virginal
Sign in to savethumb|start=56|Virginal from 1668 at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh The virginals is a keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. It was popular in Europe during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods.
Key facts
- Instrument.name
- Virginals
- Instrument.image
- Virginal.jpg
- Instrument.image_capt
- Flemish virginals by Hans Ruckers, 1583, Antwerp (Paris, Musée de la Musique). Note the inset keyboard placed left of centre.
- Instrument.classification
- Keyboard instrument
- Instrument.range
- C2/E2 to C6 (45 notes); some Italian models C2 to F6 (54 notes)
- Instrument.related
- harpsichord, spinet, clavicytherium
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
16 sectionsContents
- Description
- Mechanism
- Etymology
- History
- Types
- Spinet virginals
- Muselars
- Ottavini
- Double virginals
- Compass and pitch
- Decoration
- Composers and collections of works
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|start=56|Virginal from 1668 at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh The virginals is a keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. It was popular in Europe during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods.
==Description== A virginal is a smaller and simpler version of the harpsichord, with a rectangular or polygonal shape. It has only one string per key, in contrast to the several strings per key for a harpsichord. The strings run more or less parallel to the keyboard, on the long side of the case. Many, if not most, of the instruments were constructed without legs, and would be placed on a table for playing. Later models were built with their own stands.