruments, related sheet music, wooden music stands, and display mounts for his instruments. Most of the instruments are in playing condition.
A native North Carolinian, Dr. Miller was educated in the Chapel Hill public elementary and high schools, graduating as valedictorian of his class at Chapel Hill High School in June of 1959. He attended Davidson College from 1959 to 1960 and then studied at the University of London and the University of Vienna before returning to Davidson in 1961. He graduated cum laude from Davidson College in June 1964. He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry here at Duke in 1972 for his dissertation, “A Study of the Changes in Histones During Evolution and Development” and his M.D. in 1973 from the Duke Medical School. He was also a resident in Psychiatry at Duke from 1973 through 1976. Throughout his career he published extensively and taught Forensic Psychiatry in the contexts of both Health Sciences and Law programs. Before his death not only was he a Professor of Psychiatry, but he also served as Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Denver College of Law and as the Director of the Forensic Fellowship Program at the University of Colorado.