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Scan 131
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1928
35 lines. Read by computer on 9 September 2026. Printed page 95. See the scan on archive.org.
1ence between John Hitchcock's and Charles Haward's spinets¹ in the fine specimens known to the writer, the latter of much older character, though probably made after the former.
3Thomas Hitchcock's spinets are better known than John's. The one on PLATE LXXVI. No. 2 belongs to Broadwood, and is numbered 1379.² (The highest number we have met with of Thomas Hitchcock, is 1547.) Broadwood's differs from the John Hitchcock of 1630 in having a curved instead of an angular bent side, and from the naturals being of ivory instead of ebony. The compass of these instruments—five octaves, from G, to g'''—is so startling as to be incredible, were it not for the facts that several instruments are extant with this compass, that the keyboard did not admit of alteration, and that the Sainsbury Correspondence (see RUCKERS) mentions that a greater compass obtained in England in the time of Charles I. than was expected or required on the Continent. The absence also of the sound-hole, regarded as essential in all stringed instruments of that time, where the sound-board covered the whole internal space, shows how eminently progressive the Hitchcocks must have been. Not so Haward, in the instrument represented on PLATE LXXVI. No. 1. Charles Haward appears to have been contemporary with the Hitchcocks, and yet he is as conservative to old Italian or French practice as if John Hitchcock had never made an instrument in England.
5A John Hitchcock spinet exists numbered 1676. Thomas and John were probably father and son. The Charles Haward spinet is small, with short keys and limited compass, being only of 4 octaves and a semitone, B,–c''. The naturals are of snakewood, nearly black; the sharps of ivory. There are wires on each bridge over which the strings pass, and along the hitchpin block, precisely the same as in a dulcimer. The decoration of the sound-board, surrounding an Italian rose, is signed 'I H,' with 'Carolus Haward Fecit' above the keys; and the name of each key is distinctly written, which we shall again have occasion to refer to. Pepys patronised Haward (or Hayward, as he sometimes writes the name). We read in his Diary:
7'April 4, 1668. To White Hall. Took Aldgate Street in my way and there called upon one Hayward that makes Virginalls, and there did like of a little espinette, and will have him finish it for me: for I had a mind to a small harpsichon, but this takes up less room.
9'July 10, 1668. To Hayward's to look upon an Espinette, and I did come near to buying one, but broke off. I have a mind to have one.
11'July 13, 1668. I to buy my espinette, which I did now agree for, and did at Haward's meet with Mr. Thacker, and heard him play on the harpsichon, so as I never heard man before, I think.
13'July 15, 1668. At noon is brought home the espinette I bought the other day of Haward; costs me 5l.'
15¹ Formerly in the possession of William Dale of London.
16² This is the instrument in Millais's picture of 'The Minuet,' 1862. Thomas dated his spinets; John numbered them.
18Another reference concerns the purchase of triangles for the spinet—a three-legged stand, as in our illustration. A curious reference to Charles Haward occurs in A Vindication of an Essay to the Advancement of Musick, by Thomas SALMON, M.A., London, 1672. This writer is advocating a new mode of notation, in which the ordinary clefs were replaced by B. (bass), M. (mean), and T. (treble) at the signatures:
20'Here, Sir, I must acquaint you in favour of the aforesaid B. M. T. that t'other day I met with a curious pair of Phantatical Harpsechords made by that Arch Heretick Charles Haward, which were ready cut out into octaves (as I am told he abusively contrives all his) in so much that by the least hint of B. M. T. all the notes were easily found as lying in the same posture in every one or their octaves. And that, Sir, with this advantage, that so soon as the scholar had learned one hand he understood them, because the position of the notes were for both the same.'
22The lettering over the keys in W. Dale's Haward spinet is here shown to be original. It is very curious, however, to observe Haward's simple alphabetical lettering, and to contrast it with the hexachord names then passing away. There is a virginal (oblong spinet) in York Museum, made in 1651 by Thomas White, on the keys of which are monograms of Gamaut (bass G) and the three clef keys, F fa ut, C sol fa ut, and G sol re ut!
24Mace, in Musick's Monument (London, 1676), refers to John Hayward as a 'harpsichon' maker, and credits him with the invention of the pedal for changing the stops. There was a spinet by one of the Haywards or Hawards left by Queen Anne to the Chapel Royal boys. It was used as a practising instrument until the chorister days of the late Sir John Goss, perhaps even later.³
26A. J. H.
28SPIRIDIO (Sper' in Dio), BERTHOLD, a late 17th-century Carmelite monk; first at the court of Savoy; in 1668 preacher in the diocese of Würzburg; finally (from 1670) in the monastery St. Theodor near Bamberg. He composed masses and other church music, and wrote an important work Neue bis dato unbekannte Unterweisung, etc., giving instructions in the art of composition, as well as in organ-, spinet-, monochord-playing, etc. (1670). Of this part 2-4 appeared separately as Nova instructio pro pulsandis organis spinettis, monochordis, etc. (1671–79), and part 5 as Musikalische Erzgruben, etc. (1683). A selection therefrom as Musica Romana containing vocal compositions with 2 violins ad lib. by various composers included himself (1665) (Q.-L.; Riemann).
30SPIRITOSO, i.e. 'spiritedly,' is, like CON SPIRITO, a designation of style rather than of pace. The variant 'spirituoso' occurs in some of Beethoven's arrangements of national airs.
32SPITTA, JULIUS AUGUST PHILIPP (b. Wechhold, Hanover, Dec. 27, 1841; d. Berlin,
34³ Details of the private ownership of further specimens known to the writer have been withheld from this edition as verification was impossible.—Ed.
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