Czech Museum of Music

The Czech Museum of Music collects music-related materials in the collections of the National Museum. In its collections, it holds over 700,000 documents of musical history – an extensive music archive, a phonoteque, a collection of musical instruments, or the estate or collection of the Bedřich Smetana Museum and the Antonín Dvořák Museum.

Research at the Czech Museum of Music focuses primarily on sources within its own collections, studied mainly from the perspectives of music historiography, iconography, organology, and also in terms of the protection and accessibility of cultural heritage in memory institutions. Recent team research projects have been supported by one GA ČR grant and one NAKI II grant. Other research is carried out within the framework of the Long-term Concept of Development of Research Organizations (DKRVO) of the Czech Ministry of Culture. Young researchers also have the opportunity to participate in research through internal grants of the National Museum.

Researchers publish their results primarily in peer-reviewed journals, National Museum editions, and other publications. A special form consists of music editions, mainly of autographs found in the museum’s collections. The Czech Museum of Music’s own platform is the peer-reviewed journal Musicalia, published in a Czech-English version and also accessible online via the Sciendo website.

Staff of the Czech Museum of Music present their research at domestic and international conferences as well as through workshops. They participate annually in the International Annual Conference of the Czech Society for Musicology, which the Czech Museum of Music co-organizes. They regularly present at foreign conferences of international professional associations such as IAML (The International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres) and IASA (The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives). Additionally, they report at symposia thematically related to the research topics of the Czech Museum of Music.

The Czech Museum of Music collaborates on scientific tasks with other institutions – the National Library of the Czech Republic, the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University, the Faculty of Arts at Palacký University Olomouc, among others.

Collections

New acquisitions are stored in the online catalogs, but systematic recataloging is gradually underway, so it is always necessary to also work with the scanned catalogs.

Music History Department

  • Scanned Catalogs

When searching for musical works, it is necessary to use both scanned catalogs:

National Museum – Czech Museum of Music – Musical Works Catalog 1

National Museum – Czech Museum of Music – Musical Works Catalog 2

National Museum – Czech Museum of Music – Other Catalogs 

Includes the following scanned catalogs: the collection of non-musical manuscripts (G), music library, periodicals, personal collections of musicians.

Bedřich Smetana Museum

Antonín Dvořák Museum

The mission of the Czech Museum of Music is the continuous collection, preservation, and accessibility of sources of musical culture in a broad context on the territory of Bohemia from the Middle Ages to the present, as well as objects documenting the musical activities of individuals or institutions originating from Bohemia abroad and the reception of their work or activities

Its goal is also to maintain and develop the position of the museum as the largest and most significant music-historical institution of its kind in the Czech Republic, which is also recognized internationally.

Since the founding of the National Museum in 1818, musical scores and instruments have been collected, but only as supplementary acquisitions, and there was no independent music collection. Although music-related collections grew significantly during the 19th century, an independent music department was not established until 1946. Its foundation was based on a collection of musical scores separated from the National Museum Library and a collection of musical instruments separated from the historical archaeology department.

In 1947, a new acquisition program was established based on the latest trends in musicology, which essentially remains in place to this day. Most of the current collection holdings originated during this period — alongside the musical instruments and sheet music archive, collections of non-musical manuscripts, music iconography, libretti, a library, and printed documentation (such as programs and posters) were added.

The phonotheque was founded in the 1960s, and the estate collection was created in the mid-1980s. In 1976, the Museum of Czech Music was established — the existing music department was joined by the monographic museums of Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák, which had until then been operated on an association basis.

In 2001, the Museum of Czech Music was renamed the Czech Museum of Music — the new name better reflects the museum’s collecting principles. In 2008, the Centre for the Documentation of Popular Music and New Media was added to the existing structure.

The first home of the independent music department became the Velkopřevorský Palace in Malá Strana in 1950, where a large and systematic exhibition of musical instruments was also opened in 1954.

However, this palace was returned to its original owner in the early 1990s as part of restitution proceedings.

The Czech Museum of Music acquired a new headquarters in the former Dominican Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Malá Strana. The building was completely renovated to meet the needs of the Czech Museum of Music — creating extensive exhibition spaces, storage facilities, offices, and a study room. The new museum building with the exhibition of musical instruments was opened to the public on November 22, 2004.

The museum cares for over 250,000 collection items in its own restoration workshops and is a leading institution in the field of musical instruments — operating the Methodical Centre for Documentation, Conservation, and Restoration of Musical Instruments.

The atrium and conference hall are used for concerts by professional and amateur musicians, conferences, various social events, and accompanying programmes linked to the permanent exhibition and temporary displays.

The museum is developing new storage capacities outside Prague to provide suitable conditions for the long-term preservation of its ever-expanding collections.