A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Rose

by A. J. Hipkins

ROSE or KNOT (Fr. Rosace; Fr. and Germ. Rosette; Ital. Rosa). The ornamental device or scutcheon inserted in the soundhole of the belly of stringed instruments, such as the lute, guitar, mandoline, dulcimer, or harpsichord, serving not only a decorative purpose, but in the Netherlands especially as the maker's 'trade mark.' In the harpsichord and spinet there was usually but one soundhole with its rose; but owing to the origin of these keyboard instruments from the psaltery, their analogy with the lute, and the fact of the Roman lutes having three, several soundholes were sometimes perforated. In fact, a clavicembalo dated 1531 was lately seen in Italy by the eminent art critic, Mr. T. J. Gullick, which possessed no less than five, each with a rose inserted. From the analogy above referred to, the old Italian harpsichord makers named the bottom of the instrument 'cassa armonica' (soundchest); as if its office were like that of the back of the lute or viol, while the belly was the 'piano armonico' (soundflat).^[1] The Flemings, retaining the soundhole, doubtless adhered more or less to this erroneous notion of a soundchest. The Hitchcocks in England (1620 and later) appear to have been the first to abandon it; no roses are seen in their instruments. Kirkman in the next century still adhered to the rose and trade scutcheon, but Shudi did not. In the 'Giornale de' Litterati d'ltalia' (Venice, 1711, tom, v.), Scipione Maffei, referring to Cristofori, who had recently invented the pianoforte, approves of his retention of the principle of the rose in his ordinary harpsichords, although contemporary makers for the most part had abandoned it. But Cristofori, instead of a large rose, to further, as he thought, the resonance, used two small apertures in the front. Under the head Ruckers will be found illustrations of the rose or rosace, as used by those great makers.

[ A. J. H. ]

1. In modern Italian we more frequently meet with 'tompagno,' 'Uvola armonica,' and 'foudo,' meaning 'belly' or 'soundboard.'