Wishing you a Happy Musical Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving in the USA, and one thing that I'm grateful for this year (and actually year round) is music! My sister is visiting for the holiday, so I took her to visit the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ. They permitted non-flash photography, so here are some of the photos I snapped with my iPod.

We started out in the Mechanical Music Gallery, where we saw some beautiful old time music boxes, some mechanical figurines, an old player piano, and some pipe organs that included mechanical instruments in their "performance." (I didn't get pictures of the music boxes or piano--I didn't start taking pictures early enough--but here are a few I did get.)

Pipe organ - those instruments you see on top (accordions, drums, saxophones, etc) played music along with the organ!

Another pipe organ

Musical mechanical doll. This one was accompanied by a video that showed it in motion, and it was even freakier than this stationary version!

After lunch in the museum cafe, we visited the gallery of musical instruments for Europe. I wanted to start with Europe because I was hoping to see some medieval instruments that I have used, am using, or might yet use in some of my stories! But I was also lured by a few instruments from other time periods, too. Naturally, in retrospect, I wish I'd taken dozens of additional pictures, but somehow I only came away with these. 

This is called a rebec. It was a stringed instrument used in the Middle Ages and in later time periods, as well.

This is a lute. My hero, Robert, plays one of these in The Lady and the Minstrel.

This is called a crumhorn. It was used in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Stick around and I'll share a cool crumhorn video with you at the end of this post!

This one's called a serpent. (Can you guess why? :-) ) It originated during the Renaissance.

This is called a lur. It was a Scandinavian bronze horn used in the 7th century. That's even earlier than any of my books take place!

This is a bass horn with a serpent's head. I don't know what time period it's from, but I thought it looked cool!

And here's a slide trombone with a serpent's head. It obviously goes with the bass horn above, don't you think? Again, I don't know the time period, but wouldn't it be fun to march in a parade playing one of these?

This is a harpsichord, a replica of the oldest extant keyboard instrument, c 1480. (And yes, that's the same lute I showed you above in the background.)

This is the harpsichord as most of us are familiar with it today. This one was made in Florence, Italy in 1890.

Okay, now for the promised crumhorn concert video! I found this on YouTube and fell in love with it. The players are dressed in Renaissance costume. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

CRUMHORN CONSORT - Al Milanese Castell´Arquato Manuscript - XVI Century Italian Renaissance Music

My sister and I are hoping to go back at Christmas and visit some of the musical galleries from other areas of the world.

Wherever you live, I wish you a very happy day of reflecting on what you are grateful for!