Musical Instruments on Display at the Center for

the Arts

A collection of musical instruments from Hawaii,

New Guinea, Japan, and Native America is on exhibit in the lobby

of the Middlebury College’s Center for the Arts. The instruments

are a gift of Mary Louise Lee to the College music department.

This collection of percussion instruments-Hawaiian

stone and coconut clappers, gourd drums and rattles together with

a Native American turtle shell rattle and other drums from New

Guinea, Japan and the Navaho-was originally used by Middlebury

College students for accent or accompaniment in dance classes

and concerts, as well as theatre productions. Because Mrs. Lee

combined elements of a wide sweep of cultures in the modern dance

she taught at the College, she was always on a quest for instruments

that might prove useful.

The collection grew over a period of years. Mrs.

Lee and her husband, W. Storrs Lee, a former dean of men at Middlebury,

acquired the instruments on display and others as they traveled

throughout the world. Friends and family, aware of Mrs. Lee’s

interests, supplemented the collection.

Hawaiian instruments form a significant portion of

the collection, reflecting the time the Lees spent on Maui. The

most valuable instrument in the collection is the fragile, century-old

Hawaiian gourd drum, which was a gift from Dr. Mary Pukui, a leading

authority and writer on native Hawaiian culture. Never abused

with drumsticks, the drum was beaten instead with the flat of

a hand, usually by a female accompanist who knelt on the floor

and set the rhythm for a chorus of dancers or vocalists. Since

gourds of this dimension are no longer harvested in Hawaii, few

such drums still exist.

After the exhibition, these instruments and the others

in the collection will be available for music and dance classes

at Middlebury. The exhibition will run through January 31, and

is located on the second floor of the lobby.