HARPSICHORD

(Fr. clavecin ; Ger. Kiavicimbal, Kielflugel, Fliigel; Ital. clavicembalo, gravicembalo, not unfrequentlv cembalo only, also arpicordo), tho most important of the group of keyed instruments that preceded the pianoforte, holding during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries a position analogous to that now accorded to the grand pianoforte. It had a place in the orchestra as an accompanying instrument when the first opera and the first oratorio were performed (Florence and Rome, c. 1600), and during the time of Handel and Bach was the constant support to the recitalivo secco, its weak bass notes being reinforced by large 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 Towards the end of the 18th century the instrument was withdrawn, 1 and the big fiddles were left by themselves to accompany the ordinary recitative in a fashion more peculiar than satisfactory. The 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 J a c k . ) The Oorrer 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 (Poctices, 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 t o ; and in one by the elder Andreas Ruckers of Antwerp, dated a .d . 1614, formerly in the possession of Col. Hopkinson.2 It 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 t The King's Birthd ay Ode was accompanied by th e harpsichord tint 11 J a n e 4, 1795, when a grand piano was substituted, a harpsichord havintr been used a t th e rehearsal. * A beautiful drawing of this instrument, by R obert Maitland, one of Broad wood's employes, is a t th e B.C J L m. j . hs. supposed resemblance between the trapeze form and a pig's head. (See P s a l t e r y . ) 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. The 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 C l a v i c h o r d . ) 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. I t 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 Schroters 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. I t took more than three hundred years to bridge this chasm by stronger framing, and thus render hammers possible. As 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 w it (1) the harpsichord proper (clavicembalo, clavecin, or fliigel), of trapeze form (see Frontispiece and P L A T E X X X I I . ) ; (2) the spinetta, of oblong or pentangular form, frequently called S p i n e t or V i r g i n a l (q.v.) (see P L A T E S XC. and L X X V I . ) ; and (3) the upright harpsichord, or clavicytherium (see P L A T E X IX . ) . I t must be remembered that the long harpsichords were often described as spinet or virginal, from their plectra or their use * GetcMcMe der M u tik , 1864. by 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 e x is t; 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 P L A T E X IX . , 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, o Harpsichord and Spinet Maker in Great Poultney Street, near Golden Square, London. If.B. Late loreraan to Mr. Shudi,* is in the possession of Messrs. Broadwood. We 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 * Hieronymus Bononiensis Faciebat. Romae, MDXXL' I t 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- V O L . I I plank, and a curved bridge upon the soundboard. 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 J a c k .) 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. Reference to the oblong 'clavicordi,' in which the Victoria and Albert Museum is rich, will be found under S p i n e t . 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 R u c k e r s .) Of 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. Bu t the great change of construction that w as to become normal was brought about by a grandson of the elder Ruckers, Jan Couchet, a pupil of Hans or Jean Ruckers the younger. I t 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 w as not so, as the octave string has been found in older Italian clavicembali. We find in the Privy Purse expenses of Henry V I I I .: * 1530 (April) item the vj daye paied to William Lewes for ii payres of virginalls in one coffer with iiii stoppes brought to Greenwiche iii li . . . and for ii payres of virginalls in one coffer brought to the more other iii l i / The first, evidently a double-keyboard harpsichord w ith 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 Andre, 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 1 The oldest tra ce In th e Netherlands of th e harpsichord or clavecin is t h a t a house in Antwerp, in the parish of Notre Dame, bore in 1632 th e name of * d e Clarlzimbele.* 2n expensively decorated a hundred years after they had been made. James Shudi Broadwood (Notes, 1838) states that many Ruckers harpsichords were in existence and good condition until nearly the end of the 18th century, and fetched high prices; one having sold in 1770 for 3000 francs (.120). To Jan Couchet we may attribute the addition of the unison string and limitation of the octave string - the little octave, as Van Blankenberg called it - to the lower keyboard.1 I t was Couchet who, about 1640, changed the double keyboard harpsichord from a mere transposing instrument, contrived to accommodate the authentic and plagal church modes with the singer's capabilities, to a forte and piano instrument, with three strings (reducible to two and one) upon the lower keyboard, and one string always for the upper. Of Couchet's instruments, which are rare, one is in Edinburgh, and the other in Mrs. J. Crosby Brown's splendid collection.2 When the Ruckers family passed away we hear no more of Antwerp as the city of harpsichord makers; London and Paris took up the tale. But all these Antwerp workmen belonged of right to the Guild of St. Luke, the artists' corporation, to which they were in the first instance introduced by the practice of ornamenting their instruments with painting and carving. In 1557 ten of the Antwerp harpsichord makers petitioned the deans and masters of the guild to be admitted without submitting masterpieces, and the chiefs of the commune consenting, in the next year they were received. The responsibility of signing their work was perhaps the foundation of the great reputation afterwards enjoyed by Antwerp for harpsichords and similar musical instruments.3 The earliest historical mention of the harpsichord in England occurs under the name of Claricymball, 1502.4 The late Dr. Rimbault ( The Pianoforte, London, 1860) collected this and other references to old keyed instruments from records of Privy Purse expenses and from contemporary poets. The house-proverbs of Leckingfield, the residence of Algernon Percy in the time of Henry VII., preserved (for the house was burnt) in a MS. in the British Museum, named it 'clarisymbalis.' For a long while after this, if the instrument existed, it was known under a general name, as 'virginalls.' I t was the school of Ruckers, transferred to England by a Fleming named Tabel, that was the real basis of harpsichord-making as a * A. J . Hipklna, B itto ry o f the Pianoforte (1897), p . 83. * Catalogue, Metropolitan Museum, New York. Musical I r u t r v menis of all Nation* (Mtb. J . Crosby Brown, 1903). Preface by A. J . Hipkins. 8 Recherche", etc., Leon de Burbure, Brussels. 18R3. * The oldest known English harpsichord s till in existence fa preserved a t Knoll, K ent. The case is o f panelled oak, with a decorative s tand of Jacobean Renaissance s ty le ; keys an d Jacks a re missing. I t is Inscribed J o h a n n e s H a y w a r d F e c i t L o n d in i MDCXXII. Jo h n Hayward was the inventor of th e ' pedal,' a n improved h arpsichord in which the s to p changes were effected by four small pedals Instead of by h an d knobs. (Cf. Mace, M u t ic k 't Monument, p. 235; see also P e d a l . ) r . w. o . distinct business in this country, separating it from organ-building with which it had been, as in Flanders, often combined. A Tabel harpsichord with two keyboards is in the possession of Helena, Countess of Radnor. I t is inscribed 'Hermanus Tabel Fecit Londini, 1721,' and is very like an early Kirkman. Harpsichords had, however, been made in London in the 17th century, by the spinet-makers, the Hitchcocks, Hayward and Keene. The spinets by the first and last of these have been preserved here and there, but only one harpsichord, by John Hitchcock, is known. Tabel's pupils, Burkhard Tschudi (anglice, Shudi) and Jacob Kirchmann (anglice, Kirkman), became famous in the 18th century, developing the harpsichord in the direction of power and majesty of tone to the farthest limit. The difference in length between a Ruckers and a Shudi or Kirkman harpsichord - viz. from 6 or 7 feet to nearly 9 feet - is in direct proportion to this increase of power. Stronger framing and thicker stringing helped in the production of their pompous, rushing-sounding instruments. Perhaps Shudi's were the longest, as he carried his later instruments down to CC in the bass, while Kirkman remained at F F ; but the latter set up one row of jacks with leather instead of quills, and with due increase in the forte combination. Shudi, in his last years (1769), patented a Venetian Swell, on the principle of the Venetian blind, but the invention was in use some years before, as it is described in the Salzburger Zeitung of August 6, 1765, together with his use of the machine stop, which, from a London report concerning the child M ozart's last concert there, it also attributes to him, and which was invented about 1750. Kirkman added a pedal to raise a portion of the top or cover. Both used two p ed als; the one for the swell, the other by an external lever apparatus to shut off the octave and one of the unison registers leaving the player with both hands free, an invention of John Hayward's, described in Mace's Musick's Monument, a .d . 1676, p. 235. There is a Silbermann harpsichord in the de Wit collection at Leipzig, of wonderful tone, far finer than that of any Shudi or Kirkman, in which all the strings are overspun. In these 18th-century harpsichords, the Flemish practice of ornamenting with painting - often the cause of an instrument being broken up when no longer efficient - was done away with ; also the laudable old custom of mottoes to remind the player of the analogous brevity of life and sound, of the divine nature of the gift 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 XXXI t 2 1. g e r m a n h a r p s i c h o r d (maker unknown) : formerly J. S. Bach's. 2. FLEMISH HARPSICHORD (A. Kuckers, 1651) : used by G. F. Handel. (Stands removed.) 1. Hoehsehule fur Musik, Berlin 2. Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. artistic choice of wood and in the cabinet-work of Shudi's beautiful instruments. One, formerly in the possession of Queen Victoria, and long preserved in Kew Palace,1 is quite a masterpiece in these respects. I t 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, Gi to /'", without the lowest G#. Two, dated 1766, are in the New Palace at Potsdam, and were Frederick the Great's. (See Sh u d i .) Messrs. Broadwood have one dated 1771, with five and a half octaves, Ci to/'" , 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 'lu te '-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 Musikverein at Vienna of similar construction, made by 'Burkat Shudi et Johannes Broadwood,' and dated 1775, which belonged to Joseph Haydn. Dr. Henry Watson of Manchester possesses a Shudi harpsichord numbered 1148 and dated 1791; it has five octaves, F to Venetian Swell and five stops. A Kirkman harpsichord dated 1798 is in the possession of J. A. Fuller Maitland, and is described in Dannreuther's Ornamentation. The 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 Li&ge and a famous Parisian harpsichord maker, is credited w ith the reintroduction of leather as an alternative to q u ills; 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 alia 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 * Now at Windsor Castle, w. h. 0.r. 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. I t 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 (M .f .M ., 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 famou s'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. J. S. 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 fiir Musik in Berlin.2 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.3 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. I t was shorter than the usual harpsichord, had two unisons of gutstrings, 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.4 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 C l a v i c h o r d ; K i r k m a n ; R u c k e r s ; S h u d i ; S p i n e t ; V i r g i n a l . ) a . J . H . Arnold D o l m e t s c h (q.v.), working in turn for Chickering of Boston and Gaveau of Paris, as well as on his own account, has been a leader in the modern revival of harpsichord construction. The 20th century has brought o A. J . Hlpklns, Pianoforte Primer, 1897, p. 91. 8 Such three-hank harpsichords a r e n o t considered genuine b y Kraus of Florence. s . j . h