House and Garden 
CRISTOFORI PIANO IN METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK 
the Earl of Leicester and another of Lady Nevil. 
1 he clavichord does not admit of the delicacies of 
touch which delight us in the pianoforte but one 
could cite a long list of distinguished names of men 
who labored with success at this instrument. A 
hundred attempts were made to make it more im¬ 
pressive for here too the eighteenth century was the 
experimental preparation for the felicitous successes 
of the nineteenth. Many kinds of claviers were 
invented. Some with pedals are mentioned while 
others had two keyboards and a separate pedal 
hoard. In Germany the chromatic scale clavichord 
was used and boxwood preceded ivory as the material 
of the lower keys. In elaborate instruments tortoise¬ 
shell and mother-of-pearl inlays were not infrequent 
and this instrument has always been valued by 
musicians for its tender timbre. Excellent specimens 
can be seen in collections, notably in that of Mr. 
Morris Steinert of New Haven, Conn. 
The clavier for which English musicians wrote 
was called a virginal or spinet, names which have 
been given to the same instrument. Virginal was 
the English name for spinet according to the defini¬ 
tion of a plectrum keyboard instrument with no more 
than one string to a note. Inasmuch as the name 
was current during the reign of Henry VIE it cannot 
be assumed that after 
the flattering fashion 
of the time it was so 
called in honor of the 
virgin queen. Possibly 
the name is due to the 
fact that the small size 
of the instrument made 
it especially suitable 
for young girls, for 
the same name pre¬ 
vailed in Italy. The 
origin of the name of 
spinet has been attrib¬ 
uted either to the in¬ 
troduction of little quill 
points or to a Venetian 
maker, who signed his 
instruments Giovanni 
Spinette but the origin 
of the name is obscure, 
partly because of its 
aee. In inventories of 
O 
the instruments of 
Queen Isabella, spinets 
are reckoned as old. 
Queen Elizabeth was 
an accomplished player 
and her father, Henry 
VIII., not only played 
upon the virginal but 
had a professional vir- 
ginist attached to his court. Mary Queen of Scots 
was proficient on this instrument. A virginal that 
was associated with Queen Elizabeth is now in South 
Kensington Museum and bears among its elaborate 
decorations the queen’s coat of arms. 
An enthusiastic admirer of Bach, who possessed a 
collection of musical instruments, contends that it is 
only upon the instrument for which a piece is written 
that a correct interpretation can be obtained. In the 
Vienna Conservatory of Music the Bach school is 
studied upon the instruments for which they were 
written. Many of these old style instruments have 
been exhibited in this country and Europe, among 
them the clavichord used by Mozart, formerly in the 
Mozarteum at Salzburg, and a harpsichord played by 
the fair Nellie Curtis has been exhibited at several 
Expositions. 
Mrs. Crosby-Brown has provided the New York 
Metropolitan Museum with a Flemish spinet painted 
with the story of David’s victory over Goliath. A 
spinet made by Haward can also be seen there, 
pathetic in its old timeliness and a double spinet by 
Grovvelus ornamented with paintings and inlays is 
also there. With the restoration in England the 
name virginal went out and the name of spinet was 
universally adopted. The wing form came in vogue 
260 
