ABSTRACT
The traditional musical instruments of Europe, whether they originated in the countryside or were inherited from the city, are included in collections exhibited in museums. Organology of traditional Europe has preferred laboratory research over ethnological field work. The first collections of musical instruments were housed in museums of art, history, or ethnology, museums of popular arts and traditions or folklore, private museums, and finally in their own, much rarer, museums of musical instruments. The birth of collections and their installation in fixed places, where they were presented to the public, created the need to catalog instruments. Taditional European musical instruments have become particularly popular objects for temporary exhibitions, which feature certain instruments of a collection, brought out from storage or borrowed from foreign museums. Some traditional instruments of Europe are taught in conservatories of music and primary schools, or through specialized instruction.
