Music Museum (Basel)

Due to lack of space, the collection grew and spent time between many different storage areas, finally gaining its own title of "Musikinstrumenten-Sammlung" at the end of the 1980s.

Among the notable pieces of the collection are the famous Ab Yberg organ, a bass viola da gamba made by Joachim Tielke, and a 1572 virginal from the Netherlands.

The exhibits here range from instruments used only on ceremonial occasions, such as drums and fanfare trumpets, to objects associated with Basel’s many different music societies and Fasnacht festivities.

One cell is devoted to Baroque chamber music, for example, while another tells the story of the saxophone and its inventor, Adolph Sax.

This floor describes the famous collection of historical brass instruments and drums, which Dr. H. C. Wilhelm Bernoulli-Preiswerk bequeathed to the museum in 1980.

They range from simple, natural objects to sophisticated contraptions, and from military signals to instruments reserved for fanfares and parades.