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Finchcocks, Kent

The first keyboard instrument was the organ, which was well established by Roman times. This was a massive and complex musical instrument, and was indicative of a time when music was ruled by the Church. The only organisation which could afford an organ was the Church, and the only place people could go to hear one played was in a church. The piano and its forerunners were much more democratic folk instruments. A popular ancient instrument used by civilisations all over the world consisted of a wooden box, rather like a coffee table, with strings fixed across it. There were many varieties, the yang qu'in from China, and alpine zither, the victra vina from India; but they all had the same basic form, and were all played by running the fingers across the stings. Of course using a plectrum was more comfortable. Even better would be a mechanism to pluck the strings for you. From experiments to achieve a mechanism of this kind, keyboard instruments began to evolve. The oldest surviving keyboard string plucked instrument, a clavicytherium dating to 1480 is kept at London's Royal College of Music's Museum Of Instruments. It looks like an upright harp in a case with a keyboard attatched. Keyboard plucked instruments then evolved into harpsichords on a horizontal design, and this is where the collection at Finchcocks Musical Museum near Goudhurst in Kent begins. The Finchcocks collection has harpsichords, and smaller versions known as virginals, one of which dates to 1668.

 

In a parallel course of evolution, musical instruments were developing with a mechanism to hit strings rather than pluck them. The earliest forms of this instrument consisted of open strings hit with two sticks held in the hands, an instrument known in England as the dulcimer. From this developed the clavichord, a hammer dulcimer with lines of mallets fixed under the strings operated via a keyboard. Finchcocks has nineteenth century clavichords on display. These were popular instruments, and allowed variation in the volume of a note, depending on how hard a mallet hit a string, a nuance that was not available with plucked keyboard instruments. But the clavichord was very quiet, and was drowned out by singers, and by the more powerful harpsichord. An important turning point came in 1688 when the son of the Duke of Tuscany, and musical enthusiast, Ferdinado de Medici hired instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori to look after his collection of musical instruments and try to develop new ones. It was Cristofori who finally developed a hammer struck harpsichord. His new invention is listed in the Medici inventory of 1700 as "arpicimbalo di Bartolomeo Cristofori di nuova inventione, che fa il piano e il forte," (Bartolomeo Cristofori's harpsichord, newly invented, that is capable of playing soft and loud). This was the first piano prototype, and three of Cristofori's original instruments survive at the Museo degli Strumenti Musicali in Rome, at the Leipzig Museum of Musical Instruments, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York. The piano quickly became popular. In October 1777 young Amadeus Mozart travelled to the Bavarian town of Augsberg to play a piano by the piano maker Stein. He was very impressed and started writing music for the piano. Two pianos of the sort that Mozart would have played can be seen at Finchcocks.

 

An historic keyboard instrument at Finchcocks - the Latin inscription at the bottom means: "the ears are the doors to the mind".

The next big step with keyboard design, and the design of musical instruments in general, came with the achievement of "equal temperament" which allowed musicians to use complex harmonies. This is a difficult subject, but essentially getting harmonies to sound right for certain combinations of notes, 3rds and 6ths for example, meant slight re tuning of notes in the combination. This re tuning would then put other combinations out of tune - 5th, 4ths, 2nds and octaves. To play all harmonies in tune meant constant pauses as instruments were re tuned accordingly. In 1722 the head of music at Cothan Castle in Germany was Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach worked out a way of tuning a harpsichord so that all harmonies in any key could be played in one sitting without retuning. Bach described "equal temperament," in his book The Well Tempered Clavier of 1722, a landmark in music history. This book contained twenty four pieces of music to be played on the keyboard with all types of harmonies being used together on one instrument without retuning. Bach achieved this by retuning every note so that each one was imperceptibly out of tune, thus finding a very delicate compromise which allowed every combination of harmony to work. This required incredible precision. In fact each note had to be re tuned to 1.059463094 times the frequency value of the note below to reach equal temperament. Bach's achievement with his carefully tuned harpsichord was a near miracle of individual tuning. For equal temperament to become standard, machine tools were needed to produce instruments built precisely enough to achieve the level of tuning required. The machine tools that would eventually make this possible were actually first developed to help in the precise manufacture of clocks in the sixteenth century. A crucial moment as far as music is concerned occurred in 1800 when Henry Maudsley developed a metal lathe for use in the production of pianos. These lathes allowed the calibration of tuning in assembly line pianos with great accuracy, and these equal temperament assembly line pianos were produced by John Broadwood and Sons. Finchcocks has an excellent collection of John Broadwood pianos, with more than ten examples from different periods. These pianos really bring the Finchcocks collection, and western music itself, into the modern world.

 

At certain times of the day recitals are staged, allowing a more comprehensive experience of the collection. Special events are also organised with visiting musicians. Courses are run in maintenance and playing of period keyboard instruments.

The collection is complemented by musical prints and pictures.

 

Opening Times: Finchcocks is open Sundays from April to September, 2pm to 6pm and bank holiday Mondays.

In addition during August, open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2pm to 6pm.

The music begins at 2.45pm. The garden and tearoom are open from 12.30.

Address: Finchcocks Musical Museum, Goudhurst, Kent TN17 1HH

Directions: Finchcocks is just off the A262 between Lamberhurst and Goudhurst. Click here for an interactive road and satellite map centred on Finchcocks.

Access: The house and grounds are accessible to wheelchair users, but the restaurant in the cellars beneath the building can only be reached by steep steps. Tables have been set out in the garden to make provision for disabled visitors.

Contact:

telephone: 01580 211702

fax: 01580 211007

web site: www.finchcocks.co.uk

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