Music, Music, Music

Music, Music, Music

by Libby Clay

The Herdle Fountain Court now features three musical instruments of the Baroque period: the MAG harpsichord, the Eastman Italian Baroque Organ and a virginal, lent by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

            The virginal, also called virginals, is a smaller relative of the harpsichord. Its sound is produced in the same way, by plucking the strings.  However, it has fewer keys than the harpsichord and its single set of strings runs horizontally, almost parallel to the keyboard.

            Like MAG’s harpsichord, the Boston virginal, circa 1605-1634, also has a painting on the interior of its lid; but instead of a pastoral scene, it is of Saint Cecilia, patron saint of musicians and Church music. It is said that her musical fame rests on the story that as she lay dying a martyr’s death, she praised God, singing to Him. She was a popular subject of painters, especially of northern European artists such as Rubens and Vermeer.  In fact, she seems a humbler version of Vermeer’s A Lady Seated at the Virginals, ca. 1673-75.

            Learning to play the virginal(s) was part of a proper young lady’s education. Virginals were extremely popular as domestic instruments and were sometimes thought of as “aristocratic playthings.”  They seemed to have been played most commonly by women, although that probably is not the origin of the term virginal.  They were the favorite keyboard instrument in Elizabethan times, yet they preceded the “Virgin Queen,” so were not named for her either. At any rate, this smaller and simpler rectangular form of the harpsichord was identified by this name by 1640.

            Having no legs, virginals were played either in the lap or resting on a table.  One version had a concave underside that fit comfortably over the body as the player reclined in bed.

            Boston’s virginal, attributed to Francesco Poggio, (1588-1634), has a “forward keyboard,” meaning a keyboard in the center of the instrument and protruding out from it.  This projecting keyboard was typical of Italian virginals.  If you look very closely, you can make out faint letters on some of the keys (F G A B C D), no doubt placed there by an owner who needed help remembering the notes.  The “double virginal” was an Antwerp invention which combined a large keyboard and a smaller one, half the size.  This

virginal was nicknamed “mother and child.”  The “child” could be played on its own or withdrawn and

placed on the “mother” so that both instruments were played with the latter’s keyboard.   In this case, the “child” sounded an octave above the “mother.”

            Spinets, virginals and harpsichords are all “plucked” instruments.  The player presses a key, causing the far end of the key to rise.  This in turn lifts the jack, which is a long strip of wood.  Attached to the jack is a small plectrum which, on being lifted, plucks the string.  Historically, plectra were normally made of crow quill or leather, but modern harpsichords are fitted with plastic. Usually virginals have only one string and one jack per key.

            When the key is released by the player, the far end returns to its rest position and the jack is lowered.  The plectrum, mounted on a tongue that can swivel backwards away from the string, can then pass the string without plucking it.  Look inside both the harpsichord and the virginal and this will become clearer.  Also note the ornate sound hole, which may be made of silver.

            Did you ever wonder about the origin of keyboards?  Mastering numerous strings, such as those on a zither, can be very hard on the fingers.  The solution came in the late 15^th century with the addition of a keyboard.  Keyboards had been used to sound sets of pipes in organs for centuries.  However, using them to sound strings was a real break-through.  It led to the development of domestic instruments with greater powers of expression (spinets, virginals, and harpsichords).  These instruments had a limited range of volume, however, and this led to the invention of the piano, an instrument that hammered rather than plucked the strings.  Thus you were able to play both soft and loud, piano and forte.

Harpsichord

            While the harpsichord and the virginal are silent now, we can imagine how they brought music and culture into 16^th and 17^th century homes.  Thankfully, the Eastman organ now fills the fountain court with glorious music and transforms us and the art.