Books › Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1927 › scan 602
Scan 602
Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1927
14 lines. Read by computer on 4 September 2026. Printed page 544. See the scan on archive.org.
1large lutes and viols, and ultimately by violoncellos and double basses. Towards the end of the 18th century the instrument was withdrawn,1 and the big fiddles were left by themselves to accompany the ordinary recitative in a fashion more peculiar than satisfactory.
3The name harpsichord is the English variant of the original arpicordo, which, like clavicembalo, clavicordo, spinetta and pianoforte, betrays its Italian origin. The spinetta was a table-shaped, five-cornered arpicordo, rectangular, like the German clavichord, but otherwise quite different from that instrument, which was made to sound by 'tangents,' or simple brass uprights from the keys. All instruments of the harpsichord, clavicembalo or spinet family were on the plectrum principle, and therefore were incapable of dynamic modification of tone by difference of touch. The strings were set in vibration by points of quill or hard leather, elevated on wooden uprights, known as jacks, and twitching or plucking them as the depression of the keys caused the points to pass upwards. (See Jack.) The Correr upright spinet or clavicytherium, which was in the Music Loan Collection of 1885, and was presented by Sir G. Donaldson to the R.C.M., is perhaps the oldest instrument of this kind in existence. It preserves traces of brass plectra, not leather. Leather points were probably used before quills, since we learn from Scaliger, who lived 1484–1550 (Poetices, lib. i. cap. 48), that crowquills were introduced in keyed instruments subsequent to his boyhood, and he informs us that through them the name 'spinet' (from spine, a thorn or point) became applied to what had been known as the 'clavicymbal' and 'harpichord.' The Canon Paul Belisonius, of Pavia, is said to have introduced quill plectra, but whether leather, as has been said, preceded the use of quills cannot be affirmed. The plectra in harpsichords and spinets were so often renewed that it is impossible to assert that we have direct evidence of the use of either substance in any existing instrument. The use of leather is shown in a harpsichord by Baffo, dated a.d. 1574, and presently to be referred to; and in one by the elder Andreas Ruckers of Antwerp, dated a.d. 1614, formerly in the possession of Col. Hopkinson.2
5It is the principle of the plectrum that derives the descent of the harpsichord from the psaltery, just as the pianoforte is derived, by analogy at least, from the dulcimer, and the clavichord from the movable-bridged monochord; the model for the shape of the long harpsichord being that kind of psaltery which the common people called 'istromento di porco' — from a supposed resemblance between the trapeze form and a pig's head. (See Psaltery.) There is an interesting suggestion of this connexion of the harpsichord with the psaltery preserved in the church of the Certosa of Pavia, built about a.d. 1475. King David, who in the Middle Ages always played a psaltery, is there shown holding an 'istromento di porco.' The body of the psaltery is open, and shows eight keys, lying parallel with the eight strings. David touches the keys with his right hand, and uses the left to damp the strings. All this may be the sculptor's fancy, but Dr. Ambros3 regards it as a recollection of a real, though obsolete, instrument somewhere seen by him.
7The earliest mention of the harpsichord is under the name of clavicymbalum, in the rules of the Minnesingers, by Eberhard Cersne, a.d. 1404. With it occur the clavichord, the monochord, and other musical instruments in use at that time. (See Clavichord.) The absence of any prior mention or illustration of keyed stringed instruments is negative evidence only, but it may be assumed to prove their invention to have been shortly before that date — say in the latter half of the 14th century, especially as Jean de Muris, writing in 1323 (Musica speculativa), and enumerating musical instruments, makes no reference to either clavicembalo or clavichord, but describes the monochord (recommending four strings, however) as in use for measuring intervals at that time. Moreover, before this epoch, hammered music wire could not have been extensively used, if it existed before the earliest record of wire-drawing, a.d. 1351, at Augsburg. It may occur to the reader — why were hammers not sooner introduced after the natural suggestion of the dulcimer, instead of the field being so long occupied by the less effective jack and tangent contrivances? The chasm untraversable by all forgotten Cristoforis and Schröters was the gap between wrestplank and sound-board, for the passage of the hammers, which weakened the frame and prohibited the introduction of thicker strings strong enough to withstand the impact of hammers. It took more than three hundred years to bridge this chasm by stronger framing, and thus render hammers possible.
9As pianofortes have been made in three quite different shapes, the grand, the square and the upright, there were as many varieties of the jack instruments — to wit (1) the harpsichord proper (clavicembalo, clavecin, or flügel), of trapeze form (see Frontispiece and PLATE XXXII.); (2) the spinetta, of oblong or pentangular form, frequently called SPINET or VIRGINAL (q.v.) (see PLATES XC. and LXVI.); and (3) the upright harpsichord, or clavicytherium (see PLATE XIX.). It must be remembered that the long harpsichords were often described as spinet or virginal, from their plectra or their use
111 The King's Birthday Ode was accompanied by the harpsichord until June 4, 1795, when a grand piano was substituted, a harpsichord having been used at the rehearsal.
122 A beautiful drawing of this instrument, by Robert Maitland, one of Broadwood's employés, is at the R.C.M.
133 Geschichte der Musik, 1864.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.