Musical Offerings, Fall 2019

Musical Offerings ⦁ 2019 ⦁ Volume 10 ⦁ Number 2 93 Musical Offerings 10, no. 2 (2019): 93–97 ISSN 2330-8206 (print); ISSN 2167-3799 (online) © 2019, Elaina V. Hutton, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ) The Basel Museum of Music: Instrumental History Elaina V. Hutton Cedarville University asel, Switzerland: the home to an abundance of rich historical and cultural significance. One jewel set among countless treasures is the Basel Historical Museum—specifically, the Museum of Music. Unique musical history adorns every crevice of the small three-story building in which the museum is housed. The following discussion serves to detail the background and significance of a select few of the remarkable instruments displayed in the Museum of Music. Housed in the museum is a beautiful collection of harps. Among the most notable instruments of the museum’s curation is a magnificent harp built by renowned harp maker Sébastien Erard. The French musician and master craftsman played a significant role in the development of the harp as a modern instrument in the eighteenth century. Erard greatly improved the structure of the instrument, correcting tuning errors and structural instability that created difficulties in performance situations. 1 Witnessing Erard’s handiwork is a rewarding experience, and observing the detail he incorporated into the instrument allows for a deeper appreciation of the harp and its development. An interesting element in models of early eighteenth-century English harps is that, in addition to the seven pedals controlling pitch, many also possessed an eighth pedal, which was intended to control a mechanism that caused a sustained pitch on the lower strings, similar to the effect achieved by the sustain pedal on a piano (Figure 1). 1 Lee-Fei Chen, “The Emergence of the Double-Action Harp as the Standard Instrument: Pleyel’s Chromatic Harp and Erard’s Double-Action Harp,” (PhD diss., University of Miami, 2008): 18–19. https://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/oa_dissertations/109 . B