Back to School: Gunnar Schonbeck Exhibit

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

This episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast explores the extraordinary musical creations of Gunnar Schonbeck, a Bennington College professor who transformed

Key takeaways

• Gunnar Schonbeck believed that any object capable of producing sound could be an instrument.
• His philosophy emphasized accessibility—no musical training required—and celebrated the joy of discovery through play.

Main topics

• Unconventional musical instruments
• Gunnar Schonbeck's artistic philosophy

Notable quotes

"There are things all around us that make sound. If it makes a good sound, that's a musical instrument."

Conclusion

Gunnar Schonbeck's legacy continues through his vibrant collection of found-object

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) I went to school in a small college in Vermont called Bennington. Just about 600 and some people in the middle of the woods, at least when I was there. And because of this, there was not always a ton to do. So as a young, mischievous person, you were occasionally looking for, I don't know, things to get into. Little adventures to have on this small college campus. Speaker 3 (0:27) I had heard a story. On the very top of the main campus dining hall, there was an attic, a locked third floor. But I had heard if you could get in there, there was something fantastical inside. And so one evening after everyone was gone and it was quiet, I went up and found a way into a room that had a little transom window open into that attic space. And I climbed on in. I saw these crazy-looking contraptions. I didn't know what they were at first until I went over and tapped them or started pulling a string. I realized they were instruments. Speaker 3 (1:18) As it turns out, this was not a completely unique experience. For years, students at Bennington had been whispering about this locked room, occasionally breaking in, and getting a glimpse of these pretty magical creations. These strange objects were all created by a Bennington professor named Gunnar Schoenbeck. And he expanded the very idea of what an instrument could be. He expanded it to include that we might all be instrument makers and that absolutely everyone is a musician. I'm Dylan Thuras, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places. And today, we are going to join Gunnar Schoenbeck's orchestra. Speaker 3 (2:18) So you no longer have to break and enter to get a look at Gunnar Schoenbeck's one-of-a-kind musical instruments. Instead, you can head to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, or Mass MoCA. And there, you can not only see all these instruments, but you can play them. The nine-foot banjos are irresistible. This is Mark Stewart. He's the curator of the exhibit of Gunnar's instruments at the museum. And the room is filled with... All of these crazy contraptions that looked like they came out of someone's dreams. There are these huge oversized drums made from airplane fuselages. There are racks of wheel hubs and scrap metal turned into these delicately hung chimes. There are ukuleles made from coconuts and all brightly painted and visually delightful. And then there's the banjo. Speaker 2 (3:17) Gunner, he looked at a concert bass drum, big 36-incher, and said, well, that could be a banjo too. And boy, oh boy, he delivered. Nine feet tall, strung with piano wire. My favorite way to play it is with the mallet, hitting the strings and the drum head itself. It makes a tremendous, wonderful sound. Speaker 3 (3:45) Mark takes a particular joy in playing with this collection. He is a musician himself. He makes his own found