A gyűjtemény leírása
At the time The Museum of Ethnography's profile began to become clear at the end of the 19th century, its collections and exhibitions already offered a number of musical instruments, including those procured by János Xántus in East and South-east Asia between 1869 and 1870 and those collected by Count Jenő Zichy from Russia and East Asia. Interestingly, the collection of similar Hungarian musical material commenced only much later, when the scientific basis for research in folk music was laid by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály in the 20th century, and proceeded thereafter at a rather slow pace. Most of the instruments in the Folk Music Collection originate from the Carpathian Basin and thus represent Hungarian and neighbouring ethnic groups. The collection is both fully representative of the peoples it covers and unique in the same respect.
Numerous other collections of the Museum of Ethnography include musical instruments whose removal to the Collection of Musical Instruments it is felt would be inappropriate. However, all the museum's instruments will be brought together in a computerised catalogue currently under development.