Provenance Research on Musical Instruments: Specific Conditions, Aims, and Obstacles of an Emerging Field

The AG Musik was founded in 2023 to open up a neglected field: provenance research on musical instruments, still largely underdeveloped institutionally. This paper presents the group’s aims, methods, and first results, illustrated through the case study of the instruments acquired by the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, now held by the Deutsche Musikleben Foundation. It also addresses the structural obstacles facing this work: few dedicated research projects exist, collaboration with musicologists in collections remains limited, and despite growing numbers of funding applications, there is a shortage of qualified specialist staff and of institutional resources. The paper argues for closer interdisciplinary cooperation — spanning provenance research, musicology and history, organology, and the international instrument trade — to anchor music-related provenance research firmly within scholarly and cultural-political discourse.