Week 22-23: Four Musical Instruments of the Baroque Era

1. Stuff done these weeks

- Researched 4 Baroque instruments

- Listened to various compositions that employ these instruments. I included youtube reference sources in this blog.

- Sold my house in Utrecht and moved out. Now looking for a new family home for my family. This period is is just awfully busy! 

2. Listening done this week

I listened to this playlist of Baroque violin music:

I found this example of someone playing a composition by Henry Purcell on a newly restored English spinet (1712):

3. What I have learned

I researched four instruments from the Baroque era and listened to some examples of music of each instrument. Below, I present my notes:

The Baroque Violin (Strings)

The violin is the soprano member of the family of string instruments that include the viola and cello (Sadie, 2001). Its construction may appear simple, but in fact it is constructed from over 80 separate parts, hich require skill of a master craftsman to cut and assemble. The soundboard is generally made of softwood, generally European spruce, and the back and ribs are usually hardwood, such as maple. The latter is also used for constructing the neck, pegbox and scroll. The fingerboard, which runs along the neck and extends over the soundboard towards the bridge, is made of ebony. It is unfretted, distinguishing it from the viols (Sadie, 2001; Montagu, 1979).

The construction of a violin (Wikipedia, 2017)

The four strings of the violin were originally all made of gut. From about the 17th century, the lowest G string was wound with silver wire to improve its tone. Today, the instrument is fitted with wound strings for the D and A strings as well and with the E string constructed of steel. The strings are set in motion, using a bow. The vibrations are transmitted to the belly and back via the bridge. The total area of the sound box further amplifies the vibrations and transmits them ultimately to the ear of the listener (Sadie, 2001: p. 706).

Violins of the Baroque period are distinct in a number of basic features from their modern counterparts. The neck was usually shorter than on modern instruments and projected straight out from the body so that its upper edge continues the line of the belly's rim. The neck was fixed by nails or screws through the top block rather than mortised into it as in modern instruments. The bridge was lower and less arched, so the sound is brighter, clearer, less loud and more gentle than we are accustomed to. Furthermore, they lacked chin rests that modren violins have (Montagu, 1979, p. 17; Sadie, 2001, p. 714). The bow was also of a different shape, featuring a long tapering point and it was either straight or curved slightly outwards. Because of this, the attack was more gentle at the beginning of a note (Montagu, 1979, p. 17). Traditionally, the bow hair came from the tails of white horses (Sadie, 2001: p. 725).

The great violin makers of the first part of the 17th century were the Amatis of the Italian town of Cremona. In Italy, violin playing technique as well as manufacture was more advanced than anywhere in Europe, with Germany running a close second. The Italian bow-grip was better suited to sonatas and other solo music than the french grip. Germany followed close upon the Italians due to the fact that many German composers were trained and spent their early years working and writing in Italy and took home the traditions established by Italian composers (Montagu, 1979: p. 17).

The greatest of all violin makers was Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737). Descended from an old Cremonese family, Antonio was first apprenticed to a wood-carver. However, he soon became associated with Nicola Amati (1596-1684), the finest maker of the Amati family, who taught him the art of violin making. Stradivari's earliest surviving violin is dated 1666. With the death of his master, Stradivari's fame began to spread and he soon became recognized as the finest violin maker of his day. Stradivari's highest pinnacle was reached in 1715 when his now well-known, orange brown coloured varnish, which dried to a light delicate elastic skin, began to appear. Varnish does not improve tone, but can affect it adversely. Unfortunately, the recipe of Stradivari's varnish is lost (Wade-Matthews, 2010: pp. 104-105).

The Spinet (keyboard)

The spinet is a smaller version of the harpsichord. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (Sadie, 1984) it derived its name from the Latin word "spina" (thorn) or the French "épinette", at term used for all quilled instruments well into the 17th century. Both referred to the plectra with which the instrument's strings are pucked. Alternatively, Wade-Matthews (2010, p: 224) states that the instrument is more likely named after one of the early builders of the instrument, the Venetian Giovanni Spinetti. In preferred current usage, "spinet" refers to an instrument whose strings run diagonally from left to right, instead of directly away from the player as in a harpsichord or as in a virginal (Sadie, 1984).

Because of this oblique string arrangement of the early models, the spinet produced a trapezoid shape in the smaller instruments and a wing shape in the larger ones, as the bass strings were larger than the keyboard (Wade-Matthews, 2010; Sadie, 1984). Typically, the longest strings of the spinet are at the back, and the tuning pins are set in a pinblock directly over the keys instead of at the righthand end of the case.

The spinet has the same action as the harpsichord, but is built on a smaller, domestic scale. It was popular in France from the late 15th century (Wade-Matthews, 2010). A small number of tiny rectangular instruments were made in Germany in the late 16th century, but the earliest surviving spinets are early 17th century Italian (Sadie, 1984). These were characteristically five or six-sided, with a keyboard projecting from the long side:

Spinet by manufacturer Daddi, Sienna, 1686,
collections of the Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti Musicali di Roma (By LPLT (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons)

The small Italian spinets were most popular in France in the 16th and 17th centuries. These were too small to be tuned to concert pitch, and are not represented in pictures of the period (Sadie, 1984). The early instruments were built of thin cypress wood, without a lid. By the 18th century the case was constructed of thicker wood (Brazil or pine), complete with lids.

The keyboard of the earliest spinets occupies virtually the entire case, leaving litle room for internal structure. The sides and back of the case overlap the edges of the bottom. The pinblock is supported by a block at each end, and these blocks are simply attached to the bottom and shorter sides of the case. A single set of jacks runs in a line in pairs, the members of which face in opposite directions, immediately behind the pinblock (Sadie, 1984; p. 438). 

Arrangement of jacks and strings in a Spinet
(By Opus33 (from en:wikipedia) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons)

In 1631, Italian Girolamo Zenti invented the bentside or "leg of mutton" spinet, which was to become a very popular English domestic keyboard instrument in the late 17th century. It was named as such, because of its wing shape. It was a convenient compact shape , being both shorter and narrower than a harpsichord of equal range (Wade-Matthews, 2010). The popularity of the instrument was not so much based on its musical capabilities but rather on its convenience as a domestic instrument. For those who did not have sufficient room or money for a harpsichord, or who could not afford one, the spinet was ideal (Montagu, 1979: page 71).

As a domestic keyboard instrument, the spinet did not have a distinct repertory of its own, but some harpsichord music was suited for the amateur performer (Sadie, 1984, p: 439).

4. Sources

Aviad2001, 2007. Traverso (baroque flute) by Boaz Berney, after an original by Thomas Lot, Paris ca. 1740. [electronic print] Available at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATraverso_007.jpg> [Accessed 3rd of July 2017].

EMILYPLAYSCELLO (2016), Baroque Violin Music: Corelli, Castello, Tartini, Uccellini, Biber - curated by Emily Davidson, Youtube, viewed 29th May 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gay1MX9Z0z4>

HaCeMei (2010), Bassviol (Viola da Gamba), 7 strings, Uilderks,  [electronic print] Available at: <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/GambeUilderks.png> [Accessed 10th of July 2017].

LPLT, 2010. Spinet by manufacturer Daddi, Sienna, 1686, collections of the Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti Musicali di Roma. [electronic print] Available at: <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Epinette_Daddi_de_1686.JPG> [Accessed 26th of June 2017].

Mole, P. (2008), The Keene and Brackley Spinet, Youtube, viewed 26th June 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8tBYCJQVos&list=PL9ucLkqjn5L7Q1HDrrd39TyT-5cLnxpsi&index=4>

MONTAGU, J. (1979) The World of Baroque & Classical Musical Instruments, New York: Woodstock. Pages 13-17, 71.

Opus33, 2009. False-color diagram of the arrangement of strings and jacks in a bentside spinet. Hand-drawn by User:Opus33 using Microsoft Paint, following an original by Stewart Pollens. [electronic print] Available at: <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/ArrangementOfJacksAndStringsInASpinet.PNG> [Accessed 26th of June 2017].

Rottenburgh777 (2010), The sound of "Hotteterre Flute" (Baroque Flute) De la Barre Allemande, Youtube, viewed 3rd of July 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-iNPvoo4U0>

Sadie, S. (ed.) (1984) The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, Volume 3. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited. Pages 437-440.

Viola da Gamba Society of America, 2017, About the viol. [online] Available at: <https://vdgsa.org/pgs/the_viol.html>[Accessed 10th of July 2017].

WADE-MATTHEWS, M. (2010) Music an Illustrated History, London: Anness Publishing Ltd. Pages 102-107.

WIKIPEDIA (2017) Violin. [Online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin [Accessed: 29/05/2017].