aaaFriends of the Bateaaa Michaelmas Term 2016

Events Calendar

Bate Concert - Improviso presents "European Connection" Sunday 13th November 6pm Holywell Music Room Newly-founded chamber ensemble Improviso present music from eighteenth century Europe, including works by J.S. Bach, Telemann, and Sammartini. Featuring instruments from the Bate Collection. Tickets £10.00 (concs £6.00) Bate Concert – Prince Regent’s Band Tuesday 29 November – 7.30pm Holywell Music Room Tickets £12.00 (concs £6.00) Theremin Workshops with Lydia Kavina Saturday 19 November (7th Week) 10.00am – 5.00pm LRA Bookings in Advance via Bate Collection 24th – 28th October (half term week) 2 – 5 pm Gallery activities including trails, colouring and word-searches. [Free of charge, no advanced booking necessary]

ReSounding – Creating an app - Continued

In the previous newsletter we reported on our work with Ted Koterwas of the University IT department in developing an app to be downloaded onto smart-phones. Since that time we have been busily recording and creating the necessary files to produce the completed sound fonts. We have had a great amount of assistance from the Music Faculty in the provision of sound-recording facilities, microphones and the relevant technical back-up. We also had a great deal of cooperation from Colin Harrison of the Ashmolean Museum. He gave us access to the Kirckman harpsichord and also found a historical violin and violinist as a substitute for the Messiah. Amongst the various contributors to the project have been Anneke Scott, Dave Edwards, Fatima Lahham, George Haggett, Steve Greenslade, Isabelle Carre and Tom Dixon, all of whom have worked extensively with the Collection and made multiple contributions to our work at many levels.

The recordings and technical applications having been completed Ted is now in a position to give the app a public airing. Accordingly, he will be in the gallery on the afternoon of 6th September, accosting members of the public to seek their honest and frank views on the project.

The Prince Regent’s Band – Concert 29th November

The Bate Collection Faculty of Music University of Oxford St Aldate’s OX1 1DB 01865 286261

Contacts: Chair – Sarah Montagu: sarahmontagu@googlemail.com Secretary – Andy Lamb: andrew.lamb@music.ox.ac.uk

WORKSHOP CONTENTS FROM THE CHANOT FAMILY - Continuing

Since we acquired the Chanot violin-making tools in November of last year, with funding from the Friends, a considerable amount of work has been completed by volunteers, work-experience students and our summer work student, Ben Goodall, a previous work-experience placement. One of the main motivators for us to get on with all the work necessary in documentation, conservation and cataloging was to get the material in such good condition as to afford public access as soon as possible. No less of a motivation was that we had to make our Accreditation submission and report that we had no catalogue back-log. I am pleased to report that no such back-log exists and that the accreditation submission has been made in good time.

The main bulk of the documentation and cataloguing has been made by Chris Greenough and Ben Goodall. Chris has taken on the lengthy and detailed task of entering each item in the Accessions Register, allocating each a Unique Identifying Number and labelling accordingly. This is no easy task, not least because some of the items seem to defy identification. We are trying very hard not to include entries such as “Miscellaneous piece of wood” or “Unidentifiable thingy” so Chris’s work has required quite a lot of background research and sober reflection. Despite this, he has progressed steadily to the extent that he is well over two-thirds of the way through. The next part of the process has been taken over by Ben. This is the main cataloguing part of the job. Each item has to have its number marked according to museum documentation standards. It is then photographed, an entry made in the catalogue database and then stored in the recently-purchased plan chest. By the end of August Ben had reached a point where all of the check-listed material had been marked and catalogued.

Of equal importance has been the work of our conservation volunteers. During the year we have been hosting our usual conservation volunteers programme. This year a particularly committed team undertook the basic cleaning of the Chanot tools. We have a ‘frontier’ conservation approach at the Bate, which means we are prepared to make do with our modest resources. This has resulted in a breathtakingly successful object cleaning programme and we can be proud when we display the items.

Chanot tools in visible storage in the plan chest Ben Goodall busily cataloguing

Recent Acquisitions

The Bate continues to collect examples of instruments and other musical material. Since our last newsletter we have received a half-moon bugle by Shaw of London

Fanfare trumpet by Boosey & Hawkes donated by Peter Rhodes of Halifax

The Half-Moon bugle

The first verifiable formal use of a brass bugle as a military signal device was the Halbmondbläser, or half-moon bugle, used in Hanover in 1758. It was U-shaped (hence its name) and carried by a leather shoulder strap attached at the mouthpiece and bell. It first spread to England in 1764 where it was gradually accepted widely in foot regiments. William Shaw (b1754; d?1823) is listed in the New Langwill Index. Originally registered as a brazier, by 1790 he was listed as “French Horn and trumpet maker to the King. By 1800 he was also listed as ‘ironmonger’. A set of ten silver trumpets from his workshop are preserved in the Royal Collections in the Tower of London. The Bate also holds an early coiled bugle by Shaw dated c1800.

Half-moon bugle by Shaw of London. Donated by the Friends of the Bate. This was demonstrated at our

gallery recital on 31st May by Frank Dorritie and Dave Edwards

Bate Report

The Bate Collection continues to provide a diverse range of museum services to students, visiting scholars and other visitors. Visitor figures this year have been in excess of 6290. We were particularly busy during Trinity term and the early summer. Visitors have been from all over the world and many comments in the visitors’ books reflect the wonderful experiences that they have had at the Collection. There have been 35 visiting researchers on a range of topics including the study of historical instruments, archival records, museology and some of the more technical aspects of the Collection. A continuing project has looked at scanning and 3D printing of instruments in the collection. This has generated some excitement in the wider musical instrument world and formed the subject of a special interest article for publication in a number of journals. Our continuing storage crisis has had an impact on all areas of our work this year. Our old off-site store consisted of a laboratory in the Experimental Psychology Department on South Parks Road. This had been an unsatisfactory arrangement and we were very pleased to hear that we were scheduled to move out. An alternative storage site has been found for us on Osney Mead. This has proven to be infinitely superior to the previous space and, after much liaison with the Estates Division, we moved in at the beginning of August. The Hill Bow Project is continuing; a film on the subject of violin bow making has been produced and is to be put up on the web-site once the forthcoming special exhibition is mounted. Another outcome of the project is the publication of a catalogue of important Hill Bows in collaboration with the British Violin Making Association. The Bate have been proud to have been associated with this project. The Special exhibition ‘Fiddle-sticks’ ran over the month of September in the Bate Gallery During the year there have been three concerts in the Holywell music room associated with the Bate Collection. These included an impressive and exciting concert on the theremin by Lydia Kavina. A part of the program was a world premiere performance of a new piece “Song on Ruins” by Anatoly Kisseley. This was a well-attended event and much enjoyed by the audience. The Bate also presented a series of gallery lecture recitals, including historic horns by Kristen Hansen of Columbia State University and a recital on field signals by Frank Dorritie of Los Medanos and Dave Edwards of the Friends of the Bate. There have been two Family Fun days and a Family Concert with Oxford Youth Gamelan.

The viol consort, funded by donor Linda Hill of the Viola da Gamba Society, continues to operate and presented a recital in Trinity term. A group of students have now formed a baroque ensemble, The Bate Players, using instruments from the Collection and have presented several concerts. The Bate undergraduate prize was won this year by Will Croft with an impressively presented essay on the development of the viola d’amore.

Will Croft with the Montagu-Cleeve viola d’amore

There have been 75 instrument loans this year, compared with 66 in the previous year. These included a number of inter-museum loans to the Geffrye Museum, Fairfax House and a major loan to Boughton House, including the Smith harpsichord.

Our programme of outreach work has continued with the provision of taught school sessions, visits of special interest groups and events for the external community. These included our usual series of study days and instrumental workshops. In addition to events and activities we are now offering work-experience placements to students from local schools. This provides valuable experience to young people in the community and also provides a fresh pair of eyes when upgrading our gallery interactive material and web-pages.

This year we successfully raised funds for several repair and restoration projects, including work on the Smith and Tisseran harpsichords, and restoring the Testore viola d’amore into playing condition. This is part of our instrument maintenance programme and all works are done to museum conservation standards.

The Bate Players

AGM Report

This year the Friends Annual General Meeting was held on 3rd July in the Denis Arnold Hall. Sadly, our Chair was unable to present her report personally as she was professionally engaged in the United States. Instead, her report was delivered as a PowerPoint presentation much to everyone’s delight. Lee Palmer, our treasurer, presented the accounts for the year 2015-2016. In particular he reported that the Friends had received two substantial donations and that we had appointed investment managers to provide an income stream. Andy Lamb delivered the Museum Report, details of which can be seen in the article above. We were pleased to welcome two new members of the Committee: Alice Little, who is the recipient of the Helene La Rue scholarship and a DPhil student at St Cross, and Mike Bardsley who is now providing tuition for the Women’s Institute and gallery recitals in the Bate. The AGM concluded with a series of musical recitals from students of Gosford Hill School, which were enthusiastically received. It was decided to liaise with the music department of Gosford Hill School to provide musical entertainment for the next Family Concert in June 2017.

Gallery Recital – Introduction to some notable harpsichords from the Collection

Mike Bardsley of the Friends of the Bate performs on the Goermans harpsichord, Paris 1750

Tuesday 18th October (2nd week) 2.00pm

Mike Bardsley performs on the newly restored Tisseran harpsichord, London 1700 Tuesday 15th November (6th week)

2.00pm

Future Gallery Recitals

Hilary Term 2017 24th January 21st February

Trinity Term 2017 2nd May 6th June