Books › A dictionary of music and musicians, 1926 › scan 380
Scan 380
A dictionary of music and musicians, 1926
10 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. Printed page 332. See the scan on archive.org.
1gift of music, or of dead wood reviving as living tone. But it was when the instrument went out altogether that this enrichment of picture galleries by the demolition of harpsichords was most effected. The number of Ruckers, however, known to exist has been extended by research to seventy. There was great care in artistic choice of wood and in the cabinet-work of Tschudi's beautiful instruments. One, formerly in the possession of Queen Victoria, and long preserved in Kew Palace, is quite a masterpiece in these respects. It bears Tschudi's name, spelt, as was usual, Shudi; the date 1740 and maker's number 94 are inside. The compass is, as in the South Kensington Ruckers, G₁ to f''', without the lowest G♯. Two, dated 1766, are in the New Palace at Potsdam, and were Frederick the Great's. (See SHUDI.) Messrs. Broadwood have one dated 1771, with five and a half octaves, C₁ to f''', Venetian Swell and five stops, comprising the two unisons and octave of the Ruckers, with a slide of jacks striking the strings much nearer to the bridge (also a Ruckers contrivance), and producing a more twanging quality of tone, the so-called 'lute'-stop and a 'buff'-stop of small pieces of leather, brought into contact with the strings, damping the tone and thus giving a kind of pizzicato effect. This fine instrument was used by Moscheles in his Historical Concerts in 1837, and by Pauer in similar performances in 1862, 1863, and 1867. There is also one in the Musik Verein at Vienna of similar construction, made by 'Burkat Shudi et Johannes Broadwood,' and dated 1775, which belonged to Joseph Haydn. The latest harpsichord by the Shudi & Broadwood firm is dated 1790. A Kirkman harpsichord dated 1798 is in the possession of the editor, and is described in Dannreuther's Ornamentation.
3The variety of stops and combinations introduced by different makers here and abroad at last became legion, and were as worthless as they were numerous. Pascal Taskin, a native of Theux in Liège and a famous Parisian harpsichord maker, is credited with the reintroduction of leather as an alternative to quills; his clavecin 'en peau de bufle' made in 1768 was pronounced superior to the pianoforte (De la Borde, Essai sur la musique, 1773). Taskin's were smaller scale harpsichords than those in vogue in England, and had ebony naturals and ivory sharps, and a Japanese fashion of external ornamentation. There is one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated 1786. In the Liceo Communale di Musica at Bologna there is a harpsichord with four rows of keys, called an 'Archicembalo.' This instrument, according to Carl Engel, was made by a Venetian, Vito Trasuntino, after the invention of Nicolo Vicentino, who described it in his work L'Antica Musica ridotta alla moderna prattica (Rome, 1555). The compass comprises only four octaves, but in each octave are thirty-one keys. A 'tetracordo' was made to facilitate the tuning of these minute intervals. Thus early were attempts made to arrive at purity of intonation by multiplying the number of keys within the bounds of the octave. Another archicembalo, made by Cristofori in 1726, is in the Museo Kraus at Florence. It has a double keyboard, but is not enharmonic; it was intended to be used in an orchestra, the player standing. Another of the curiosities of harpsichord-making was the 'Transponiclavicymbel' described by Praetorius (1614-18). By shifting the keyboard the player could transpose two tones higher or lower, passing at pleasure through the intermediate half tones. Arnold Schlick, however, had achieved a similar transposition with the organ as early as 1512 (Monatshefte für Musik-Geschichte, Berlin, 1869). A harpsichord pedalier—Clavicymbelpedal—according to Dr. Oscar Paul, an independent instrument with two octaves of pedals, was used by J. S. Bach, notably in his Trios and the famous 'Passacaille'; and in his transcriptions of Vivaldi's Concertos. Some large German harpsichords had not only the two unison registers and an octave one equivalent to 8- and 4-foot stops, but also a bourdon, answering to 16-foot pitch. John Sebastian Bach had one of this calibre; it formed one of the interesting objects in Herr Paul de Wit's collection in Leipzig, and has been transferred to the museum attached to the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin.1 In 1901 harpsichords came to light containing three keyboards, of Italian make and similarly contrived, the octave being on the highest bank, octava and cymbalum on the middle, and unisons on the lowest bank. A fine specimen by Sodi is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Lastly a 'Lautenwerke' must be noticed, a gut-strung harpsichord, an instrument not worth remembering had not Bach himself directed the making of one by Zacharias Hildebrand of Leipzig. It was shorter than the usual harpsichord, had two unisons of gut-strings, and an octave register of brass wire, and was praised as being so like the lute in tone, as to be capable, if heard concealed, of deceiving a lute-player by profession (Paul, Gesch. des Claviers, Leipzig, 1868). Since 1888 harpsichords have been made in Paris by the pianoforte makers, Pleyel, Wolff & Cie., and S. & P. Erard. The former firm have introduced original features, one being the substitution of pedals for hand-stops, the gradual depression of which produces a crescendo. Messrs. Erard have been content to reproduce a clavecin by Taskin, said to have been made for Marie Antoinette. [See CLAVICHORD, RUCKERS, SHUDI, SPINET, VIRGINAL.]
5A. J. H.
7HARRIS, SIR AUGUSTUS HENRY GLOSSOP, was born in Paris in 1852. He was in business for a short time, and gained theatrical experience from 1873 in Liverpool, Manchester, and else-
91 A. J. Hipkins. Pianoforte Primer, 1897, p. 91.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.