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| Perspectives Magazine |
Did you know that The Met's collection of musical instruments includes the world's oldest surviving piano? From steel drums to bagpipes, this month's Perspectives newsletter celebrates music as a vital conduit for history, culture, and human connection.
Look for monthly dispatches on art history framed through our collection and exhibitions, and browse the online magazine for inspiration in the meantime. |
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Jan van Haelbeeck and Jean Leclerc IV. Enigmes Joyeuses pour les Bons Esprits, Plate 8, ca. 1615
Music is central to the human experience, and the instruments we make are powerful tools of human expression in their own right. Musicologist Max Keller considers the familiar form of the cello in relation to their gender transition. While the instrument was supposedly modeled after the female body, Keller looks back to gender ambiguity in ancient Cycladic figures and to 20th-century artists like Charlotte Moorman, who famously bowed a shirtless Nam June Paik in a performance that questioned basic assumptions around gender and power. |
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Malinke. Bala, 19th-century
Musical instruments span the globe, and The Met's collection hails from six continents plus the Pacific Islands, dating from around 300 BCE to the present. In the West African region known as the western Sahel, griots, or narrators of oral traditions, sing legendary tales using instruments such as the kora and balafon. Scholar Hakimah Abdul-Fattah taps into the rich ways griots weave together music, history, and epic storytelling. |
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Artist Oliver Beer with an installation view from Vessel Orchestra (2019)
In 2019, the artist Oliver Beer selected 32 hollow objects from The Met collection, put microphones inside of them, and connected them to a keyboard to "play" them. Beer's imaginative and cheeky redefinition of what an instrument can be culminated in the exhibition Vessel Orchestra, which was the first-sound based installation in The Met's history. |
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Immaterial: Wood
Deep in the forests of Belize, a wood importer from Florida discovered a rare tree that produced a sound unlike anything guitar virtuosos had ever heard before. Listen now → |
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"Songs in Flight"
A performance from January 2023 featuring Rhiannon Giddens and Howard Watkins that brings the stories of enslaved individuals to life through song. Watch now → |
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| Looking for inspiration? |
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- How did Bartolomeo Cristofori's invention of the piano transform music?
- Learn how one monk called Guido of Arezzo changed the history of music pedagogy.
- Explore how music and nightlife profoundly influenced visual artists and writers during the Harlem Renaissance.
- Uncover the history of the steel drum, from its origins in Trinidad and Tobago to its later popularity on the world stage.
- See how the Unicorn Tapestries inspire GRAMMY®-winning jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant.
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Currently on view at The Met Fifth Avenue, Musical Bodies is the first major exhibition to explore the relationship between musical instruments and the body.
It brings together some 130 instruments, paintings, sculptures, drawings, and more to illuminate how we express who we are, what we value, and what we believe. Watch now → |
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Accessibility at The Met
The Met is committed to accessibility for all. For information about accessibility, programs, and services for people with disabilities at both Met sites, visit metmuseum.org/access. To request an access accommodation for virtual programs or online resources, email [email protected], or call 212-650-2010. For information about accessibility on our website, see our Website Accessibility Statement. |
For more information on the exhibitions, including sponsorship credits, visit Oliver Beer: Vessel Orchestra and Musical Bodies.
Your support allows the Museum to collect, conserve, and present 5,000 years of world art. Donate now.
Images: Jan van Haelbeeck (Flemish, ca. 1600–1630). Enigmes Joyeuses pour les Bons Esprits Plate 8, ca. 1615. Copper engraving, 4 5/8 × 5 7/8 in. (11.7 × 14.9 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, Mary Oenslager Fund, 2016 (2016.360.8) | Bala, 19th-century. Mandinka people. Wood, gourd, hide, membrane, 34 1/16 x 17 15/16 x 8 11/16 in. (86.5 x 45.5 x 22 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889 (89.4.492) | View of Oliver Beer and his installation in Vessel Orchestra. The Met Breuer, Floor 5. July 2019 | Śankh, 19th-century. Kerala State. Indian. Shell (Turbinella pyrum), brass, wax, 6 × 6 × 16 3/4 in. (15.2 × 15.2 × 42.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Barrington Foundation Inc. Gift, 1986 (1986.12) | Musette Baroque, ca. 1700. French. Leather, ivory, silk, wood, silver, iron, 11 1/2 in. (29.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Clara Mertens Bequest, in memory of André Mertens, 2003 (2003.63a–d) | Ken Parker (American, b. 1952). Archtop guitar (detail), 2016. Alpine spruce, mahogany, holly, cherry, willow, ebony, mother-of-pearl, camel bone, Douglas fir, carbon fiber composite, mokume-gane, 35 x 18 in. (88.9 x 45.7 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, James D. Krugman and Connie Simmons Krugman Gift, 2016 (2016.124a–d) | Rhiannon Giddens at The Met Fifth Avenue on January 12, 2023. | Installation view of Musical Bodies, on view June 7–September 27, 2026 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo by Eileen Travell, courtesy of The Met |
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