Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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182 RUCKERS EUCKERS
Kareest, schilder en Klaveoimbelmaker, gheleert
by Peeter Mathys '). This is an earlier instance
of the name Clavecin than that quoted by M. de
Burbure as the oldest he had found in Belgium,
viz. a house in the parish of Notre Dame,
Antwerp, which, in 1532, bore the sign of 'de
Clavizimbele. ' No doubt at that time both
clavecins and clavichords were in use in Antwerp,
but in a few years we hear of the latter no
more ; and the clavecin soon became so important
that, in 1557, Josse Carest headed a
petition of the clavecin-makers to be admitted
to the privileges of the guild as such, and not,
in a side way, merely as painters and sculptors
of their instruments. Their prayer was granted
and the ten petitioners were exempted from the
production of 'masterworks,' but their pupils
and all who were to come after them* were
bound to exhibit masterworks, being clavecins,
oblong or with bent sides (' vieroante oft gehoecte
clavisimbale,' square or grand as we should say),
of five feet long or more ; made in the workshops
of master experts, of whom two were
annually elected ; and to have the mark, design,
or scutcheon, proper to each maker (syn eygen
marck, teeoken, oft wapene), that is, a recognised
trade-mark on each instrument. We will
give these trade-marks of the members of the
Ruckers family from sketches kindly supplied
by [the late] M. Abel Regibo, of Renaix in Belgium
; three, belonging to Hans and his two sons,
having been already published by M. Edmond
Vander Straeten in his monumental work La
Musique aux Pays-Bas, vol. iii. (Brussels, 1 8 7 5). *
\t is at once evident that such regulations
tended to sound work. The trade-marks we
have more particularly described under Rose.
They were usually made of lead, gilt, and were
conspicuous in the sound-holes ofthe instruments.
Some of the contemporary Italian keyboardinstruments
might be taken to give a general
idea of what the Antwerp ones were like prior
to the improvements of Hans Ruckers the
elder. In the preparation of the sound-boards
the notion of the sound -chest of Lute and
Psaltery prevailed. Ruckers adhered to this
principle, but being a tuner and perhaps a
builder of organs, he turned to the organ as a
type for an improved clavecin, and while holding
fast to linibre as the chief excellence and
end of musical instrument making, introdiiced
different tone colours, and combined them after
organ analogies- and by organ contrivances of
added keyboards and registers. 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, in the Victoria and Albert
Museum, has the octave strings with two stops.
Ruokera's great service may after all have only
'l Later on, tuners' also became members of the guild. For
Instance Michel Colyns, Olawmingeltteldffr, In 1631-32 ; who was,
however, the son ol a meml>er.
'3 Burney refera to theae marks when writing about the Buckers.-
been to improve what others had previously
introduced. It is nearly certain that harpsichords
with double keyboards and stops for
different registers existed before his 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 M. 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 CarSmeprenant as having toes
like an ^pinette organis^e.' The merit of
'
Hans Ruckers, traditionally attributed to
him, and never gainsaid, was his placing the
octave as a fixture in the long clavecin, boldly
attaching the strings to hitch-pins on the soundboard
(strengthened beneath for the purpose),
and by the addition of another keyboard, also
a fixture, thus establishing a model which
remained dominant for large instruments until
the end of the clavecin manufacture.^ [On the
inventions of H. Ruckers the elder, see Hipkins's
Pianoforte Primer, p. 81.]
An interestingchapter is devoted to the Ruckers
family by M. Edmond Vander Straeten in the
work already referred to (vol. iii. p. 325, etc.).
He has gathered up the few documentary notices
of the members of it discovered by MM.
Rorabouts and Van Lerius, by M. Gtoard and
by M. Leon de Burbure, with some other facts
that complete all that is known about them.
The name Ruckers, variously spelt Rukers,
Rueckers, Ruyckers, Ruekaers, RieckerSj and
Rikaert, is really a contraction or corruption of
the Flemish Ruckaerts or Ryckaertszoon, equivalent
to the English Richardson. Hans the
elder was certainly of Flemish origin, being the
son of Francis Ruckers of Mechlin. He can
hardly have been bom later than 1555. Married
at Notre Dame (the cathedral), Antwerp, June
25, 1575, as Hans Ruckaerts, to Naenken
Cnaeps, he was admitted as Hans Ruyckers,
'olavisinbalmakerre,' to the Lucas guild in
157S. It appears strange that he was not enrolled
a citizen until 1594, but this may have
been, as M. de Burbure suggests, a readmission,
to repair the loss of a record burnt when the
Spaniards sacked the H6tel 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 August
30, 1579) that we are concerned, since they
3 The end ol the manufacture for Antwerp is chronicled by M. de
Burbure In one seen by him—he does not say whether single or
double—made by a blind man, and inscribed Joannes Heineman
me '
fecit A" 1795. Antwerplae.' The lateat harpischord made (apart
from modern revivals) seems to be an instrument by Clementi,
dated 1802, and shown at the Bologna Exhibition of 18S8.