Music, we know, is art, tradition, and emotion all at once, and in this little museum more than ever. Perhaps defining it as a museum is a bit excessive: there are no valuable paintings or statues from the sea, but the Museum of Musical Instruments of Reggio Calabria is absolutely among the places to visit in the city. When we enter it we immediately perceive the love for Calabrian music and folk traditions: talking to its director we feel a passion so strong that it was not even bent by the arson that destroyed part of the collection. And then at MuStruMu it’s a journey within the journey in Reggio Calabria. It is possible to attend readings of all kinds and all with musical accompaniments (and when there is good weather the performances are in the internal park); here over 800 musical instruments from all over the world are kept, obviously including those of Calabrian tradition, like the chitarra battente, an instrument of the fourteenth century: the bottom of the curved sound box and the metal strings give a ringing sound suitable for popular festivals, and is found in tarantella, pizziche and serenades. Here you can “fiddle,” beat a gong, pinch a harp and even try the shawm, a strange wind instrument similar to a bagpipe. In the South there is no village party without a band and there is no band without a shawm!
