The Grey Room was the family’s music room – this can be seen not only by the musical instruments but also – if you look up – by the ornaments of the ceiling plaster.

The Goethe family was very musical: the father, for example, was devoted to lute-playing, although – as his son recounts in Poetry and Truth – he spent more time tuning his instrument than playing it. When his children began taking dance lessons, he accompanied them on the recorder. Goethe’s mother played piano and sang. Both children were given music lessons, Cornelia in particular was a very talented piano player. 

The Goethe’s did not only play music themselves but also attended concerts, including one very special one: in 1763 they experienced a guest performance by the “child prodigy” Mozart and his sister in Frankfurt.