BREMF and Brighton Museum collaborated on this interesting event which allowed us to discover some of Brighton Museums’ collection of historic musical instruments, with a talk by Richard Earle an instrument maker & restorer and a curator from the collection along with a chance to see some of the collection up close.
Taking place in the superbly interesting room of the Museum Lab, at the top end of Brighton Museum this was a lovely interesting and very satisfying relaxed lecture/talk about the evolution, construction and development of various of the instruments in the museums extensive collection. Mainly focusing on Oboes, Clarinets and flutes the discussion took us from reed beds in the south of France, via ancient Greek pipes to the shifting of cannon boring technology to music, the development of the lathe and the characteristics and the density of box wood. We toured the history of these instruments, and some of their creators with a fantastically curious collection laid out in front of us to observe and understand the intricate incremental changes which lead to the instruments we know so well today. Richard Earle, a Lewes-based oboe maker and player had endless fascinating throw away facts which would have taken a whole lecture just to tease apart and explore on their own and his charming modest and amusing tone kept the more arcane and technical sides of the talk interesting for a non player. It’s such a pleasure to listen to someone talk about a subject they not only love with a passion but also understand with an encyclopedic breadth. He was charming.
There was an equally charming curator who had introduced the collection and gave us an insight into both the collectors, and the context of their (our?) collection and how it came to be part of the rich store of Brighton’s heritage. Further information on this Spencer Collection of Musical Instruments can be found here.
I learned a lot today and enjoyed myself listening to learned folk give me a measured insight into musical heritage. It’s always a pleasure to learn and when it’s in such lovely surroundings – a treat. After some questions, and more superb precise but sideways rambling (in the best possible way) answers we were given an opportunity to hear Richard Earle play one of the oboes, although only for a very short time this was superbly evocative and then could look over the selected instruments with guidance and assistance from the curator at hand.
Richard Earle is also one of the artistic directors of the delightful ‘The Workshop Series’ in Lewes, these classical music concerts are based at the workshop of harpsichord maker Malcolm Rose and clavichord maker Karin Richter, in Lewes. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, with concerts for the next few months -you can book tickets here.
