Trondheim and the Ringve Musikkhus, the National Museum of Music

On July 10th, we docked in Trondheim.  The tour I’d chosen was called the National Museum of Music and Recital.  We started the tour by stopping at the Trondheim’s Nidaros Cathedral which was really just a photo op as we didn’t go inside.  Nidaros Cathedral is the world’s northernmost medieval cathedral and has been a pilgrim destination for almost 1000 years.  The cathedral is built over the tomb of St. Olav, the Viking king who converted Norway to Christianity and became “Norway's Eternal King”.  The work on Nidaros Cathedral began in 1070 and was completed in all its glory around 1300. In the early 1800s, after several fires and lack of maintenance, the cathedral was in very poor shape. In 1868 it was determined that the cathedral should be rebuilt as a national symbol and work began the following year. The restoration of Nidaros Cathedral has been going on for 150 years and the work continues on various projects at this national shrine.  Note that there is a Norwegian scarf on the statue of St. Olav as I guess he is a fan of the team playing in the World Cup.

We were driven through the city centre which looked charming as it sits on a river and has many old houses sitting on the banks.  Our next stop, and the main purpose of the tour, was the National Music Museum.

The Ringve Musikkmuseum is located on a hill overlooking the Trondheimsfjord in buildings that were originally part of a farm.  During WWII, it was occupied by the Germans because of its strategic position.  The museum guide for our tour was a very talented somewhat shy music student from Lillehammer.  He led us through the various period interiors of the house which provide the setting for themed rooms of working – mainly keyboard – instruments.  He played an appropriate piece of music (or extract) as the tour proceeded.  The first room is called the Mozart room and contains a spinet, clavichord and a domestic or house organ, from the 18th century.  

The next room is called the ‘Beethoven’ and contains a harp piano of 1870 by Dietz, and a piano of type favoured by Beethoven.  

A room dedicated to Chopin came next, with examples of the composer's preferred pianos, as well as a death mask and casts of his hands.  There are also watercolours by George Sand and memorabilia about Chopin and Liszt.  A card table and sofa that came from Chopin's Paris home, and which were inherited by his Norwegian pupil, Thomas Tellefsen, are on display. 

Upstairs there is a room based around singers Elisabeth Wiborg and Adelina Patti and includes a piano which Patti insisted on being accompanied. This is followed by a display of Hardanger fiddles, a ‘Grieg’ room, a room of instruments associated with church and worship, and finally a room of curiosities, including a Cecilium, a Norwegian-made barrel-organ, musical toys and a Janko piano.  

In the barn, which we did not have time to visit, the collections on display in the Barn are divided in two parts:  instruments mainly associated with western classical and popular music over four centuries including a Kirkman harpsichord of 1767, an Erberle viola d’amore of 1755, a five-octave Stein piano of 1783, a soprano saxophone by Sax (son) of 1907, along wide early electronic instruments and a 1948 jukebox.  The second collection contains folk instruments from all around the world, including a Runebomme (a type of Sami drum), a Tibetan zang-dang (horn), a nadomo (arched harp) from Congo and hardanger fiddles.

Our tour finished with a recital by our guide in the main house.  He took us through various stages of classical music and played different examples of each including DeBussy’s Claire de Lune which was magical.  It had been a very enjoyable tour, one which I am sure would have been appreciated by my sister even more than me!