A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 



The manufacture of musical instruments 

 dates back to a remote antiquity. They 

 were constantly in use by minstrels at feasts 

 and pageants, and in religious services and 

 ceremonies. At the pageant exhibited at 

 Westminster Hall in 1502 on the occasion of 

 an entertainment given to Catherine of Spain 

 we read l that ' twelve ladies had claricordis, 

 claricymballs, and such other.' Henry VIII 

 and both of his daughters were skilful players 

 upon the chief instruments of music in use 

 in their day. London makers in the i6th 

 century helped to supply the demands of the 

 Continent, although musical imports from 

 abroad were also considerable. In a little 

 book entitled 'The rates of the Custome 

 House, both inwarde and outwarde, very 

 necessary for all merchants to knowe, Im- 

 printed at London by Rycharde Kele, 1545,' 

 will be found ' clarycordes the payre 2s., harp 

 strynges the boxe io;., lute strynges called 

 mynikins the groce 22^., orgons the payre 

 ut sint in valore, wyer for clarycordes the 

 pound 4^., virginales the payer 3;. 4^.' Very 

 few particulars of early makers exist. In 

 April 1530 one William Lewes received 3 

 for two ' payer of virginalls ' supplied to the 

 king at Greenwich, ^3 for two pair ' brought 

 to the More,' and 2OJ. for 'a little payer.' 

 In February 1531 Lewes received a further 

 sum of .8 6s. 8d. for five pair of virginals 

 supplied to his royal patron. 2 Nothing is 

 known of Lewes, but in the Privy Purse 

 expenses of the Princes: Mary* among various 

 payments connected with instruction of the 

 princess in the virginals are sums ' geven to 

 one Cowts [or Cots] of London for mendyng 

 of my ladys grace Virginalls at soundry 

 tymes.' Several 'pairs' of virginals which 

 once belonged to Queen Elizabeth are 

 described by Dr. Rimbault, who wrote in 

 i86o, 4 as existing in his time ; that of chief 

 interest is an instrument purchased at Lord 

 Spencer Chhhester's sale in 1805. 



Some at hast of the early musical instru- 

 ment makers settled in London were certainly 

 born beyond the seas, as, for example, William 

 Treasurer, returned as ' virginall-maker 

 Doucheman' in 1568.* Three years after it 



1 Antiq. Repertory, ii, 310. 



1 Privy Purse exp. of Hen. Fill (ed. Nicolas, 



18*7). 37- 



1 Ed. by Fred. Madden, 1831, pp. 20, 46. 

 1 Tke Pianoforte, 58. 



! Kirk, Returns of Aliens (Huguenot Soc.), iii, 

 344- 



was reported 6 that he had been fifty years in 

 England. His ' servant ' or apprentice, Jasper 

 Blanckart, may have succeeded to his business, 

 for he is found in Aldgate Ward in 1582-3 

 as a virginal-maker. 7 Other foreign virginal 

 makers were clearly religious refugees, 8 as 

 ' Lodewyke Tyves' in 1568, while in 1582 

 3 we hear 9 of 'Polle Fyeld and Marie his 

 wief; he was borne at Loven, in England 

 3 yeares at September last and came for reli- 

 gion ; he ys a sojourner with John James, a 

 virginall-maker, no denizon and of the Duche 

 churche.' Foreign lute and harp-string makers 

 are also not uncommon, as Norde Pallarum a 

 Sicilian 10 (i568), Audrian Daniell a Hollander 

 (1571), and two Antwerp men, Joyce Van- 

 deroke and Peter Wellence (1571). 



Two celebrated virginal-makers in the latter 

 half of the 1 7th century were John Loosemore 

 and Stephen Keen. A fine instrument bearing 

 Loosemore's name and the date 1655 ' s stated 

 by Rimbault to be in private possession. 11 

 There is an advertisement of Keen at the 

 end of Playford's Introduction to the Skill of 

 Mustek, 1 67 2, stating that ' Mr.Stephen Keen, 

 Maker of Harpsycons and Virginals, dwelleth 

 now in Threadneadle Street, at the sign of 

 the Virginal, who maketh them exactly good, 

 both for sound and substance.' Keen was in 

 business from 1685 to 1716. 



The instruments above-mentioned all 

 possessed key-boards, and were early precur- 

 sors of the pianoforte. The clavier, or 

 key-board, invented at the close of the nth 

 century, was at first applied to the organ, 

 but was probably soon adapted to stringed 

 instruments. One of the earliest of these 

 was the clavicytherium a small oblong box 

 with the strings arranged in the form of a half 

 triangle. The strings were of catgut, and 

 were sounded by quill plectra rudely fastened 

 to the ends of the keys. The clavichord or 

 clarichord was a much superior instrument, in 

 the shape of a small square pianoforte, but 

 without frame or legs. The strings were of 

 brass, and the action consisted simply of a 

 piece of brass pin wire placed vertically at a 

 point where it could be struck or pressed 

 against its proper string. The virginal intro- 

 duced a new plan of striking the strings by 

 small quills attached to minute springs fitted 



6 Ibid, i, 413. ' Ibid, i, 413 ; ii, 304. 



9 Ibid, iii, 345. ' Ibid, ii, 81. 



10 Ibid, iii, 413 ; ii, IOO ; i, 463 ; ii, 114. 



11 The Pianoforte, 64, &c. 



180 



