until 1594, but this may have been, as M. de burbure suggests, a re-admission, to repair the loss of a record burnt when the Spaniards sacked the Hôtel de Ville in 1576. In those troubled times there could have been but little to do in clavecin-making. May we see in this a reason for his acquiring that knowledge of the organ which was to lead ultimately to his remodelling the long clavecin?
He had four sons, Francis, Hans, Andries, and Anthony. It is only with Hans (baptized Jan. 13, 1578) and Andries (baptized Aug. 30, 1579) that we are concerned, since they became clavecin makers of equal reputation with their father. We learn that in 1591 Hans Ruckers the elder became tuner of the organ in the Virgin's chapel of the Cathedral, and that in 1593 he added 14 or 15 stops to the large organ in the same church. In 1598 and 1599 either he or his son Hans (the records do not specify which) had charge of the organs of St. Bavon, and from 1617 to 1623 of St. Jacques. The like doubt exists as to the Hans who died in 1642. We believe that this date refers to the son, as the latest clavecin we have met with of his make is Mr. Leyland's beautiful instrument dated that year; the latest date of the father's clavecins at present found being either 1632 (doubtful, see No. 8) or 1614. The earliest is 1590, with which date three existing instruments are marked. .jpg)
The trade-mark of Hans the elder, is here represented.
Of the instruments catalogued below it will be observed that eleven are probably by Hans the elder. The long ones are provided with the octave stop and, perhaps without exception (one being without details), have the two keyboards identified with him as the inventor. But it is interesting to observe the expedients agreeing with the statement of Prætorius, that octave instruments[1] were employed with and in the oblong clavecins. These expedients doubtless originated before Hans Ruckers; indeed in the Museum at Nuremberg, there is an oblong clavecin of Antwerp make, signed 'Martinus Vander Biest,' and dated 1580, that has an octave spinet in it.[2] 'Merten' Vander Biest entered the Guild in Antwerp, as one of the ten clavecin makers, in 1558. Now Messrs. Chappell of London own such an instrument, No. 9 in appended catalogue, made by Hans Ruckers, certainly the elder. No keys remain, but the scale of both the fixed and movable keyboards is the same, four octaves marked near the wrestpins si—si (B—B). In this clavecin it is the left hand keyboard which is removable and is tuned an octave higher. In the Museum of the Conservatoire, Brussels, there is an oblong clavecin by Hans the elder (No. 4) wherein the octave spinet is above and not by the side of the fixed one—according to M. Victor Mahillon a later addition, though the work of the maker himself. This curious instrument formerly belonged to Fétis, and is dated 1610. While on the subject of these removable octave spinets we will refer to one with keyboards side by side made by Hans the younger (No. 13), and dated 1619, the property of M. Regibo, and another, a long clavecin, also by Hans the younger (No. 26), not dated, belonging to M. Snoeck of Renaix, that has the octave spinet fixed in the angle side, precisely as in a more modern one, made by Coenen of Ruremonde, which may be seen in the Plantin museum, Antwerp. [App. p.777 "see Ruckers No. 59, by Hans the elder, now in the Kunst und Gewerbe Museum, Berlin, as being similarly constructed."]
Hans Ruckers the younger—known to the Belgian musicologists as Jean, because he used the initials J. R. in his rose, while the father, as far as we know, used H. R.—was, as we have said, the second son. M. Régibo has supplied us with three of his roses.
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We have given the date of his baptism in the cathedral in 1578, but have no further details record beyond the ascertained facts that he was married to Marie Waelrant, of the family of the musician Hubert Waelrant,[3] in the cathedral, Nov. 14, 1604; that either he or his brother
- ↑ We hesitate to accept Prætorius' statement literally as to such spinets being tuned a fifth as well as an octave higher. This more likely originates in the fact that the F and C instruments had before his time been made at one and the same pitch, starting from the lowest key, although the disposition of the keyboards and names of the notes were different; as in organs, where pipes of the same measurement had been actually used for the note F or the note C. See Arnold Schlick's 'Spiegel der Orgelmacher,' 1511.
- ↑ A woodcut of this rare instrument is given in Part ix. of Dr. A. Reissmann's 'Illustrirte Geschiehte der deutschen Musik,' Leipzig, 1881. Both keyboards, side by side, are apparently original, with, white naturals and compass of 4 octaves C—C. It is the right-hand keyboard that is tuned the octave higher and is removable like a drawer. A full description of this double Instrument is reproduced, in Reissmann's work, copied from the 'Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit' (Nuremberg, 1879. No. 9).
- ↑ Dr. John Bull succeeded Humold Waelrent as organist of the cathedral in 1617, and retained the post until his death in 1628. He must have known Hans Ruckers and his two sons well, and been well acquainted with their instruments.
