museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica

Wonderful collection of documents and instruments. Note: if you're interested in period keyboard instruments, you'll find here the amazing Clavemusicum Omnitonum from 1606, which allows for half and quarter tone distinctions. Nice and friendly people, who'll explain little curious facts, show hidden gems, or would keep the shop open for little longer, so you have enough time to find the right memento from the visit.A must.

As others have noted, this is a beautiful collection of historic instruments, manuscripts, and art works covering roughly the Renaissance through the late Romantic periods. When we visited, there was also a special exhibition on the art of violin making. It's all housed in a splendid palazzo which is itself something of a work of art. If you're a music lover, don't miss this one.

I loved this museum - although I am not a musician. It is essential to hire the audioguide so that you can listen to music of each period in the relevant room while looking at the instruments and the score - very well worked out and set in a very beautiful building.

Quiet museum (we had it to ourselves in early July) packed with old manuscripts, period instruments, portraits, etc in a wonderful palazzo. Spent a very happy couple of hours here.

A small but interesting museum with a variety of well preserved instruments and lots of musical scores from various composers including Wagner, Mozart, etc Worth a trip-only takes an hour or less to tour.

We knew about the music museum before we visited and it didn't disappoint. Right next to Rossini's house (his piano is in the museum) and lots of other instruments and scores from 1500s onwards. Also original manuscript of Wagner's Lohengrin and several Verdi operas. A certain Wolfgang A Mozart took a music degree at Bologna (aged 14) and his "entrance composition" is on display. (Wonder what became of him?)

The museum is probably a spin off of the music library, one of the best equipped in Europe.It is situated in one of the old Palazzos which abound in Bologna where every single room has the most remarkable decorations and frescoes. The building itself merits the visit.However, if you are a musician or a music lover, you could spend hours here. If your spouse or partner is not musically inclined I suggest you come alone. Otherwise you will leave unsatisfied or the other one will get bored.Starting from the earliest written music for one voice, you see how polyphony develops and grows and gradually the notation becomes more complex until it reaches our current style. You can also see the development of early instruments (harps, lutes, theorbos, viols, trombe di mare, etc., including design notes, tuning and playing techniques). As you move through the rooms (and through time) keep your eyes open for original manuscripts from Monteverdi (see how he wrote out the madrigrals), Mozart, or Rameau (heavy theoretical writings, surprisingly, in Italian) and much more. A special room is dedicated to Opera giving you an understanding of how the early ones came to be performed. In this room you will find the original of Antonio Vivaldi's most famous portrait, the one with the flowing hair and the open white shirt on a red background.As you move forward in time, inevitably you come to a room dominated by Wagner and Verdi in which I was fascinated by an early Bb Bass Clarinet by Adolphe Sax.The visit ends with the end of the XIX century which is appropriate in this context, even if this did not stop them last year organising a special exhibition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster.

if you're a music lover you cannot miss it. There are historical instruments, exhibited in frescoed halls with Arcadian scenes. Music in the hand of Rossini and Mozart, theorical writings about tuning, testimonies of the development of violin, guitar and mandolin. The lighting should be bettered, many objects were in the dark.

my husband loved this we saw we some paperwork written by composers as sort of entrance exams at the beginning of there musical journey and my husband had a go on a piano that was available to try out there is so much to see we will go back anyone interested in music would love this place

This is a must in Bologna. Allow plenty of time - it always takes longer than you think. Check opening times, we thought we would visit on a Sunday but it was closed.

The founder seemed to know everyone and he put together a great collection. There were portraits of some of the lesser composers of the 17th and 18th century which brought to like some of the standard singers' anthologies that we still use today.

Although we couldn't go inside the Museum (they had a beatles exhibition on that we wanted to see) it's almost worth going to just see the stairs leading up to the museum. Amazing.

I was keen to see this museum and my husband not quite so interested but there were many things to amuse both of us in the end. The theatrical section with stage plans for early operatic productions was very entertaining and Vivaldis manuscripts.

It was the highlight of my brief stay in Bologna. There IS an audio-guide in English, and I recommend purchasing it. The museum has lots of relics, period instruments, scores, and material pertaining to the early Renaissance and Baroque. Also, pretty informative about music in Bologna over the centuries as well. See also the page from an autograph Mozart score. I stayed well over an hour.

A beautiful place architectonically, full of frescoes and details. It would be worth a visit just for that but when you add the fact that inside you find the most interesting collection of musical instruments, portraits of great musical composers and copies of original musical scores, it becomes a 'must visit'. What a surprise this was, we went to see it because we were near, on our way to Santa Maria dei Servi. This is not your typical touristic place, it is simply beautiful and fascinating!!! DON'T MISS IT.