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![]() Harpsichords, clavichords, spinets and virginals ... closely based on the best extant antiques from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. |
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Italian Virginal
The virginal is a harpsichord - it plucks its strings - but instead of having the strings run from front to back, as in a harpsichord, they run from side to side. There are various kinds of virginals - pentagonal, hexagonal, English, Flemish, etc. Some of them look like square boxes, while others have a number of carved angles and are elaborately decorated and carved. One of the most interesting kinds is the "false inner-outer". A virginal with a sturdy case is decorated on the inside with moldings to make it appear as though a fragile instrument is enclosed in a plainer protective box. This trompe l'oeil effect, so much used by artists and craftsmen of the Renaissance, was an irresistible challenge to ZHI, and we have realized it very nicely in authentic moldings. At the same time we have solved the problem of how to close the instrument up when not in use! For the whole range of early music, from Frescobaldi through the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, of course, the virginal is especially useful, and the Italian virginal is the most useful of its kind. What is surprising, however, is how well it renders much of the later music. It sorts Bach out beautifully, almost as though several instruments were playing in consort: no other form of harpsichord has such different timbres in the various parts of the keyboard. And for much of Scarlatti, including the earlier pieces he wrote for a smaller keyboard, the virginal seems exactly the right instrument.
The virginal is a surprisingly full-voiced instrument, with a clear treble, a reedy middle, and a rich, booming bass. [Continued]
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