English Virginal

Abstract

This thesis examines the English virginal -a rectangular plucked keyboard instrument - of which there are twenty-two surviving examples ranging in date from c. 1580 - 1684. It also examines other English plucked keyboard instruments from documentary and iconographical sources where there are no known surviving examples (particularly relevant to the period from 1500 to the late sixteenth century), plus the two surviving harpsichords of the period (by Lodewyk Tbeewes, dated 1579, and Johannes Hasard, dated 1622), and the early spinets which became increasingly popular following the Restoration, eventually replacing the virginal as the major domestic plucked keyboard instrument by 1688. The research concentrates on the design concepts, construction and decoration of the English virginal, based wherever possible on the evidence from the surviving examples. The thesis also considers the virginals in relation to England as a whole in the period from 1500 - 1688, discusses various performance considerations that are applicable specifically to the English virginal, and examines the reasons why the virginal was replaced by the spinet. A comprehensive Catalogue gives measurements of all the surviving instruments, and each entry has a commentary section in which arguments pertaining to individual instruments or specific related groups of instruments are presented. There are also commentary sections at the end of specific groups of instruments by the same maker or workshop tradition.