-- forwarded letter, please reply to sender and MMD --

 [ Thomas says that Mr. Donhauser's letter to him is "a good and
 [ honest answer" to his letter in 000620 MMD describing his visit
 [ to the museum.  He says he will write a note of thanks back to
 [ Mr. Donhauser, and that he hopes to afford another trip to Vienna
 [ someday.  -- Robbie

Dear Mr. Henden,

I refer to your article in MMD describing troubles with our museum.

First I want to apologize for all inconveniences during your visit in
Vienna.  In some aspects you are right, in others we have a different
point of view.

We are a museum of technology in general, not a specialized museum
for musical automata.  The instruments are presented as special forms
of conventional instruments, like self-playing organs or pianos.
The instruments themselves are documents of industrial and handicraft
production.  This gives you an idea why the relationship to other
galleries in the house does not allow us to spend the necessary amount
of budget for permanent demonstrations and the necessary maintenance
for the automata.

Most of them are in good condition, as you have seen (from outside).
I think that this form of guided tour is the domain of institutions
like Bruchsal or Seewen.  Even the (larger) Deutsches Museum in Munich
cannot demonstrate the automata permanently.

If possible (it's a question of time), a colleague or I demonstrates
the instruments.  We need an announcement in good time beforehand, for
I am head curator and my colleague is responsible for several further
collections in the house.

Unfortunately we don't have well-trained and experienced demonstrators,
as you have seen, which is a question of budget.  Most of them offer a
summary tour through the whole museum without any special respect to a
certain gallery; the tour you attended is one of them.  It is true that
the guides are allowed to demonstrate only the most robust instruments
(we had a lot of severe damage before), but it is a shame if the guide
lectures nonsense.  The target audience are not specialists!

Since we knew that a permanent demonstration is not possible, we built
a small cinema, where visitors can select a lot of videos showing the
instruments in action.  (I hope you have seen it).  I can try to send
you a sample video as MPEG by e-mail, if you want.

In the most cases just specialists are well served.  For example, last
Friday specialist Kenneth Goldman was here, together with Dr. Helmut
Kowar, to see and hear a large musical box by Rzebitschek.  Normally we
get a phone call from the information desk if a special person arrives.
I apologize that this failed in your case.

The "huge Tivoli organ" is actually the smallest instrument available
from Bruder in Waldkirch, only 1.5 m in dimension.  No museum in the
world moves its objects outside to demonstrate them.  In Utrecht you
can hear really huge instruments indoors, and nobody complains.

I hope that we can discuss your wishes the next time you are in Vienna.

With best regards

Peter Donhauser
Head Curator & Curator for Musical Instruments
Technisches Museum Wien - Vienna Museum of Technology
http://www.tmw.ac.at/