A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Clagget, Charles

CLAGGET, Charles, a violinist, and about 1766 leader of the band at the theatre in Smock Alley, Dublin. He was noted for his skill in accompanying the voice. He was also a composer of songs (one of which, 'I've rifled Flora's painted bowers,' gained much popularity), and of duets for violins, violin and cello, and flutes. Coming to London and being of an inventive turn of mind, he devoted his attention to the improvement of various musical instruments. In Dec. 1776 he took out a patent for 'Improvements on the violin and other instruments played on finger boards,' which he asserted rendered it 'almost impossible to stop or play out of tune.' In August, 1788, he took out another patent for 'Methods of constructing and tuning musical instruments which will be perfect in their kind and much easier to be performed on than any hitherto discovered.' Among these were the following:—'A new instrument called the Teliochordon, in form like a pianoforte, but capable of being put much better in tune, for the grand pianoforte or harpsichord divide every octave only into thirteen parts or semitones, whereas on this instrument every octave can be divided into thirty -nine parts or gradations of sound; for any finger-key will, at the pleasure of the performer, produce three different degrees of intonation.' He represented that by this instrument all thirds and fifths could be highly improved, and what is called the 'woulfe' entirely done away with.—A method of uniting two trumpets or horns, one in D, and the other in E flat, so that the mouthpiece might be applied to either instantaneously, thereby getting the advantage of a complete chromatic scale.—Tuning forks with balls or weights for the more easy tuning of musical instruments.—A new instrument composed of a proper number of these tuning forks or of single prongs or rods of metal fixed on a standing board or box and put in vibration by finger keys. Or a celestina stop made by an endless fillet might be applied, producing the sounds on these forks or prongs as it does on the strings.—Tuning keys of a form which rendered them steadier and easier to use than others. And lastly, a better method of fitting the sounding post of a violin to its place. Clagget was also the inventor of the 'Aiuton, or, Ever-tuned Organ, an instrument without pipes, strings, glasses, or bells, which will never require to be retuned in any climate.' Of this instrument and others he published a descriptive account under the title of 'Musical Phenomena.' He kept his collection of instruments at his house in Greek Street, Soho, which he called 'The Musical Museum.' About 1791 he exhibited them publicly at the Hanover Square Rooms. On Oct. 31, 1793, Clagget gave what he termed an 'Attic Concert,' at the King's Arms Tavern, Cornhill, several of the pieces being played on or accompanied by the various instruments invented or improved by him. The performance was interspersed with 'A Discourse on Musick,' the object of which was professedly to prove the absolute necessity of refining the harmony of keyed instruments, and of course to insist that Clagget's inventions had effected that object. In the course of this address a letter from Haydn to Clagget, dated 1792, was read, in which the great composer expressed his full approbation of Clagget's improvements on the pianoforte and harpsichord. The discourse was published with the word-book of the concert, and to it was prefixed a well-engraved portrait of Clagget, who is described beneath it as 'Harmonizer of Musical Instruments,' etc., etc. He is represented with a violin bow in his right hand, and in the left a tuning fork of very large dimensions, each prong of which is bifurcated, so that there are three forks in one. [App. p.591 adds that "he is said to have died in 1820, and that the tuning-fork referred to in the last sentence of the article is one of the sounding bars of his 'Aiuton.'"]

[ W. H. H. ]