Michael's Blog
30 December 2017
This picture really ought to be hanging near a matching piano. It is listed in the online catalogue for Chiswick Auctions 'Old Master Paintings' at the end of January. The artist is unknown, and the sitter is likewise unidentified. But the piano maker is very easily determined.
The artist has done a meticulous job of recording the piano's appearance, right down to the exact pattern of the inlay along the front of the instrument, as seen bottom right, below the keyboard. See also with what astonishing care he has reproduced the figured maple of the nameboard and the garland around the maker's oval cartouche.
I recall only one other comparable picture – in the Metropolitan Museum on Fifth Avenue. That one shows a similar player, though probably rather younger and with a plainer dress, seated at a much inferior instrument, on which the painter lavished some care to write very clearly 'Kirckman, London'.
Here I have reproduced the painting on a reduced size so as to fit it conveniently on this page, but for anyone who cares to examine the image on the auction house website the incredible accuarcy of the painting will be appreciated more fully. The gilt letters on the book read: M.S.S. MUSIC, and the name Muzio Clementi is very skillfully done. The auctioneer's estaimate is £2000-3000. It has previously appeared at Christies South Kensington in 2001.
23 December 2017
Could this be the ideal Christmas present for a square piano owner? I have never seen anything quite like it – amazing. Edwin Beunk sent me this photo. He points out that on page 61 of The Pianoforte in the Clasical Era I quoted from Laurence Sterne's letter to Eliza (Mrs Draper). He had just been to visit Zumpe in Princes Street. 'I have got you a Hammer too, and a pair of Pliers to twist your Wire with'. Why would pliers be the tool to twist your wire with? Now we know.
Edwin has a remarkable collection of antique pianos in the Netherlands. This item was apparently found inside a square piano by Frederick Beck, so it would have been very similar to the one that Eliza needed for her piano by Zumpe. She must have been among the very earliest buyers because Sterne's letter is dated to March 1767. And it appears she had previously bought a Guittar from the same maker, because his advice was to tune your piano to 'the brass middle string of your Guittar, which is C'.
This doesn't look like the most comfortable tool to use, but like the 'Swiss Army knife' it seems to have a gadget for every need. Cutters at the far end, to snip the wire. A hook at the near end to make a loop or eye. The rectangular socket at the right is for tuning, and – well – what is that little anvil-shaped item at the left unless you were meant to use it as a hammer for tapping down the wrestpins?
Happy Christmas!
18 December 2017
'All that glisters is not gold'
Falsification is a recurring theme recently. Harpsichords inscribed as 'Andreas Ruckers me fecit Antverpiae', spinets marked 'Kirckman', and inevitably also pianos by 'Zumpe'. He was so highly esteemed for his square pianos in the eighteenth century that it comes as no surprise to find that some makers in France (and perhaps elsewhere) endorsed their own products with his name, hoping to sell at a better price. There are several pianos made between 1770 and 1780 that pretend to be his work, but never, until now, have I seen a perfectly legitimate antique piano made in London that has an inscription like this one. Latin grammar was clearly not this fraudster's strong point. It appears to be by Schoene & Co. And the date? Probably about 1790. How curious to see such a piano with a large soundboard, and a damper system that did not appear before 1785, inscribed so ineptly as if it were one of Zumpe's earliest vintage!
9 December 2017
Charles Burney's compositions don't get much praise, but you may get a pleasant surprise when you hear some of his four-hand sonatas played on a square piano of the period. Music specifically for two to play at one keyboard was a great novelty in the 1770s, when the social context of music making was more important, and the limited resources of early square pianos could be made to sound so much more impressive.
Anna Clemente and Susanna Piolanti 
recently sent me word of their CD on the Brilliant Classics label, using a Joseph Kirckman square piano of 1800. (Sorry the disc doesn't show the ISBN.) They feature eight of Burney's duets and have a recital programme including these and other pieces on harpsichord or early piano. The instrument used in their recording is a five-octave single-action piano seemingly by Joseph Kirckman, but actually a trade item probably made by Houston & Co.
Another pioneering English composer in this genre was John Marsh who arranged pieces (his own orchestral works, and Handel's) to be played four-hands at one keyboard with his sister Mary. On these I cannot report as I've never heard them, though the frequency of performances when Mary was available suggests that they were popular in the social circle fortunate enough to be present in 1780.
27 November 2017
At the home of one of Prestbury's more senior residents last week I remarked that many years ago there was a square piano in what is now their sitting room – an English piano of 1812 by George Dettmer which I remember well. As this handsome Georgian house dates from about 1805, it would be nice to think that the piano had been there from new, but it hadn't. It was bought as an antique circa 1960, by the lady who used to live there. When she moved to Pershore she took it with her, but later she asked me to buy it, which I was happy to do. After a serious transformation in my workshop it was ready to play again. It had the usual problems of inappropriate strings and badly adjusted action. But after these were rectified it was a lovely instrument, and it is still giving satisfaction many years later.
Today in that same room in Prestbury there is a Bechstein upright, which I had not expected to see, and a music stand with sheet music, so naturally I looked to see what it was. Salut d'amour – by Elgar. The lady of the house then offered to show me her violin. It was a very ordinary instrument. They said it was Italian, but I think they are mistaken. It was quite old, with a very plain back and a wide-grained belly. Anyway, the gentleman then remarked: 'They say that's the great difference between violins and pianos – violins improve with age, but pianos only deteriorate.' Perhaps I felt a little wounded to think that on this reckoning I had wasted so many years on old pianos. But I looked closely at the fiddle in my hands. The neck was new, and the fingerboard too – no great surprise there! There were two significant shims in the back, and another crack in the belly had been reglued. It had a new bridge, of course, and new strings. This was only a quick inspection so perhaps some other repairs escaped my notice. 'Violins improve with age' he'd said – well that's easy to believe when they've had so many expert interventions. Square pianos can sound good too – if they receive such frequent attention from a competent restorer. But too often this doesn't happen, so the comparison is not a fair one.
17 November 2017
Beethoven's was the first music that I ever heard on a clavichord. It was Opus 13. What a surprise it was! How good it sounded! Previously I had only heard this music on Bechstein and Blüthner pianos, iron-framed heavyweight instruments. The memory remained vivid with me for many years.
On Tuesday this week at the Bate Collection in Oxford there was another chance to hear Beethoven, on the Hass clavichord of 1743. This time the music was Opus 2, No.1. Again I think this sounds convincing, and interesting. The player was David Griffel whom I have never met before. Before this we heard Haydn, Hob.XVI-20, in C minor. This surely was often played on clavichord during the 1770s. My only reservation being that crossing hands is not a technique that lends itself so well to the touch of such instruments because, unlike the piano or the harpsichord it is what happens at the bottom of the touch that determines the tone quality. It is so easy to get a dull, non-singing sound if you quit a note too hastily. But overall it came off well. The recital was free, but only ten people turned up. So if you'd like to hear any future events check on the Bate Collection website to see what's comming up. There is not much space in the gallery, but that will not be a problem I think.
13 November 2017
So many people arrived at the Cheltenham Coffee Concert last week that young Sophie Cole and her grandfather were almost overwhelmed by the never-ending queue for tea and coffee. We ran out of coffee, of cups, and as we struggled to cope extra chairs had to be set out, though we had already provided for 160. And the attraction? The first performance since 1750 of 'The Fall of Jericho' by Gloucester-born William Hayes, sometime professor of music at Oxford. Sophie's father Warwick, never one to shrink from a bit of research and score preparation, not only organised and directed the musicians, but unknown to me, he and Sophie made a video to introduce the music, which they uploaded to Youtube. If you like eighteenth-century music you will enjoy this for sure.
Warwick Cole introduces William Hayes and his master, William Hine on Youtube.
Incidentally, in the concerto by Hayes you will hear the authentic sound of an eighteenth-century English harpsichord, quilled as they should be with crow feathers, as mentioned previously on this blog (30 June 2017). Hope you enjoy it!
9 November 2017
Burchardt Tschudi was only a teenager when Herman Tabel took him on as an apprentice. Tabel himself was in his mid forties. But the young man was a good pupil. He showed himself reliable and determined, and had much more success in later life than his master ever had. Yet thirty years after his apprentice days Shudi (as he later styled himself) was continuing to incorporate in his harpsichords some very odd features that Tabel had taught him. For example, his balance pins are not staggered as other makers were accustomed to do, equalising the leverage on sharps and naturals, but were placed, surprisingly, all in one line as seen above. This instrument dates from 1741, twenty years later than Tabel's only surviving harpsichord, and this feature is seen in Shudi's work for many years afterwards. Other London makers, and foreign ones too, recognised the advisability of staggering them - it had been standard practice for as long as anyone could remember. But why was Shudi so reluctant to do so? Maybe this reveals that Shudi - independent and incompromising as he undoubtedly was - stayed loyal to the craft tradition of his master, decades after he had risen in the world and had gained the status of maker to royal patrons. The persistence of seemingly random design features often provides more convincing evidence of such hierarchies and connections than any imputed genealogy. Frank Hubbard was mistaken in dismissing Tabel so readily.
4 November 2017
In the days before the internet collecting primary source material from historic documents was a time-consuming labour. Recording the data too was a chancy business. I still keep the exercise books, begun by my son Warwick when he was recently graduated and continued by me after he became disheartened. Thereafter I filled twenty or more document files. Yet that was also inadequate and inefficient. For example, this week I pulled out a large brown envelope from a draw containing my drawings of piano actions. It was marked 'Pohlman' and inside was the long-lost correspondence with Rosemary Fletcher, formerly of Harrogate, and her son John (whose address I never had), concerning their claim to be decendants of Pohlman. Without doubt they were decendants of Henry Pohlman(n) of Halifax, but not, as they thought, of John Pohlman of London. We examined their family tree in great detail.
Now, of course, we have an immense digital resource to investigate, with none of the tiresome foot-slogging and train journeys to distant archives. Slowly they are catching up in Germany too, with their Archion resource, so my hope is that one day we will know more about Anna Maria Zumpe, and her other children, and exactly when it was that her son returned to Fürth and spent three weeks there. Many decades ago Dr Schammberger reported that Johann Zumpe stayed at the Golden Cross on the Market Place, and how he was persuaded to attend the Orphan and Charity School, and how he joined in their morning praise and promised to make a substantial donation to their funds. It would be good to add more to these stories, and to discover whether the elderly mother met again with her famous son before she died.
Many years ago [1995] I drew attention to the fact that all four of the principal makers who founded the London piano industry were unlucky in having no son to whom they could pass on their business. The workshops of Beyer, Buntebart, Pohlman, and Zumpe closed down in the 1790s or very soon after, leaving the field open for Broadwood to prosper. 
To bring the story into sharper focus I can now add that it appears each of these men did have a child, but, excepting the case of Pohlman, each male child died at a very early age, and that the evidence now thrown up by internet searches suggests that Betsey Zumpe, recorded as buried at Chelsea, is almost certainly a daughter of Elizabeth and John [= Johannes]. It would be good to communicate my Pohlman findings with the Fletcher family too: so if anyone reading this should know the whereabouts of John S. Fletcher, formerly from Yorkshire it would be good to contact him. It was he who found a picture of the extraordinary little piano owned by Mrs Ionides, which I might never have seen but for his now defunct website.
27 October 2017
Following my investigations in recent months — identifying the characteristics of English eighteenth- century harpsichords – it has become important to find several elusive instruments. In the third edition of Boalch, Makers of the Harpsichord & Clavichord, we find that an example by Shudi, dated 1744, was in the hands of Walter Vermeulen of Utrecht, but it is still eluding me. My informant (in Utrecht) hopes to discover where it is now. There is another, dated 1751, listed in Boalch as belonging to Robin Orr in Cambridge. This is also proving difficult as Prof. Orr died a few years ago, but I have hopes of finding it. If anyone reading this has any knowledge of where these harpsichords are now, that would be welcome news, and would accelerate my studies. There are several little-known features inside the 1721 harpsichord by Tabel [pictured on this page] that are repeated in Shudi's 1740, and 1741 harpsichords but dropped from later examples, so it would be good to know when this happened. The problem, of course, is that well-meaning restorers may have 'corrected' these features already. An example is seen in Tabel's work where someone, probably Broadwoods, changed the balance point of the lower manual keys, making them play more smoothly, for the benefit of Lady Radnor and her friends. Fortunately it is not hard to see what they did. Likewise, when they discovered that the scaling was exceptionally long, c2 on the longer unison being about 362mm, the bridge was separated from the soundboard and moved forward to make it more like the later instruments of Shudi. Thankfully, we can see that too. It confirms, I believe, that pitch levels in England were much lower in 1721, probably around A=405.
I have discovered that a wretched outfit operating under the name Pintarest is stealing images from this website, and demanding punters log on to view their collection. They have no permission from me, so I hope that if I give my pictures misleading filenames it may give these parasites more trouble. Meanwhile I suggest that you don't log on to Pintarest.
20 October 2017
Sad to say, the intended book on Zumpe, which was expected to be published about now has been much delayed, and I fear it may be caught up in the political agitations in Barcelona. The publication was to have been financially supported by the museum there (their piano you see on the left), but if things go on as they are we may see the Spanish government in Madrid putting a block on all regional, cultural projects in Catalonia until vetted and approved by the appropriate national bodies. This is very regrettable, especially after so much effort has been put in by Pablo Gomez with his research into the musical aesthetics of the 1770s. His paper is certainly worth reading. But when will we see it? I have heard nothing in recent weeks. I am of course disappointed that the article I finished for them in April is delayed, and that the recording, intended for publication at the same time, may not be heard for some time yet.
Like many English people, I find it very disturbing to see intimidation and viciousness such as appeared during the Scottish referendum repeated in another country. Lasting damage is surely the inevitable result of such mischief.
12 October 2017
Jointly written by Margaret Debenham and Michael Cole, an article on the work of piano maker Frederick Beck and inlay specialist Christopher Fuhrlohg is to be published in The London Journal. As yet a date for publication has not been given, but when it has been it will be posted on our websites.
The original impulse for this research was the elaborate commode (decorative cabinet) containing a Beck piano of 1775, which has long been displayed at the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight (shown right). There is another cabinet containing a Beck piano in the Royal Ontario Museum, dated 1777. Did Beck commission Fuhrlohg to design and construct this cabinet to enhance the prestige his pianos? Our forthcoming paper examines this proposition, and the alternative, that Fuhrlohg bought pianos from Beck to enhance the appeal of his commodes. This paper also presents previously unreported facts about the lives of these two men.
10 October 2017
Readers who have followed this Blog for a while will remember that when I reported my visit to Warwick County Museum (18 May 2017) I showed a photo of a harpsichord, in an upper window at St Mary's church. It is known for sure that the Beauchamp Chapel in which it is found was designed and built in the 1440s. So harpsichords have been around for a very long time. Raymond Russell in The Harpsichord and Clavichord, and Frank Hubbard in Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making agreed to confine their attention to the period 1500-1800, but it is clear that harpsichords – plucked stringed instruments played through a keyboard – were frequently seen and heard much earlier.
St Mary's Warwick is far from unique. Inside St Wendreda's church near March, Cambridgeshire, is this astonishing sight – a huge company of angels seemingly flying in the roof. Many of them are playing musical instruments. They are all carved in wood, so the details of the instruments are sacrificed for the sake of clarity, but one of those corbels on the wall, which you see at the right, holds what is undoubtedly a harpsichord, not nearly so well represented as at Warwick, but clearly of the usual shape, with the strings running lengthwise, and a keyboard at the end nearest the angel.
This church near March, for those who may be unfamiliar with the flat fenland landscapes of north Cambridgeshire, is just four miles north of Doddington, where Rosamond Harding was born. Progress in my harpsichord research is currently held up by the need to locate two instruments by Shudi. One is dated 1744 and was last seen in Utrecht, while the other dated 1751 formerly belonged to Robin Orr, professor of music at Cambridge, who has since died. We have hopes of finding them, but if any reader can help, please do.
4 October 2017
If you are accustomed to seeing eighteenth-century pianos the curious drawfront on this cabinet will be easily understood. But what a strange confection this is!
Between the pressed metal backplates of the early twentieth-century bail handles we see the familiar form of cartouche, outlined in black, that immediately suggests John Zumpe. And though the inscription is rather faded it can still be read: Johannes Zumpe et Buntebart Londini fecerunt 177[5?]. It began life as the fascia board of a square piano, typical of its makers. It presumably survived in that form to the end of the nineteenth century. But then came the day when someone (evidently with quite good cabinet-making skills) needed a feature to lift his newly built piece. Recycling is the buzz word today. It's the responsible thing to do. But maybe this is not what we usually have in mind. To see what it originally looked like see 18 August [below] where Pablo Gómez Ábalos plays on a piano from the same workshop.
Jennifer Gater from Nantwich, Cheshire, sent me this photo of her charming find, bought at a junk shop in Crewe. The price? £8. I hope she will continue to cherish it, now that she knows a bit more about what this curious drawfront originally was. There is good mahogany in the doors, the like of which you cannot buy today, and according to Jennifer the side panels are attractive too. We are accustomed to seeing pianos converted into desks, or side tables, but this may be something unique.
1 October 2017 
In a book on Haydn, Christopher Hogwood quotes from the composer's London diaries that Queen Charlotte 'plays very well, for a queen' – a remark with which he used to provoke laughter when speaking in lectures, by his seemingly innocent pause where I have inserted a comma. But I suspect sarcasm was very far from Haydn's mind. Most likely, having heard other royals in Europe, he was genuinely surprised at her ability. Charlotte was without doubt a very good keyboard player, and an enthusiastic supporter of music, at the opera house, or in private entertainment. There has been no comparable musical talent in British royalty ever since.
Her musical enthusiasm set the tone for society at large, especially during the 1760s, when there was a very buoyant mood in the nation, and an insatiable curiosity about their new queen. Music received a tremendous boost. The Duchess of Northumberland noted in her diary: 'The Queen played to me on the Harpsichord the Minuet from Samson - She plays very prettily.' On another day she remarked that Queen Charlotte sings well, and has a strong voice. The duchess, as a lady-in-waiting attending the Queen daily, observed that Bach [Johann Christian] came three mornings each week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday – to give lessons. During 1766, the year when we first hear of Zumpe's square pianos, 'Bach and Abel together always come to her home on Tuesday and Friday evenings'. King George, though very fond of Handel's music, had much less skill. 'The King never plays in Concerts', reports the duchess. 'But when they are alone he sometimes accompanies her on the German Flute.' [This portrait seems to be only one that indicates her musical activities. It is by Allan Ramsay, in the Royal Collection, Buckingham Palace.]
John Zumpe and Gabriel Buntebart had every reason to be grateful for Queen Charlotte's musicality, as would many other instrument makers who thrived in the atmosphere that her enthusiasm created.
24 September 2017
The harpsichord at Kedleston Hall doesn't have a visible signature above the keys but there are reports that it was signed by Shudi underneath the soundboard. As with the one at Calke Abbey, it no longer plays. But it is a handsome specimen, and placed here beside the recently re-covered blue damask chairs, and with Robert Adam's organ case nearby, it is not out of place. The keyboards extend down to CC, this larger compass being a noted feature of Shudi's most prestigious instruments. How curious to see also that here we have Shudi's version of the Nag's Head Swell, whereas the much more useful and impressive Venetian Swell, patented by Shudi in 1769, is paradoxically seen in Kirckman's 1772 harpsichord in Oxford (see Blog for 22 June this year).
20 September 2017
Calke Abbey, mentioned in my previous Blog, is described by the National Trust as an 'Unstately Home', giving notice that the interiors are not spruced up nor are the contents in high museum condition. Quite the contrary, at Calke the concept is to show what such a mansion looked like when in decline, as wealth seeped away in the early twentieth century. In that context an unplayable old harpsichord is not out of place.
In the same room it was a surprise to see a square piano by Adam Beyer, dated 1773, in what might pass for 'playing condition' with some folk. From the document file relating to it I immediately saw letters from myself to Frank Brown of Bath from the early 1990s. And there too, much to my surprise, was a copy of my article in the Galpin Society Journal of 1995. 'Ah yes', said property manager John Parkinson. 'I thought I remembered your name from somewhere.'
He told me that they sometimes put this piano on display in the public rooms, where properly accredited people are allowed to play it. From their comments in the 'Notebook' I see that they enjoyed it, and found it startlingly different from the pianos they normally play. Much of it plays and sounds quite decent, but the strings are horrible, in the tenor especially, where it looks like galvanised fencing wire, though mercifully thinner, similarly in the bass where the the covered strings look inadequate and sound correspondingly weak. The regulation is good here and there: many of the treble notes being free, prompt and sonorous, but sadly in need of adjustment. Nevertheless, if people enjoy the experiment let's hope they continue to have the opportunity. Frank Brown bequeathed it to the National Trust precisely with that in mind. Unhappily, I could not take a photograph of it to share with you as there were tables and other clutter in the way.
19 September 2017
On 5 September I showed the forlorn state of the 'barn find' as seen in 1984. It was in the grain store above the stables at Calke Abbey. Cleaned and conserved by Andrew Garrett at Lyminge in 1986-88 it is now looking much better, as you can see from the nameboard above. 'Burkat Shudi No.116 fecit Londini 1741'. John Broadwood's master (and later his father-in-law) made this harpsichord when Broadwood was a boy, long before he set off from Scotland, and it shows some very interesting divergences from the design we come to expect as being typical of this workshop. In fact, after examining this instrument yesterday, my thoughts incline to interpreting the refinement of Shudi's harpsichords as belonging chiefly to the period after 1760, when Broadwood became foreman. But there is much more to learn yet. In the meantime it is good to report that Andrew's decision to conserve what remained rather than return it to playing condition [which is what the National Trust anticipated] has left a very useful resource for study.
5 September 2017
Motor enthusiasts can become very excited about 'barn finds' as 
they call them — wrecked and forgotten vehicles rusting away in old buildings. Worm eaten woodwork, perished rubber tyres — no problem. Enthusiasts delight to find something original and untouched. But musical finds like the one showing here have become very rare nowadays, at least in England. This terrible wreck is in fact one of the vital building blocks in the history of English harpsichord making. In recent months, since the supposed oldest surviving harpsichord from Shudi's workshop has been entirely discredited (see 25 May 2017 Blog on this website) the earliest Shudi instrument becomes the 1740 two-manual harpsichord in the Royal Collection at Kew. Next in seniority comes this, the oldest surviving single manual by Shudi, dated externally 1741, though it has the date 1740 under the soundboard. It was discovered in the stable block at a large country house back in 1984; that's when this photo was taken. It had been there since harpsichords went out of fashion around 1800. Such instruments were worth virtually nothing in those days – even the formerly precious examples by Ruckers of Antwerp were sold for as little as ten pounds. In those days square pianos, like the ones featured on this website, were all the rage.
Happily this harpsichord was not restored. It was simply conserved, so it is now as it was when found, minus the detritus left by moths, spiders and beetles. Having recently examined the Tabel harpsichord of 1721 I hope to make a fresh comparison with this early example by one of his principal successors, who, twenty years after this instrument was made, said 'goodbye' to John Zumpe (who went off to make Guittars - otherwise citterns) in Princes Street, and 'hello' to John Broadwood, who became Shudi's right hand man, and later his son-in-law.
23 August 2017
Reviewing the introduction of the 'small Piano-forte' in Rees' Cyclopedia, Charles Burney identified five selling points (to use modern phraseology) which made them immensely popular. Their tone was very pleasant (the first consideration with any instrument); the touch (with a bit of practice) was 'equal to any degree of rapidity'; their low price (only half the cost of a harpsichord); their power of expression (potential for soft or loud); and the convenience of their small size and shape (they could fit in any room). To these I would add a sixth advantage – their portability. Burney himself mentions taking one of Zumpe's pianos from London to Chessington to entertain his friend Samuel Crisp. I have mentioned elsewhere how Mrs Northey took her little square piano on her journeys to stay with friends and relations. Travelling from Wiltshire to Epsom was perhaps done in one day, but she then stayed with the Epsom Northeys for many weeks. During this time we can imagine that her daughter Charlotte made much use of the instrument, keeping up her practice, and entertaining family and friends.
The ease with which one could carry these pianos was also significant within the house. Have you ever wanted to practice some new music in private? It's quite natural. Mary Marsh had her spinnet upstairs in her bedchamber where she could learn new music. Better still, with Zumpe's little Piano-fortes you could easily move it from one room to another – maybe you and your sister? More likely you asked the servants to move it, if you trusted them.
So how easy was this? With my ever obliging wife we have often moved such instruments. Are they heavy? Not really. This week, to investigate, we got the bathroom scales, turned a Zumpe piano on its back, and weighed it. Any guesses? — 72 pounds, complete, but without its stand. [That's 32.6 Kg if you prefer.] Not much is it? So here in Prestbury an old man and his wife, with a combined age of over 150 years, found it no trouble to carry or lift one of these pianos! So when you want to learn some new music you can simply carry the piano to a more private room.
This didn't last. Only 30 years after Zumpe's first pianos an Erard square piano from the 1790s comes in at 144 pounds – double the weight – though it has only five octaves. You certainly notice the difference when lifting it! Seek for the reason and you'll find that a large part of it is due to the very substantial oak spine and thicker baseboards – a much stronger construction.
18 August 2017
There have been so many terrible recordings of Zumpe's square pianos, indifferently played and badly restored, that it makes a special pleasure and something of a breakthrough to bring a youtube video to wider attention – recorded by Pablo Gómez Ábalos on a recently restored instrument of 1777, now in Zaragosa. Today, while I write, he is in Cambridge, having made a long journey in a commendably thorough research project – to examine there the 1766 Zumpe piano at Emmanuel Collge. [After six attempts to create a link to this video on youtube - all failures - I can only suggest you go to the youtube site and type in his name. I have watched this upload several times so I can verify that it does work and is worth watching.]
12 August 2017
This Palladian bridge spans the River Wylye within the beautiful gardens of Wilton House. A visit to this place had been on my agenda for two years but their opening days are so fickle that my intentions were thwarted until now. The sun was shining, as you see, so the house and the gardens were as attractive as they could ever be. Wilton, just west of Salisbury, has a marvellous pedigree. Built initially by architect Inigo Jones for the Earl of Pembroke, it has as much elegance and grandeur as the seventeenth century could muster with cube and double cube rooms, immense plaster coving, gold leaf ornaments, and huge oil paintings in gilded frames. Their room guide boasted that here they have the largest collection of Van Dyck pictures in the world, but I am somewhat underwhelmed. Who wants a massive collection of Van Dycks? Accomplished - yes, they are. But what do they say? What else is there to see? Two winter scenes by Bruegel, much smaller than the pompous portraits, and much more interesting. They hang in a small ante-room. A few bits of furniture worth looking at, but nothing memorable. They proudly mention a whole suite of gilded sofas and associated pieces by William Kent. I find them ugly. The best of Wilton is the grand arched gateway surmounted by an equestrian figure, and the bridge you see here.
You may be wondering: what's the musical connection? There's none. And that is the point. I had no expectation of seeing any musical instruments, and there were none. Huge wealth – plenty of evidence for that. A very fine collection of classical period Roman sculptures - clearly someone had a passion for them. But no sign of music! What kind of a household was this? Without music, or at least a suggestion of it, this great mansion seems dead. This only came to my mind when leaving. On display near the exit they have a large dolls' house showing an imagined Wilton in times past. Servants in the kitchen, a nursery upstairs, but no harpsichord or square piano – items so often included in dolls' house furnishings.
Just three miles north, both going and on return, we had to pass Stonehenge. Traffic was at a standstill. Crawling progress on the A303. But consider the positives — we had plenty of time to look across this magnificent prehistoric landscape. The monument itself is awe-inspiring. Humbling. Perhaps even beautiful in its ruined state. Hundreds of visitors were circling the stones – circling because you may not go inside the stone circle except on specially pre-arranged visits – at a premium. Thousands come day after day, paying prodigious fees to be allowed near this ancient and deservedly famous site. On a ridge to the south there is an impressive array of barrow mounds breaking the skyline, overlooking the monument from a respectful distance. You can believe that the spirits of the dead linger here, looking out with everlasting devotion on the place they held so dear. Four thousand years ago Stonehenge was the only place to be in life or in death. But I wonder: when their ceremonies were conducted, when their rituals enacted, was there silence? Of course not! Horns blowing. Drums beating. Great shouts from priests and people. Without music the place would be dead.
8 August 2017
For those who have been following my investigation into English harpsichords the quaintness and charm of the inscription above the keys on the Tabel instrument has made 'J7Z1' very memorable. The whole inscription reads HERMANUS TABEL FECIT LONDINI J7Z1, executed very clumsily, apparently freehand – so not by a professional signwriter. It is of poor quality when you examine it closely. In comparing the veneer on which this is written with the supposedly matching batten between the upper and lower keyboards I saw indisputably that their varnish is very different. Turn both of them over to examine the back and you see that the batten between the keyboards has a ground layer of pine, of coarse open grain with some knots, whereas the companion piece bearing the inscription is excellent straight grained spruce good enough to be an off-cut from a soundboard. Different stock, different varnish and not quite matching veneer either: it is time to question the authenticity of this inscription.
Happily this does not raise any doubt about the instrument itself. 'Herm. Tabel' signed the top key of the lower manual, adding the date 1721, written with a normal 2 not a Z, and further, the design of the keyboards with their in-line balance pins (not staggered) corresponds with others by Shudi in his early years. There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this Tabel harpsichord. It is a very precious survival. But I suspect that when it was rediscovered circa 1895, probably at Longford Castle, it may have been in neglected condition – perhaps missing the name batten? The quaint style of the inscription may owe more to Victorian fascination with 'Merry Old England' than to the Fleming whose work was to be immensely influential in English harpsichord making ever after.
Incidentally, J. S. Broadwood's statement that Tabel learned his craft in the workshop of the successors to the Ruckers in Antwerp is looking very doubtful. As Maria Boxall has stated: this is not supported by any documentary evidence. Recently, thanks to the help of Henk Verhoef in the Netherlands, we can confirm that Tabel and his brother Barnard lived in Amsterdam, not Antwerp, and that both were born in Vastenau, now Vastenow, in the United Provinces.
29 July 2017
At this time of year as soon as you come within 2 miles of Oxford the sandy roadsides are crowded with delicious sky blue chicory flowers. Then, if you take the path beside the Thames, the riverbank is awash with self-sown purple loosestrife. So as you walk into the city your way is like a beautiful stroll in a lovely garden - purple, sky blue, green and yellow, beside a gently flowing stream – such a delight. This is much the best way to approach Oxford.
At the Pitt Rivers Museum I was fascinated by their specimen of a home made three-string violin, an 'ethnic' artefact for those who want to see it that way, which was collected by a European in the nineteenth century from tribal people in South America. I love it. You feel that in handling this you are in touch with an unknown soul, yet someone who was immediately responsive to the music that came to him from a faraway land, carried probably by Jesuit missionaries, who did so much to bring music to the native people. The workmanship is not precise, the materials are not very satisfactory, and clearly the concept was imperfectly grasped, yet the childlike desire to emulate is very touching.
A similar interest (for me) lies in the quite scarce keyboard instruments made by country people in the eighteenth century. In Germany especially there are some very quaint 'square pianos' fashioned by rustic craftsmen, evidently in admiration of instruments played by wealthy ladies. Simple Prellmechanik lends itself well to untutored copyists. There is a particularly interesting example in the collection of Prof. Heiko Hansjosten in Trier, made of plain oak and elm with a rough and ready pine soundboard. Long ago it was someone's pride and joy, for a short while. Usually such instruments are unsigned and will remain anonymous, but this example is exceptional in having a signature on the soundboard, somewhat blurred, but read by Heiko as Carl Teschemacher, with the place of manufacture as Nattrop bei Natteln, a very remote country area. It doesn't work well, or hold in tune, and the keys are not made with nearly enough precision, but the idea I find fascinating. Similarly fashioned instruments can be found in America too, but in France or Britain they are hard to find, and perhaps were never numerous. Maybe this indicates a cultural difference, which would itself be a dimension worthy of study. Survival is the difficult factor. The 'Teschemacher' clavier is of such liitle value as a playing instrument and was probably always troublesome, so I cannot help but think that it must have survived solely as family piece, preserved by generation after generation because it had some special connection, until eventually this heritage was forgotten and the family link broken. Maybe it was made by someone's great, great grandfather for his daughter to play long ago, or perhaps an offering for his betrothed as a token of love. If it was anything less its survival is hard to explain. Oddly, of course, Teschemacher means joiner or carpenter, so by trade and by name a suitable person to have a try at making such a thing.
22 July 2017
The search for Pohlman pianos had a sequel today when I was shown an interesting piano that has eluded me for two years and more, though it was and is the closest to home. This example dating from 1779 hasn't been used as a musical instrument for a very long time. For the last thirty years it has been in Gloucestershire, where no one has paid very much attention to it. By report it has been in the same family, with homes in London and in remote rural Radnorshire for at least a hundred years. There are three handstops as usual, but also some original iron trapwork underneath to raise the flap - the so-called swell.
What is especially nice about this piano is that it shows how the instruments were used. Opened, as you see it here (I lifted the lid only to display the interior), the underside of the lid is plain mahogany. But if you close the lid (as I found it) and open only the front part (as when you play music) you find that part of the underside now turned up and flipped over like a playing card is veneered and cross banded, just like the outside. Here the plain mahogany is bordered with a dark, richly coloured Cuban variety, separated with boxwood and hareswood stringing, as you see in the photo herewith.
As it hasn't been opened often in recent years the colours are quite fresh and vibrant as compared with the faded exterior.
It was certainly a pretty item in 1779. Inside the absence of stays or props to hold the lid at an angle was remedied by an inept restorer in the twentieth century, but it is clear to me that the maker did not supply it with prop sticks. Neither did it have cords tied to eyelets under the lid, as shown in the somewhat plainer Pohlman piano of 1776 in the Priest's House, in Sussex, shown on my Pohlman page. He intended this piano to be used with the lid down, and voiced it accordingly.
18 July 2017
It looks like an oil painting but is in fact a ceramic plate, about 15cm wide, in the miscelaneous store of Cheltenham Art Gallery (recently rebranded as 'The Wilson') — an object of remarkable skill since the painting must be done in faith as the colours change so much when in the kiln for 'firing'. It is presumed that it must have been done as a labour of love by one of the very skillful painters employed in the Worcester ceramics factory — where else would you find someone with such technical mastery of this medium? Obviously such a portrait has no commercial value. Only her friends and admirers would see it, privately, so to speak. Its history is a bit of a mystery. But the context is not difficult to understand.
It was painted about 1820. She is clearly a young woman with much musical skill. She holds a piece of music, so accurately painted that we can read the actual notes and the key signature, but I cannot identify the composition. She sits beside a piano of the usual type, at that time, made in London, probably of five and a half octaves, which has sycamore (maple) veneer in the keywell, with black inlaid lines. This limits the likely makers. A shortlist would include Tomkison or Dettmer. I think of her as representative of the overwhelming majority of pianoforte players — female, much admired for their music, women who set the tone for the appreciation of music that would be built upon and developed during the Victorian era that followed. Western music could never have flourished without such people — and the music publishing industry would hardly exist.
11 July 2017
When James Shudi Broadwood passed his 21st birthday he was given a quarter share in his father's business, so from January 1794 their instruments were signed 'John Broadwood & Son'. By that date harpsichords were so out of fashion that the whole workforce had been transferred to piano making. Yet the prestige that attached to a long-established business was something to boast of, so for the Broadwood family their descent from a famous harpsichord making tradition, stretching back to the seventeenth century was gratefully remembered. And thanks to some 'Notes & Observations', published by the firm in 1860, every history that mentions Broadwood inevitably repeats a story connecting J.S.Broadwood's grandfather, Burkat Shudi, to his master Herman Tabel, 'who had learned his business in the house of the successors to the Ruckers in Antwerp'. [Really? I see that Maria Boxall's entry for Tabel in Grove Dictionary of Music rightly observes that there is no documentary evidence for this.]
Nevertheless, for many people this connection explains how Tabel came to be so celebrated. As Boalch puts it: 'Tabel's importance lies in his having influenced [Shudi and Kirckman] to the extent that almost every English harpsichord ... exhibits the many Flemish traits present in Tabel's harpsichord of 1721'. This has troubled me for many years. I cannot see how oak-cased harpsichords, with a cut-through lute stop, and a very distinctive form of bentside can be said to be derived from Ruckers harpsichords with their poplar cases, mitred corner joints, and very gently curved shape. They're so different. French harpsichords derived from Ruckers — there's no problem. But English? It seems to me that this unchallenged mythology may have boosted Broadwood's status in Victorian times but it does a great disservice to Tabel, surely one of the most original and influencial innovators.
Charles Mould did a great job in establishing the authenticity of the 1721 Tabel harpsichord, but the photographs he took then cannot now be found, so Thursday week I shall be returning by invitation to Warwick Museum for a further examination, and a photographic session which will hopefully supply the museum with the digital images they need.
30 June 2017
Haymaking is nearly finished. Neatly packaged bales are stacked in the corners of the field that was mentioned on 18 June. There are crows strutting around in the newly cut grass, but they fly up when they see me coming. Seen against the sky they look ragged, and dishevelled, and will do so throughout July. Their wing feathers fall out one by one like children's milk teeth, and similarly the damage isn't long-lasting. Although the birds struggle for power with their gap-tooth wings, new feathers will grow. By October they will have a full set again. 
I mention this because it is these feathers, the primary flight feathers, specifically from crows and ravens, that were collected by harpsichord makers of old. It is puzzling to me why modern-day harpsichord makers ignore this fact. One can readily agree that for a newly made harpsichord, intended for a busy, practical musician, delrin plectra that can be bought ready shaped and easy to insert, are a great convenience. But is the sound the same as from quills? I think not. It is similar, but lacks those characteristic speech inflections that old harpsichords ought to have. Recently, when examining the Herman Tabel instument of 1721, I saw that in the 1960s or 70s someone voiced it with quills – very good, but they are all white as snow. I guess they're goose quills. Paul de Wit writing in 1911 about the 'Tschudi 1729' harpsichord he recently bought boasts that he has replaced the 'goose quills' with leather, to improve the tone, as he thought, so it was a common perception that goose feathers were the original choice. Well, geese were as plentiful in former times as they are now; and turkeys, eagles and vultures were also obtainable – so why did Professor Talbot of Oxford, write circa 1690 that plectra should be 'crow [quills], raven's best for bass'. And why did John Broadwood, ninety years later, continue to supply crow quills and raven quills for his customers? Could it be that experience – the accumulated wisdom of numberless craftsmen – showed that it was precisely the elasticity of crow quills, and their durability, and maybe also their pearl-like matt surface, that ideally suited their purpose?
So we need to shoot more crows? No. Throughout July anyone can collect all the feathers they need for such work. Crows have favourite trees for their overnight roost, and it is while they sit in the tree tops that they preen their wings, so the flight feathers they pull out drop to the ground. Look under the right tree and you find a daily supply.
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