It’s Music Monday! This year marks the 100th anniversary of the MFA’s musical instruments collection—one of the oldest in the US. This 18th-century French pedal harp was among the first instruments acquired by the Museum. The graceful outline of harps lends itself to carved and painted decoration, which here includes rural scenes on the soundboard and Chinese-inspired designs on both sides of the curved neck. | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

It’s Music Monday! This year marks the 100th anniversary of the MFA’s musical instruments collection—one of the oldest in the US. This French serpent (about 1820) was among the first 560 instruments acquired by the Museum in 1917. Although played with a cup-shaped mouthpiece similar to that on other brass instruments, the serpent has a wood body and finger holes like woodwind instruments. Its bass tone is mellow, though somewhat unfocused, and was employed for low brass parts in ecclesiastical,