Annikki Tähti’s gold record, Kuningaskobra (“King Cobra”), 1956. Photo: Ilari Järvinen/National Heritage Agency.

Music collection

The National Museum’s music collection stores material related to Finnish music. The collection involves important Finnish musicians and performers, Finnish music production and technology, and the consumption of music in Finland.

The perspective on music is wide-ranging and goes beyond genre boundaries. Targets for recording include the importance of music in society, professional production and performance of music, music technology, consumption of music in all age groups and fandom. The focus of the recording is on objects, but material arising from contemporary documentation is also stored.

The geographical area of the recording is Finland. The temporal range of the recording is from the 1890s to the present, focusing on the era of modern music. Finnish museum collections contain few objects that deal with music from the 1950s to the present day, so this music collection has particularly been assembled with a focus on this period.

The recording transcends the boundaries of music styles, but at the same time tries to focus especially on styles or themes that are not systematically being recorded by others. National significance is taken into account in building the collection, and there is active cooperation with Music Museum Fame in the recording.

Additional information:

Kerttuli Hoppa, tel. +358 (0)295 33 6389, kerttuli.hoppa@kansallismuseo.fi