Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/793

RUCKERS. crowned with a wreath. The expressive character shown in the portrait should vouch for the resemblance to the composer even if Burney had not said that it was very like. On the front board above the keys is inscribed a complete piece of clavecin music, 'Pastorale par Mr. Balbastre, le 6 Aoust, 1767,' beginning—

The stand for this instrument is rococo, and gilt. In the same house (Carlton House Terrace), and sold by auction at the same time for £290, was an Andries Ruckers harpsichord that had also been made into a pianoforte by Zeitter. In this instrument the original belly, dated 1628, was preserved. The soundhole contained the rose (No. 6) of this maker. The present compass of the piano is five octaves F—F. Inside the top is a landscape with figures, and outside, figures with musical instruments on a gold ground. Round the case on gold are dogs and birds, a serpent and birds, etc. All this decoration is 18th century work. The instrument is on a Louis Quinze gilt stand. It will be seen that these two harpsichords have undergone remarkable changes at intervals of more than one hundred years. They will be numbered 67 and 68 in the list of extant Ruckers clavecins, which completes all that is at present known to the writer concerning the existing instruments of that family.





Nos. 1 to 58 are tabulated in vol. iii. pp. 197–9. Nos. 59 to 62, vol. iii. p. 652. Nos. 63 to 66, vol. iv. p. 305.

P. 194a, l. 21, for always long read long, or it may have been trapeze-shaped. It must be remembered that the names Clavicordio in Spain, Clavicordo in Italy, and Clavicorde in France, have been always applied to the quilled instruments. We are not therefore sure whether old references to the clavichord are to be taken as describing a plectrum or a tangent keyboard instrument.

P. 194b, It is doubtful what changes of construction Hans Ruckers made in the harpsichord—perhaps the octave strings only. Yet a clavicembalo by Domenico di Pesaro, dated 1590, lately acquired by South Kensington Museum, has the octave strings with two stops. His great service may after all have only been to improve what others had previously introduced. It is nearly certain that harpsichords with double keyboards and stops for different registers existed before Hans Ruckers' time, and their introduction may be attributed to the great favour the Claviorganum, or combined spinet and organ, was held in during the 16th century. The researches of Mr. Edmond Vander Straeten ('La Musique aux Pays Bas,' vol. viii. Brussels 1885), have done much to bring into prominence the great use of the Claviorganum at an early time; see Rabelais, who, before 1552, described Carêmeprenant as having toes like an 'epinette organisée.'

P. 194b, footnote 2. The latest harpsichord in date known to have been made in London is the fine Joseph Kirkman, dated 1798, belonging to Mr. J. A. Fuller Maitland.

P. 195b, l. 37, see Ruckers No. 59, by Hans the elder, now in the Kunst und Gewerbe Museum, Berlin, as being similarly constructed.

P. 196a, footnote, The Hitchcocks were active in the second half of the 17th century and in the first years of the 18th. [ A. J. H. ]

RUDDYGORE:, THE WITCH'S CURSE (Title afterwards spelt .) Comic opera in two acts; the words by W. S. Gilbert, music by Sir Arthur Sullivan. Produced at the Savoy Theatre, Jan. 22, 1887.

RUDERSDORFF,. Line 11 of article, for June 5 read June 25. Add date of death, Feb. 26, 1882.

RUDOLPH,. P. 201b, to list of works add Variations by him on a theme of Rossini's, corrected by Beethoven, exist in MS. (Thayer).