Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

RUCKEES RUCKEES 183
became clavecin -makers of eqtial reputation
with their father. Wo leam that in 1591
Hans Kuckers the elder became tuner of the
organ in the Virgin's chapel of the Cathedral,
and that in 1593 he added fourteen or fifteen
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 the
Countess of Dudley's beautiful instrument dated
that year (list, Ko. 41) the latest certain date
;
of the father's clavecins at present found being
1614. The earliest is 1590, with which date
three existing instruments are marked.
keyboards is the same, four octaves marked near
the wrest-pins 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. 8), 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 foiTQerly belonged
to F^tis (who sold the paintings that
adorned it), 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. 23), and dated
1619, the property of M. R^gibo, and another,
a long clavecin, also by Hans the younger
(No. 44), not dated, now in the Hochschule,
Berlin, that has the octave spinet fixed in the
angle sidcjilprecisely as in a more modern one,
made by Coenen of Ruremonde, which may
be seen in the Plantin museum, Antwerp.
The same construction is found in a harpsichord
by Hans the elder (No. 6).
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.
JAHSe
The trade-mark of Hans the elder is here represented.
Of the instruments catalogued below, it will
be observed that twenty are probably by Hans
the elder. The long ones are provided with the
octave stop and, with a few exceptions, have
the two keyboards identified with him as the
inventor. But it is interesting to observe the
expedients agreeing with the statement of
Praetorius, that octave instruments ' 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.^ Merten ' Vander Biest entered
the Guild in Antwerp, as one of the ten
clavecin makers, in 1558. Now Messrs. Chappell
of London had such an instrument. No.
16 in appended catalogue, made by Hans
Ruckers, certainly the elder. No keys remain,
but the scale of both the fixed and movable
1 We hesitate to'accept Fraetorliu's atatement HteraU; ai to inch
BplnetD ^]Dg tuned a fifth aa well as an octave higher. This more
likely originates in the fact that the F and C instmments had befoie
his time heen made at one and the same pitch, j^tartlng 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 Short Octatb ; Arnold Bchllck's Bpiegel der OrgehnacT^^r, lai.
2 A woodcut of this rare Instroment Is given in Fart Ix. of Dr. A.
BelBsmann's lUuetrirte Qetehiefue der deutachen Mutik, Leipzig,
IdSl. Both keyboards, side by side, are apparently -original, with
white natursia and compass of four octaves C— C. -It is the righthand
keyboard that is tuned the octave higher, and la removable
like a drawer. A full description of this double instrument Is
reproduced In Belismann's work, copied fram the Anzeiger /ant
Sunde der devtichen Toneit (Nuremberg, 1879, No. 9).
have said, the second son. M. K^gibo
supplied us with three of his roses.
We have given the date of his baptism in the
cathedral in 1578, but have no further details
to record beyond the ascertained facts that he
was married to Marie Waelrant, of the family of
the musician Hubert Waelrant,' in the cathedral,
Nov. 14, 1604 ; that either he or his brother
Andries was admitted as a master in the Guild
in 1611 ; and that he was employed to tune
the organ of St. Jacques from 1631 until 1642.
3 Dr. John Bull succeeded Bumold'Waelrent as oiganiat of the
cathedral In 1617, and retained the post until hie death in 1628.
He must have known Hans Ruckers and his two sons well, and
been well acquainted with their instruments.