> Van: d a pickett <[log in to unmask]>
> Aan: [log in to unmask]
> Onderwerp: Re: terminology
> Datum: vrijdag 13 november 1998 22:34
>
> DC Carr scripsit:
>
> > Seventeenth-century organists wrote of 'double organs';
>
> > did they also use the term 'double harpsichords'?
>
>
> I seem to remember that there were such things as double virginals and
that,
> although this could mean two manuals, someone postulated that the term
implied
> a range extended below C (i.e. BB etc).
>
> Or am I imagining this?
>
> david
 
Maybe you are referring to the mother-and-child virginals, like the Ruckers
dynasty build.
 
These instruments actually consist of 2 instruments, a large one (normal
size, the "mother") and a little one, next to the keyboard of the big one
(the "child"). The child could also be placed upon the mother, the two
manuals right on top of each other, like all two manual harpsichords. By a
special system the little virginal was always coupled to the mother, if it
were on top of this latter.
 
This instrument was for family use, where the mother teaches the virginal
to her daughters.
 
Greetings,
 
Joachim Bollen
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