. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. Figure 12.â Typical decorative device, known as rose, that appeared in soundboards of virginals and harpsichords (Smithsonian photo ) century. Each of these has a shorter pitch C string than any of the seven earlier instruments. These three harpsichords, dated 1654, 1658, and 1666, are accordingly considered nontransposing instruments, with the extra treble keys representing an actual extension of the upward range. The six undated instruments with / ' ' ' in the treble are classified as transposing instruments because of their pitch C
. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. Figure 12.â Typical decorative device, known as rose, that appeared in soundboards of virginals and harpsichords (Smithsonian photo ) century. Each of these has a shorter pitch C string than any of the seven earlier instruments. These three harpsichords, dated 1654, 1658, and 1666, are accordingly considered nontransposing instruments, with the extra treble keys representing an actual extension of the upward range. The six undated instruments with / ' ' ' in the treble are classified as transposing instruments because of their pitch C lengths and are accordingly believed to have been made before about 1635. The 33 instruments on which this study is based are classified in the list on page 107. They are grouped according to whether the highest key is/ ' ' ' or < ' ' ', with the exceptions of the three harpsichords men- tioned in the preceding paragraph and three instru- ments that go only to a ' '. That the three instruments ending on a ' ' belong with the nontransposing group is indicated by their string lenghts. The listing gives additional information about each example. String lengths of instruments having two registers are for the shorter of the two pitch C strings. Information has been secured on t\\o Italian \ir- ginals which were not included in the tabulation. Their measurements are completely at variance with the pattern consistently set by the other 33 examples studied. One, made by Giovanni Domenico in 1556, is in the Skinner collection; it has a pitch C string HJ'is'' in length and an apparent compass of C/E to (â ' ' '. The other, with the same apparent compass and a 7%" pitch C string, is at Yale University. Whether these instruments are exceptional in terms of the pitch to which they were tuned, the tension which was applied to the strings, or the thickness and weight of the strings themselves, has not been determined. The average of the pitch C lengths of the transpos- ing instrume
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Keywords: ., bookauthorun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience
