Reopened at the end of 2005, the Grassi Museum is a musical instrument museum in Leipzig, the city of music. Part of the University of Leipzig, it houses one of the world's largest collections of musical instruments. It presents the foremost periods in instrument-making from the Renaissance through to the present day, offering insights into the diverse world of musical instruments and performance styles.

Let the music play on
The Grassi Museum complex is named after Franz Dominic Grassi, a banker and merchant who donated the money for its construction in 1929. However, the history of the Leipzig collection dates back to the Dutch music publisher, Paul de Wit. He opened a museum in 1886 in which he exhibited historical musical instruments that he occasionally played, as visitors are invited to do today in the museum's sound laboratory. On a tour of the current collection, visitors can take a journey through the development of the musical instrument from the Renaissance through to the present day.

The Musical Instrument Museum houses a collection of around 5,000 exhibits from Europe and the rest of the world dating from the 16th to the 20th century, as well as an iconographical collection and a collection of historical sound recording media, including approx. 3,500 piano rolls for player pianos and a number of phonograms. The museum's treasures include the oldest clavichord created by Domenicus Pisaurensis in 1542 and the oldest fortepiano produced by the inventor of the hammer technique, Bartolomeo Christofori, in 1726 that has been preserved in its original condition. The powerful Welte cinema organ, built in 1929 and now restored, has also returned to the exhibition after a 60-year break. The collection also includes approx. 300 musical instruments from Asia, Africa and the Americas.
» www.grassimuseum.de

A selection of other musical instrument museums in Germany.