Redaccion
The exhibition «From Word to Music: Historical Musical Instruments in Alicante» brings together a score of pieces and technical treatises from the 16th to the 20th century, including one of the oldest guitars in the world.
Poquet and Villar inaugurate «this wonderful exhibition full of treasures that helps us better understand our origins through music and values the conservation of heritage» alongside their two curators in the Taberna room.
Alicante, April 11, 2025. The Santa Bárbara Castle invites you to take a journey through history with a selection of musical instruments from the 16th to the 20th centuries, including Renaissance psalteries, Baroque pianos, and one of the oldest preserved guitars in the world.
The exhibition «From Word to Music: Historical Musical Instruments in Alicante» was inaugurated this Friday in the Taberna room by the Tourism and Culture councilors, Ana Poquet and Antonio Peral, accompanied by the deputy mayor, Manuel Villar, along with the Municipal Integral Heritage chief and coordinator of the exhibition, José Manuel Pérez Burgos, and the two curators, music professor José María Vives, and National Heritage instrument restorer Víctor Martínez, owners of the exhibited pieces.
«From Word to Music: Historical Musical Instruments in Alicante» can be visited in the Taberna room until January 2026 and also includes the programming of four concerts where some of the instruments will be used, taking place at the Castle’s Aljibe, the first one performed by a quartet from the Baroque Orchestra of the Valencian Community.
Poquet noted that this is «a wonderful exhibition full of treasures that helps us better understand our origins through music and highlights the importance of heritage conservation and restoration.»
On the other hand, Pérez Burgos emphasized that «this fantastic journey invites us to explore the history of art and music, which is the story of society from the world of musical creation and organological science that studies and classifies musical instruments, present since Prehistory.»
The curators detailed the history and curiosities of the twenty musical instruments on display with their corresponding explanatory panels and a video where their sounds can be heard. Additionally, Martínez explained that «each and every one of the instruments can be played because all except one have been restored to emit their original sound.»
Among the instruments that can be seen are clavichords, pianofortes, pianos, guitars, handbells from the same founder as Charles V, and a Pierre Challiot single-action harp, smaller and more comfortable for women to play in 18th-century salons. Among the guitars is one of the oldest preserved in the world, a French one from 1600, and another from the 20th century made by José Ramírez as a special commission for José Tomás.
