The Museum of Greek Musical Instruments
The Museum of Greek Musical Instruments - Research Center for
Ethnomusicology- comprises the collection of about 1.200 Greek
popular musical instruments dating from 1750 to the present day,
the fruit of half a century of research and study by the musicologist
Fivos Anoyanakis. The Museum is housed in the historical Lassanis
Mansion which was built in 1842 close to the Roman Agora.
About
half of the instruments forming the Anoyanakis collection are
on public display. They have been selected on the criterion not
only of their aesthetic and decorative value but, in particular,
of their ethnological and musicological interest. The remaining
instruments are available for research and for traveling exhibitions
to be held in schools etc as well as for occasional exhibitions
of a special nature.
The
permanent exhibition is spread over three floors and divided into
four sections, corresponding to the groups and determined by the
material used to make sound:
-
Membranophones (ground floor): Toumberlekia (pottery drums),
daoulia (drums), defia (tambourines)
- Aerophones (ground floor): Flogeres - souravlia - mandoures
(flutes), tsabounes, gaides (bagpipes), zournades (shawms)
- Chordophones (first floor): Tambourades, laghouta (long-necked
lutes), outia (short-necked lutes), quitars , mandolins,
dulcimers, etc .
- Idiophones: koudounia (bells), massies (tongs with cymbals),
simandro (semanterion) etc.
Visitors
can not only admire the instruments on display but also listen
to recordings of the music produced by each of them. The museum
organizes concerts of traditional folk music. The main building
houses the displays, the library and administration offices. The
Research Centre for Ethnomusicology and the museum’s warehouse,
shop and archives are housed in another building nearby (the former
stable-block of the Lassanis residence).
Opening hours and admission
1-3, Diogenous Street - Plaka
Syntagma - Acropoli
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