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and 17th Centuries, by John D. Shortridge

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Title: Italian Harpsichord-Building in the 16th and 17th Centuries

Author: John D. Shortridge

Release Date: November 4, 2008 [EBook #27149]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_Italian Harpsichord-Building
in the
16th and 17th Centuries_

by John D. Shortridge

(REPRINTED WITH CHANGES--1970)

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 225 . Paper 15, Pages 93-107
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS . WASHINGTON, D.C. . 1970

[Illustration: Figure 1.--OUTER CASE OF ALBANA HARPSICHORD.]

Italian Harpsichord-Building in the 16th and 17th Centuries

By John D. Shortridge

_The making of harpsichords flourished in Italy throughout the 16th and
17th centuries. The Italian instruments were of simpler construction
than those built by the North Europeans, and they lacked the familiar
second manual and array of stops._

_In this paper, typical examples of Italian harpsichords from the Hugo
Worch Collection in the United States National Museum are described in
detail and illustrated. Also, the author offers an explanation for
certain puzzling variations in keyboard ranges and vibrating lengths of
strings of the Italian harpsichords._

THE AUTHOR: _John D. Shortridge is associate curator of cultural history
in the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution._

Perhaps the modern tendency to idealize progress has been responsible
for the neglect of Italian harpsichords and virginals during the present
day revival of interest in old musical instruments. Whatever laudable
traits the Italian builders may have had, they cannot be considered to
have been progressive. Their instruments of the mid-16th century hardly
can be distinguished from those made around 1700. During this 150 years
the pioneering Flemish makers added the four-foot reg