Thanks for the 'heads-up', Pim.     Of course, the David Munrow programme on R4 clashes with The Prom on R3 but I can record it, separately, or listen to the Prom repeat next week.  It must now be all of 30 years since Munrow's sad demise.

I wasn't aware of David Munrow of his music until many years after his death, so this programme didn't really have any sense of nostalgia for me but I really enjoyed the manner of the presentation and the warm, joyous celebration of his work by people who obviously cared a lot. One of the finest hours of radio I have ever listened to, I think 

>> The Royal Academy of Music now owns the ancient music, books and papers <<

I wonder where his immense collection of musical instruments ended-up?  Divided amongst friends and followers?  Or collected somewhere?   Instruments are made to be played, not stuck in museums,  so I hope somehow they are getting an airing now and then?

I must dig out my copy of The Art of David Munrow, which I have as a boxed set of three cassettes. I find, though, that cassettes age the least well of all types of recording matter so I hope mine are still playable. I remember the set has many gems, as one would expect, including a song about a cricket, another about smoking and a fine version of "Oh ruddier than the cherry".

Ta for that, Ollie

I was in St Petersburg over the weekend, and made a little pilgrimage to the Museum of Musical Instruments.  Although, of course, it is marvellous that the instruments are cared for,  I found it rather sad looking at all those marvellous viola-da-gambas lined up in rows, with strings missing, bridges down, and looking most forlorn.  It would be much better if - in controlled conditions in which their preservation was assured - they were played?

There were some lovely recorders, some magnificent basset-horns, a contrabass sarrussophone, whole cases full of shawms and zurnas... all languishing unplayed

My viola teacher Natasha has a theory that "string instruments sulk if they're not played.  They need the regular use and beautiful vibrations running through them, to keep them sounding sweet and beautiful".

I am glad to hear that Munrow's instruments went to people who wanted to play them

That's a really difficult question of course... most of the time those instruments have survived without certain original pieces which are absolutely necessary for them to work. Do you get new replacements for them which means bits of them are then inauthentic, or do you preserve them as they are so when necessary people can take measurements etc. (to make replicas for example) and know that everything they're looking at is the way it was? (Happens in the visual arts anyway - not too many historical paintings are still comprised exclusively of historical paint.)

Of course winds and strings are rather different in that regard: wind instruments do deteriorate as you play them, the constant moisture exchange affects the wood, changes the shape of toneholes, the breath eventually wears away the labium of recorders... even just regulating the mechanism of a keyed wind instrument changes things like pad clearance which are vital things for replica builders to know because they affect the intonation and the way the instrument speaks... for me I think replicas are more productive to play on, you don't have to worry about what you're doing eventually reducing (in a small way of course) the sum of available historical evidence!

(Still, it's great to play on a real old instrument sometimes - I'm afraid while I was in Avignon I fell victim to the charms of a Lefèvre 13-key Eb clarinet from around 1830... here it is again in case you missed the picture! Original wooden mouthpiece which I have to be careful not to clean out too vigorously, original ivory rings... oh dear, silly me. Indeed somehow it sings like no replica I've ever played. Bother.)

Tutz in Innsbruck makes a bass chalumeau with a dragon's head bell...



Contrabass sarrusophone? Apart from the orchestral repertoire written with it in mind (which is a heck of a lot of French gear)? Scelsi Maknongan maybe... I've no idea what I'm going to play on this Eb!