Gli strumenti musicali del Museo Ettore Guatelli di Ozzano Taro

Abstract

Musical instruments in the Ettore Guatelli Museum of Ozzano Taro

The intention of this paper is to give a general picture of the most important musical instrument typologies housed in the Ettore Guatelli Museum of Ozzano Taro (Parma). In the course of his life, Ettore Guatelli (1921-2000) collected miscellaneous objects which he ‘put on show’ in the villa where he lived (and which is now run by the Fondazione Museo Ettore Guatelli and is open to the public).
His interest in the objects of everyday life led him to document also those connected with ‘making music’ and with the culture of sound in general; he consequently collected musical instruments and sound devices. The present paper includes brief descriptions of some of these instruments: noise makers, hurdy-gurdies (some probably constructed in the Parma Apennines); accordions; what has remained of the workshop of Nicolò Bacigalupo (known as Griziu), the maker of pifferi and müse of the Quattro Province; the piva emiliana; several toy instruments; and finally, musical instruments connected with the tradition of the shows with trained bears and monkeys of Val Taro and Val Ceno.