Walking Tour: The Art of Music at the Met

The Met is home to one of the world's most diverse and important collections of musical instruments from all cultures and eras. The refurbished galleries, dubbed The Art of Music: A New Narrative for Musical Instruments, feature audio kiosks and display instruments from across time and around the world next to each other to emphasize their artistic similarities in creation and function. Among the treasures on display are the oldest extant piano by Bartolomeo Cristofori (Florence, 1720), a Ming dynasty pipa decorated with ivory plaques, an important American pipe organ by Thomas Appleton (Boston, 1830), Persian instruments decorated with micro-mosaic inlays, violins by Antonio Stradivari, carved drums from throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, and instruments used by important musicians such as Andrés Segovia, Benny Goodman, Ostad Elahi, Udi Hrant, and others. Explore the connection and interdependence between music and art.