Instruments | Spinet | Keyboards

The spinet is known by many names and has several definitions. Perhaps the most misleading is the American usage of the term to denote a small upright piano.

The most confusing is the use of the word to describe a square piano, and a more ancient confusion arises from its use as a synonym for the virginals or, indeed, any small harpsichord.

Spinet Construction

The word itself derives from the Latin spina (‘thorn’), which refers specifically to the use of quills to activate the strings. In eighteenth-century France, the word ‘spinet’ was applied to any quilled instrument, regardless of size or design. The true spinet is a wing-shaped instrument, with a compass ranging from four to five octaves. It has a single set of jacks, and the strings are arranged diagonally from the keyboard, as opposed to the harpsichord and the piano, where they are at right angles, or the virginals, where they lie horizontally.

Popularity

Early spinets are generally small and sometimes have the decorative rose in the soundboard – which was standard issue with the older virginals. It enjoyed its greatest popularity from the mid-seventeenth century to the late-eighteenth century, when its decorative appearance made it a much-prized piece of furniture (often independently of its musical function).

Spinet Makers

Though apparently invented in Italy in the late-seventeenth century by Girolamo Zenti, the spinet enjoyed its greatest popularity in England, where its style and shape came characteristically to be known as ‘bentside’ or ‘leg-of-mutton’. Its foremost makers in the seventeenth century included Keene, Player, Haward, and the family firm of Hitchcocks, and in the eighteenth, Messrs Slade, Mahoon and Baker.

Introduction | Keyboards
Instruments | Harpsichord | Keyboards

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins

AUTHORITATIVE

An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...

CURATED

Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.

Rock, A Life Story

Rock, A Life Story

The ultimate story of a life of rock music, from the 1950s to the present day.

David Bowie

David Bowie

Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers his life, music, art and movies, with a sweep of incredible photographs.