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Scan 601
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1927
26 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 545. See the scan on archive.org.
1by young ladies; but the table-shaped ones known commonly by the latter names were never called harpsichords. A few specimens of the upright harpsichords still exist; one decorated with paintings was shown in the collections of Musical Instruments at South Kensington in 1872; another was sold in the Duke of Hamilton's sale in 1883, but was unfortunately broken up for the sake of the paintings; and the Conservatoire of Brussels and the Kraus collection of Florence contain specimens. Another splendid specimen, of Italian origin, dating c. 1600, shown on PLATE XIX., was acquired by Mrs. J. Crosby Brown of New York, and forms part of her munificent donation to the Metropolitan Museum of that city. An interesting bill-head and receipt for an upright harpsichord, dated 1753, and signed by the maker, Samuel Blumer,
3'Harpsichord and Spinet Maker in Great Poultney Street, near Golden Square, London. N.B. Late foreman to Mr. Shudi,'
5is in the possession of Messrs. Broadwood.
7We are spared the necessity of reconstructing the older harpsichords from the obscure and often inaccurate allusions of the older writers, such as Virdung and Kircher, by the valuable collection now in the Victoria and Albert (South Kensington) Museum, that includes instruments of this family dating from 1521 to Pascal Taskin, 1786. In private hands, but accessible to the inquirer, are large harpsichords by Tschudi and Kirkman, and by Tabel, to whom these makers had in turn been foremen. The oldest harpsichord in the Museum, and so far as is known, anywhere, is a Roman clavicembalo, inscribed and dated
9'Hieronymus Bononiensis Faciebat.
10Romae, MDXXI.'
12It has one keyboard, and two unison strings to each note, boxwood natural keys, with an apparent compass of near four octaves, E to d''', which, with a 'short octave' in the bass, would be C to d'''. This instrument, like many Italian harpsichords and spinets, is removable from its elaborate case. There was no change of power or pitch in this instrument by stops, nor in the later clavicembali; the Italians were always conservative in structural features. Raising the top and looking inside, we observe the harp-like disposition of the strings as in a modern grand piano, which led Galilei, the father of the astronomer Galileo, to infer the direct derivation of the harpsichord from the harp. In front, immediately over the keys, is the wrest-plank, with the tuning-pins inserted, round which are wound the nearer ends of the strings — in this instrument two to each note — the further ends being attached to hitch-pins, driven into the sound-board itself, and following the angle of the bent side of the case to the narrow end, where the longest strings are stretched. There is a straight bridge along the edge of the wrest-plank, and a curved bridge upon the sound-board. The strings pass over these bridges, between which they vibrate, and the impulse of their vibrations is communicated by the curved bridge to the sound-board. The plectra or jacks are the same as in later instruments. (See JACK.) The raised blocks on each side the keys, by which the instrument was drawn out of the case, survived long after, when there was no outer case. one of two readings
13It has one keyboard, and two unison strings to each note, boxwood natural keys, with an apparent compass of near four octaves, E to d''', which, with a 'short octave' in the bass, would be C to d'''. This instrument, like many Italian harpsichords and spinets, is removable from its elaborate case. There was no change of power or pitch in this instrument by stops, nor in the later clavicembali; the Italians were always conservative in structural features. Raising the top and looking inside, we observe the harp-like disposition of the strings as in a modern grand piano, which led Galilei, the father of the astronomer Galileo, to infer the direct derivation of the harpsichord from the harp. In front, immediately over the keys, is the wrest-plank, with the tuning-pins inserted, round which are wound the nearer ends of the strings — in this instrument two to each note — the further ends being attached to hitch-pins, driven into the sound-board itself, and following the angle of the bent side of the case to the narrow end, where the longest strings are stretched. There is a straight bridge along the edge of the wrest- one of two readings
15plank, and a curved bridge upon the sound-board. The strings pass over these bridges, between which they vibrate, and the impulse of their vibrations is communicated by the curved bridge to the sound-board. The plectra or jacks are the same as in later instruments. (See JACK.) The raised blocks on each side the keys, by which the instrument was drawn out of the case, survived long after, when there was no outer case. one of two readings
17Reference to the oblong 'clavicordi,' in which the Victoria and Albert Museum is rich, will be found under SPINET. The actual workmanship of all these Italian keyed instruments was indifferent; we must turn to the Netherlands for that care in manipulation and choice of materials which, united with constructive ingenuity equalling that of the best Italian artists, culminated in the Double Harpsichords of the Ruckers family of Antwerp.1 (See RUCKERS.)
19Of this family there were four members living and working between 1579 and 1651 or later, who achieved great reputation. Their instruments are known by their signatures; and by the monograms forming the ornamental rosette or sound-hole in the sound-board — a survival from the psaltery. The founder of the reputation of this family, Hans Ruckers the elder, brought the Antwerp manufacture to that importance and perfection that have become historical. But the great change of construction that was to become normal was brought about by a grandson of the elder Ruckers, Jan Couchet, a pupil of Hans or Jean Ruckers the younger. It was long believed that the elder Hans Ruckers had added the second keyboard, the octave string, and stops for the control of the registers or slides of jacks acting upon the strings analogously to the stops of the organ, but it was not so, as the octave string has been found in older Italian clavicembali. We find in the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VIII.:
21'1530 (April) item the vj daye paied to William Lewes for ii payres of virginals in one coffer with iiij stoppes brought to Greenwiche iii li … and for ii payres of virginals in one coffer brought to the more other iii li.'
23The first, evidently a double-keyboard harpsichord with four stops, probably brought from Antwerp or Cologne, a still earlier seat of harpsichord-making; the second, a double harpsichord, no stops being named but probably existing, landed at the mere or marsh adjoining Whitehall, afterwards known as Scotland Yard. Hans Ruckers the elder was not born in 1530, hardly before 1550. His merit, and that of his sons Jean and André, was rather that of the great violin-maker Stradivari, to make perfect an existing model. The tension of harpsichords being comparatively small, they lasted longer than our modern pianos. They were sometimes
251 The oldest trace in the Netherlands of the harpsichord or clavecin is that a house in Antwerp, in the parish of Notre Dame, bore in 1532 the name of 'de Clavizimbele.'
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