The RCM Museum of Music
The RCM Museum of Music preserves and displays an internationally renowned collection of more than 1,500 items including musical instruments, portraits, sculptures, photographs and engravings related to music.
Highlights include a clavicytherium (an upright harpsichord) dated c 1480, believed to be the earliest surviving stringed keyboard instrument, the earliest dated guitar (Belchior Dias, 1581), the earliest baryton (1647), and one of the most important collections of English viols on public display.
The Museum also houses instruments relating to composers, such as trombones owned and played by Elgar and Holst, and a horn played by Dennis Brain.
The collection of paintings includes portraits of Joseph Haydn, Carlo Broschi (Farinelli), Arcangelo Corelli, and more than a hundred composers related to British musical life in the past two centuries.
Many of the instruments in the collection are in playing condition and can be heard during Museum concerts and events or during guided tours.
