An die Musik

If you don't know this already, I work for a classical music publisher; we publish and print everything from beginning piano books (including the 'alphabet books' I learned from) to orchestral scores. Although the company has only recently occupied the current office space, they've been around since 1872. As I'm sure you can imagine, there is quite a collection of artifacts from that incredible history. These pieces are spread throughout the office; hung on the walls, adorning all empty shelf space, and sometimes just standing alone- I don't even notice them anymore! But as I made my way to my office this morning, I thought I'd share a couple of my favorites with you.

First, the busts. There are busts EVERYWHERE! These little white ones line the shelves of the entry way (I only photographed one shelf of the many). From the left you have Liszt, Schubert, Schumann, Beach... and after that the picture is too fuzzy for me to make out!
This one is a classic- John Philip Sousa! Clearly a nod to our band department!
Not to be outdone, Beethoven himself sits on a pedestal next to the front door...
Of course, since the company also printed all their music (until very recently), there are HUNDREDS of these in our office- most are pictures of composers or performers that would grace the front of the music, while some are miniature scores that would be printed on the back of a piece as an advertisement to buy a new piece. (That's what the big one on the bottom/middle is.)
I believe this next piece is from Stradivarius- it's the blueprint on how to make a Strad violin... it hangs right outside my office (across from the Exit sign, as I've so elegantly captured in this photo).
But our conference room has the best artifacts by far. There's this in one corner:
And this in another. (Yay for Steinways!)
And the pièce de résistance: this HUGE tuba! Even if I stood on my tip-toes with my arms above my head, I couldn't touch the top... it's that tall! Well, there you have it... some artifacts found around my office. It's another grey day here in NYC- but wherever you are, I hope you have a wonderful Thursday!