Moldenhauer Archives

Whitworth University Moldenhauer Archives Finding Aid

Spokane Conservatory

Moldenhauer Archives

Short Bio from the United States Library of Congress:

Born in Mainz, Germany, in 1906, pianist Hans Moldenhauer established the Moldenhauer Archives, a matchless resource of musical documents that encompasses representative examples of European music history from the Middle Ages through the twentieth century.

Moldenhauer emigrated to the United States in 1938, settled in mountainous Spokane, Washington, in 1939, and served in the U.S. Mountain Troops during World War II. In 1942, as he embarked upon a musical career in collecting, performance, and writing, he founded the Spokane Conservatory. In 1943 he married his piano pupil, Rosaleen Jackman, to whose memory he would later dedicate his Archives. Moldenhauer procured manuscripts from composers such as Alban Berg, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, and Witold Lutoslawski, and obtained numerous items from the archives of Gustav Mahler, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Arnold Schoenberg.

At the time of the collector’s death in 1987, the Moldenhauer Archives included many thousands of items that are now housed in nine institutions around the world, including Whitworth University.

 

Photos from Whitworth Archives.

Instruments

As part of the Moldenhauer Archives donation, Hans Moldenhauer endowed a collection of instruments to the university on June 26th, 1987. These instruments were meant to be maintained under the designations "Rosaleen Moldenhauer Memorial" and "Wolfgang Frankel Memorial, after Dr. Moldenhauer's late wife and fellow German-American musician respectively. Under these programs, they were intended to be loaned out to students who needed them for one academic year at a time. 

While violas and violins were the primary instruments loaned to students, the larger collection of instruments still in possession by Whitworth University today includes a variety of instruments from across the world. 

The gunibri is a plucked lute-like instrument native to Morocco and other parts of Northwestern Africa. The body of the instrument is typically made of wood, gourd, or tortoise shell, and is covered in stretched animal skin. The wooden neck of the instrument protrudes out of the body and contains wooden forks to which its three strings, made of sheep intestine (gut), are attached.

The hammered dulcimer is a percussion-stringed instrument consisting of strings stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The instrument is played by striking the strings with two small mallet hammers. Hammered dulcimers and variants of the instrument have been used across Europe, the Middle East, and Central and East Asia, with different countries having unique manners of construction and playing style. This dulcimer has a leather handle strapped to the long side of the body for carrying.

The psaltery is a member of the zither family of instruments, which consists of any instrument with strings stretched across a thin, flat body. The instrument has existed in numerous forms since ancient times and is similar in form to harps, harpsichords, and dulcimers. The strings, usually made of metal, are plucked. This psaltery, which has an alto voice, was made in the workshop of Walter Overmann in Bergen, Germany, c. early 20th century.

The psaltery is a member of the zither family of instruments, which consists of any instrument with strings stretched across a thin, flat body. The instrument has existed in numerous forms since ancient times and is similar in form to harps, harpsichords, and dulcimers. The strings, usually made of metal, are plucked. This psaltery has a tenor voice.

The rubab (also called robab or rabab) is a lute-like instrument native to Afghanistan and Pakistan. One of two national instruments of Afghanistan, the rubab is commonly found throughout Central Asia and parts of the Middle East. The instrument is carved from a single piece of wood with skin covering the main hollow bowl of the body. The strings are typically made of goat intestine (gut) or nylon. The rubab is played by plucking, while the rebab, a similar version of the instrument common in Afghanistan, is played with a bow.

The violin is a wooden stringed instrument and the highest pitched instrument in the violin family. The body of the instrument is constructed from wood while the strings are made of gut, synthetic materials, or steel. Originally prominent in western music, the modern violin developed during the 16th century in Italy and is now important in a number of musical genres. The instrument is primarily played with a bow and can also be played through plucking. This full size violin was made in 1890 at the workshop of Johann Ferdinand Pfretzschner in Erlbach, Germany. Both the bow and violin come in a blue alligator skin-style case that also includes a black and light blue cloth with a rose design.