Synthesist Chris Stack (ExperimentalSynth.com) let us know about a new sound library that lets you play a collection of one-of-a-kind, historically significant keyboard instruments, including instruments played by Chopin and Mozart.

Stack is Director of Marketing at the Sigal Music Museum, a Greenville, SC museum that features a huge collection of rare musical instruments. Stack says that the Museum has been collaborating with Alex Davis of Tempest Instruments to sample these rare instruments, to both preserve the sound of the instruments for future generations and to make them available virtually to musicians around the world.

Sigal Collection Volume 1 is the first product from this collaboration. It features an 1845 Broadwood Grand Piano that was played by Chopin. When you play the virtual version, you’re playing and hearing a piano that was used by one of the greatest composers and musicians of all time.

Other instruments in the library include:

• A 1761 Dual-Manual Kirkman Harpsichord that was King George III’s wedding present to Queen Charlotte;
• An 1815 Walter Grand Piano;
• A 1660 Italian Harpsichord;
• A 1784 Stein Grand Piano; and
• A 1780 Spanish Clavichord.

The library is a unique solution to the curator’s conundrum.

When you have a large collection of historically significant musical instruments going back as far as 1575, many of which are still in playable condition, how do you let musicians make music with them, without the possibility of damaging irreplaceable historical artifacts?

While many musical instrument museums let visitors hear a piece of music recorded on the rare instruments, the Sigal Music Museum is pioneering a different approach, making virtual versions of these instruments available, so that everyone from young music students to seasoned performers and composers can make music with them.

Here’s the intro to Sigal Collection Volume 1:

This project has some really interesting applications.

• Music Education – The Museum, in collaboration with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, has made complete workstations for exploring these instruments available in ten Greenville County Schools. The Museum hopes to expand this program to more schools, making it possible for music students to play classical music with historically accurate instruments.
• Soundtracks – the library features three centuries of keyboard instrument, making it an interesting new option for composers that want to use the sound of historically appropriate instruments for scoring television and film projects set in the past.
• Music performance and composition – finally, the project makes these instruments available to musicians that want to play and compose using instruments that they would otherwise never have an opportunity to work with.

Tempest Instruments has shared detailed information on the instruments, along with video and audio demos, at their site. Here’s a preview of their virtual version of a harpsichord that Mozart played:

Pricing and Availability:

Sigal Collection Volume 1 is available now, with an intro price of $129 USD (normally $149 USD). You can learn more about the Museum and their mission at the Sigal Music Museum site.