Ringve Museum
U. Peter Svensson1, Mats Krouthén2(Pictures (c) Ringve Museum)1

Acoustics Research Centre, Dept. of Electronics and Telecommunications, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway
2
Ringve Museum, Lade Allé 60, NO-7041 Trondheim, Norway

RingveMuseumislocated in Trondheim,
Norway,andhouses
Norway'sNational
museum of music andmusicalinstrumentswith collections fromthewholeworld,
totalling around 1800
items. About 700 ofthese are so calledclassical
European
instruments
besides
European- andnon-European
Ringve Museum, The main building
traditional instruments.
In addition to this thecollection consists of around 25000 sheet music prints, anextensive collection of photographs, a sound archive withpianola rolls, polyphon records, phonograph rolls,andvarious phonograms.
The Museum's keyboard
instrument collection
includes an unsigned
Italian virginal fromaround the 1600, a
spinet from ca 1700,
a large selection ofclavichords from the1700s, a harpsichordby
Jacob
Kirckmanfrom1767,
hammerpianossignedJ.A.
Stein 1783 and Conrad
Graf 1826 and a harp
Ringve Museum, The Museum at theBarnpiano by Chr. Dietz from around 1870. Important instrumentsfrom the collection of classic wind instruments are thealto recorder by J.B. Gahn around 1700, a clarinet quartet
by Bilton, London around 1840. Other key instruments are
string instruments like the violin by H&A Amati 1612, violad'amore by Eberle, Prag 1755, viola da gamba from theworkshop of Tielke, Hamburg around 1700 and electronic
instruments like a Subharchord II synthesizer from 1968 etc.
Traditional
Norwegian
instruments make up alarge section of thecollection and include
forexamplehardanger
fiddles from the 17- and1800s, Norwegian zithers,
so-called"langeleik",from various parts ofthe country and a richselection of instruments
used at the mountain
farm, for hunting, at
important ceremonies etc.
All continents of theworld
arerepresentedwithtraditionalinstruments
fromforexample Africa, Latin-America, Oceania and Asia. Amongst
these, important collections come from Tibet, India anddifferent countries of Eastern Europe.
Ringve Museum, Main building,the Beethoven room

The exhibition has twoparts. The Museum in
the Manor House has
been kept very much
like it was when it
openedin1952
byVictoria Bachke. Thispart
canonlybevisited with one of
the museum guides. The
wellpreservedinteriors
fromthe1880s are the settingforachronological

Ringve Museum, A guide plays theclavichord

tour of parts of the European classical music history. The
various rooms are named after famous composers, and theguide demonstrates a selection of keyboard instruments withmusic appropriate for that time.
Due to climatic conditions this building is only available
during the summer months.
The Museum in the Barn opened in 1999 and presents some of
the many various phenomena of music history such as thedevelopment of the public musical life through the musicalsocieties, the private music making in the homes of themiddle- and upper classes in the 1800s, the introduction ofa new era with the invention of the piano 300 years ago,the growth of jazz in the 1920s and -30s and the first
decade of rock- and pop music represented for one by aRock- Ola jukebox from 1948 and a Gibson Les Paul guitar
from 1952. Further, the exhibition demonstrates how soundis made, even up to the electronic instruments of today.
The barn also houses a museum shop as well as a small 300
m2 concert hall which was built in 1960 by converting thestables on the ground floor.
In addition to the instrument exhibitions, the onlyprofessional
workshopforconservation
ofmusical
instruments in Norway is located at Ringve Museum. Hereextensive
analysesaremade,andconservation
anddocumentation carried out. Research within an international
network of related institutions all over the world is partof the work.
The founder of Ringve Museum, Victoria Bachke, has acolourful history. She was born in Russia but married theNorwegian Christian Bachke who lived at the Manor of Ringve.
After her husband's death in 1946, Victoria started
collecting musical instruments and this would develop into
the museum collection. She had an impressive network ofacquaintances, built up during her frequent travels, often
in company with her sister Valentine, an opera singer. The
collecting was done painstakingly by travelling around theworld, and many histories flourish around the various deals
that Victoria broke. One of the most famous stories is on
the so-called "Versailles cembalo", on display in themuseum today. The 18th-century cembalo was acquired in
Paris from the widow of the French professor in music, PaulBertold. Originally it came from a castle in Switzerlandbut had been used, during a period, in Versailles forconcerts. Many of the instruments came as a result of timeconsuming negotiations in which Victoria used all her charm,bargaining and persuasion abilities - all according to themyths and rumours that have developed around this founderof the Museum.
More information can be found at the website of the museum,at www.ringve.no.