Thomas Hitchcock's spinets are better known than John's. The one in the woodcut belongs to Messrs. Broadwood, and is numbered 1379.[1] (The highest number we have met with of Thomas Hitchcock, is 1547.)
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Messrs. Broadwood's differs from the John Hitchcock one of 1630 in having a curved instead of an angular bent side, and from the naturals being of ivory instead of ebony. The compass of these instruments—five octaves, from G to G—is so startling as to be incredible, were it not for the facts that several instruments are extant with this compass, that the keyboard did not admit of alteration, and that the Sainsbury Correspondence [see Ruckers, p. 196b] mentions the greater compass that obtained in England in the time of Charles I. than was expected or required on the Continent. The absence also of the soundhole, regarded as essential in all stringed instruments of that time, where the soundboard covered the whole internal space, shows how eminently progressive the Hitchcocks must have been. Not so Haward, in the only instrument (that here represented) which we have been so fortunate as to meet with by this maker.
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Chas. Haward appears to have been contemporary with the Hitchcocks, and yet he is as conservative to old Italian or French practice as if John Hitchcock had never made an instrument in England. A John Hitchcock spinet, dated 1676, has lately come under our notice. [App. p.796 "for dated read numbered. The Haward spinet belonging to the Rev. L. K. Hilton, of Semley, Shaftesbury, is nearly like a Hitchcock, which proves that Howard did not remain with the model figured 655a. Mr. Kendrick Pyne acquired a Haward spinet (now in Mr. Boddington's collection) dated or numbered 1687, that has sharps like the Hitchcocks, with a strip of the colour of the naturals let in, in this instance black."] John and Thomas were probably brothers. The Charles Haward spinet is small, with short keys and limited compass, being only of 4 octaves and a semitone, B—C. The naturals are of snakewood, nearly black; the sharps of ivory, There are wires on each bridge over which the strings pass, and along the hitchpin block, precisely the same as in a dulcimer. The decoration of the soundboard, surrounding an Italian rose, is signed 'I H,' with 'Carolus Haward Fecit' above the keys; and the name of each key is distinctly written, which we shall again have occasion to refer to. Pepys patronised Haward (or Hayward as he sometimes writes the name). We read in his Diary—
April 4, 1668. To White Hall. Took Aldgate Street in my way and there called upon one Hayward that makes Virginalls, and there did like of a little espinette, and will have him finish it for me: for I had a mind to a small harpsichon, but this takes up less room.
July 10. 1668. To Haward's to look upon an Espinette, and I did come near to buying one, but broke off. I have a mind to have one.
July 13, 1668. I to buy my espinette, which I did now agree for, and did at Haward's meet with Mr. Thacker, and heard him play on the harpsichon, so as I never heard man before, I think.
July 15, 1668. At noon is brought home the espinette I bought the other day of Haward; costs me 5l.
Another reference concerns the purchase of Triangles for the spinet—a three-legged stand, as in our illustration. A curious reference to Charles Haward occurs in 'A Vindication of an Essay to the advancement of Musick,' by Thomas Salmon,[2] M.A., London, 1672. This writer is advocating a new mode of notation, in which the ordinary clefs were replaced by B. (bass), M. (mean), and T. (treble) at the signatures:
Here, Sir, I must acquaint you in favour of the aforesaid B. M. T. that t'other day I met with a curious pair of Phanatical Harpsecliords made by that Arch Heretick Charles Haward, which were ready cut out into octaves (as I am told he abusively contrives all his) in so much that by the least hint of B. M. T. all the notes were easily found as lying in the same posture in every one of their octaves. And that, Sir, with this advantage, that so soon as the scholar had learned one hand he understood them, because the position of the notes were for both the same.
The lettering over the keys in Mr. W. Dale's Haward spinet is here shown to be original. It is
- ↑ This is the instrument in Mr. Millais' picture of 'The Minuet,' 1862. Thomas dated his spinets; John numbered them.
- ↑ Salmon, Thomas, born at Hackney, Middlesex, in 1648, was on April 8, 1684, admitted a commoner of Trinity College, Oxford. He took the degree of M.A. and became rector of Mepsal [Meppershall?], Bedfordshire. In 1672 be published 'An Essay to the Advancement of Musick, by casting away the perplexity of different Cliffs, and uniting all sorts of Musick in one universal character.' His plan was that the notes should always occupy the same position on the stave. without regard as to which octave might be used; and he chose such position from that on the bass stave—i.e. G was to be always on the lowest line. Removing the bass clef, he substituted for it the capital letter B. signifying Bass. In like manner be placed at the beginning of the next stave the letter M (for Mean), to indicate that the notes were to be sung or played an octave higher than the bass; and to the second stave above prefixed the letter T (for Treble), to denote that the notes were to be sounded two octaves above the bass. Matthew Lock criticised the scheme with great asperity, and the author published a 'Vindication' of it, to which Lock and others replied. [See Lock, Matthew.] In 1688 Salmon published 'A Proposal to perform Music in Perfect and Mathematical Proportions,' which, like his previous work, met with no acceptance. [ W. H. H. ]
