Sigma Alpha Iota

PAN PIPES SUMMER 2015 SAI-NATIONAL.ORG 10 By Jayne i. Hanlin M usic! Music! Music!" was the number-one pop hit in 1950. As a child, I learned the catchy opening lyrics: "Put another nickel in. In the nickelodeon." But at that time, I did not know which instrument Teresa Brewer was singing about. Now I do: It's an early kind of jukebox. And in the Experience Gallery at Phoenix's Musical Instrument Museum (MIM, which rhymes with "him"), I even put a "nickel" (actually a MIM coin) in a slot to hear the nickelodeon — a combined player piano, snare drum, bass drum, triangle, tambourine, and accordion. For children of all ages, there are also more hands-on instruments to try out in that room. I especially liked striking the huge gong from Indonesia. Nearby is the Artist Gallery that accommodates visitors no matter what their musical tastes. Exhibits feature stars: classical music greats (such as Pablo Casals, Joshua Bell, Leonard Bernstein, and Pavarotti), country singers Johnny Cash and Toby Keith, popular rock musician/songwriter John Lennon, the folk music Carter family, American guitarist Duane Eddy, and rock 'n' roll's Elvis Presley, to name a few. e Mechanical Music Gallery has many unusual instruments, including barrel organs (including a 1910 organ from Odessa, Ukraine), a calliope, and the huge 25-foot-long Decap Apollonia dance hall organ (or orchestrion). Formerly controlled by cardboard pages with holes, this two-ton 20 th -century Belgian instrument with its 680 pipes is now operated by MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). I heard very loud renditions of 'Alexander's Ragtime Band" and "Hello, Dolly!" during one of the daily aernoon performances. Not to be missed is the touching introductory film that gives an overview not only specifically about MIM (billed as "the most extraordinary museum you'll ever hear") and its mission, but generally about music as well — "the glue that fastens us together, our lifelong companion, the instrument of the soul." e short feature reminds us that in music, there are no age barriers or economic bounds. At MIM, it is not "Veni, Vidi, Vici" but "Come. See. Listen." At any given time, the museum has on display about a third of its more than 15,000 instruments and associated objects, including exotic dumbegs, timbas, tabos, ghatams, nais, balefons — some one of a kind — from every corner of the world. I glanced at a mere thirty instruments in the "Guitars: Many Forms, Many Countries" display before going up the nearby escalator. Stephanie, the volunteer team member behind the desk at the top floor, greeted me and raved about the acoustics in the MIM Music eater for 300 concertgoers. We also discussed the audio guide system that is included with museum admission. It's very convenient to wear headsets throughout the museum galleries; the super cool receivers sync effortlessly with the audiovisual features as you approach the monitors. When asked, Stephanie also said that it would take more than fourteen hours to watch and listen to everything on display. erefore one A World of Music A World of Music A WORLD OF MUSIC Musical Oasis in the Sonoran Desert A display of "Guitars: Many Forms, Many Countries" in the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix.

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