> Andrew wrote: I haven't been following this much but has anyone mentioned
the mother and child virginals of the Ruckers workshops in which the 
octavino is placed atop an 8' virginal?  

To my "own quotes" minutes ago let me just add this for beginners unfamiliar
with this matter:

p. 19 "During the heyday of Flemish manufacture ... both virginals and
muselars were sometimes made with a separate octave virginal (i.e. sounding
at 4' pitch) added. The latter was stored inside the case of the large
instrument: inevitably, this was to the right of the keyboard in a virginal,
and to the left of the keyboard in a muselar. The 4' instrument could be
used in three different ways: (1) in order to play duets it would simply be
taken partially out of its storage as shown in the picture below, (2) it
could also be fully removed and carried away to be played elsewhere, or else
(3) it would be placed over the large instrument, so that a single player
could access both keyboards as on a two-manual organ.
To the above three ways, a fourth one was often added. The small virginal
sometimes had a channel cut in the underside, meant to be located precisely
on top of the-previously removed-larger instrument's jack rail. When this is
done and a lower key is pressed, the jack plucks its 8' string while
simultaneously raising the back of the corresponding key in the small
virginal, thus also plucking its 4' string (a detailed diagram is included
in Kottick 2003 p. 61). This 8'+4' effect was a predecessor of both (a) the
disposition found in later Flemish harpsichords and (b) the much later
harpsichords with keyboard couplers.

Best
CDV


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