A Pilgrimage to Urbino's clavichord intarsia

We are just back from Urbino. We all know the history of the famous intarsia there, but let me just write down a reminder for the “non-clavichordati”.

In the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino there is a “Studiolo”, the private cabinet of the duke, with its walls fully covered with wooden intarsia produced c.1476: they represent all sorts of things, from scientific tools to landscapes, and quite a few musical instruments, reproduced in full perspective, notably theorbos, recorders and a fretted clavichord.

This clavichord is famous for being the oldest depiction of a fretted clavichord, and about one century earlier than the earliest extant such instrument. The compass is F-G-A-Bb-chromatic to f’‘’: four octaves with a short octave from low F. There was no standard pitch at the time, but a working modern replica by Pierre Verbeek is strung and pitched for A=440Hz. (see https://harpsichords.weebly.com/urbino-palazzo-ducale-clavichord-15th-c.html : for more details Verbeek’s full paper of 2011, entitled “The Urbino clavichord revisited”, is available for vewing and free download.

Verbeek has shown that the intarsio is remarkably accurate, and that from the perspective a perfectly functional 3D model can be derived and built into a fully-functioning instrument.

Unfortunately, the photographs found online, including the one Verbeek included within his paper, have a relatively low resolution. Which is why, in this true “pilgrimage” of mine, I endeavoured to produce a better picture, with a significantly higher resolution.

Taking the picture was not easy: from the first picture, “starring” my wife Betty, it is apparent that the clavichord is located within a corner, and an acrylic wall makes it difficult to access.

Luckily, this wall is not too tall, and with some contortions I was able to take a photograph, its perspective further computer-improved once we were back home in Lucca. I am attaching a copy downsampled to 1600x1200px,

but I have the original at 4000x3000px in case anybody would like to see the remarkable detail of the intarsia.

With two private requests for the hi-res picture, I have cropped it suitably and included here: just click for the full-resolution. You can even see the strings!

Thanks Claudio, this is great (and possible thanks to Andrew’s technical support).
As well as the strings I think you can see some very light listing cloth for the upper strings; presumably the listing for the lower notes is at the left end and concealed by the case.

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Amazing work!!! I enjoy that. WGK

| CDV Claudio Di Veroli
September 21 |

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We are just back from Urbino. We all know the history of the famous intarsia there, but let me just write down a reminder for the “non-clavichordati”.

In the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino there is a “Studiolo”, the private cabinet of the duke, with its walls fully covered with wooden intarsia produced c.1476: they represent all sorts of things, from scientific tools to landscapes, and quite a few musical instruments, reproduced in full perspective, notably theorbos, recorders and a fretted clavichord.

This clavichord is famous for being the oldest depiction of a fretted clavichord, and about one century earlier than the earliest extant such instrument. The compass is F-G-A-Bb-chromatic to c’‘’: four octaves with a short octave from low F. There was no standard pitch at the time, but a working modern replica by Pierre Verbeek is strung and pitched for A=440Hz. (see https://harpsichords.weebly.com/urbino-palazzo-ducale-clavichord-15th-c.html : for more details Verbeek’s full paper of 2011, entitled “The Urbino clavichord revisited”, is available for vewing and free download.

Verbeek has shown that the intarsio is remarkably accurate, and that from the perspective a perfectly functional 3D model can be derived and built into a fully-functioning instrument.

Unfortunately, the photographs found online, including the one Verbeek included within his paper, have a relatively low resolution. Which is why, in this true “pilgrimage” of mine, I endeavoured to produce a better picture, with a significantly higher resolution.

Taking the picture was not easy: from the first picture, “starring” my wife Betty, it is apparent that the clavichord is located within a corner, and an acrylic wall makes it difficult to access.

Luckily, this wall is not too tall, and with some contortions I was able to take a photograph, its perspective further computer-improved once we were back home in Lucca. I am attaching a copy downsampled to 1600x1200px,

but I have the original at 4000x3000px in case anybody would like to see the remarkable detail of the intarsia.


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| mshields
September 21 |

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Thanks Claudio, this is great (and possible thanks to Andrew’s technical support).
As well as the strings I think you can see some very light listing cloth for the upper strings; presumably the listing for the lower notes is at the left end and concealed by the case.

The brown wood representing the listing cloth interrupts the inlaid silver strings.
The rough surface of the cloth is achieved by carving the surface irregularly, apparently with a small gouge. This effect was clearly important to the artist; it is the only part of the intarsia which is not flush.

Another nice detail is the removable piece, at the upper edge of the bass end of the case, slightly longer than the width of the string band, to cover the hitch pins, which were apparently driven into the case wall itself.

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It is even possible (not that easily in my picture, it would require an even greater resolution) to count in the intarsia the 17 courses, as described by Verbeek.

Wow, amazing detail. Thank you Claudio Di Veroli for sharing this.
Just curious, to those more knowledgeable about this artwork: Has there been any speculation as to how such
specific detail was achieved (some of which does not even seem “artistically necessary”)?
In case it hasn’t already been speculated, let me toss a couple into the ring: camera lucida, or camera obscura.
Thoughts?

| CDV Claudio Di Veroli
September 21 |

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Many thanks to Claudio for sharing his excellent photo of the Urbino clavichord intarsia.

This clavichord is famous for being the oldest depiction of a fretted clavichord, and about one century earlier than the earliest extant such instrument. The compass is F-G-A-Bb-chromatic to c’‘’: four octaves with a short octave from low F. There was no standard pitch at the time, but a working modern replica by Pierre Verbeek is strung and pitched for A=440Hz. (see https://harpsichords.weebly.com/urbino-palazzo-ducale-clavichord-15th-c.html : for more details Verbeek’s full paper of 2011, entitled “The Urbino clavichord revisited”, is available for viewing and free download.

The reconstruction may well have been at A=440Hz, but Verbeek writes “The pitch might have been a2 = 440 Hz or higher.” I would say much higher. With an f’ string of about 336 mm and iron treble strings (Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht (1511), refers to the use of both iron and brass strings for clavichords whose strings are not all tuned in unison), the instrument could have been tuned as much as a fifth above a’=440Hz, If strung in brass throughout, it might perhaps have sounded at the Arnolt Schlick’s (1511) two pitches, in the region of a minor third above A=440Hz,

In a subsequent message Claudio notes “It is even possible (not that easily in my picture, it would require an even greater resolution) to count in the intarsia the 17 courses, as described by Verbeek.”
I can offer (with apologies for this being a quick phone-camera copy of an annotated 1985 print) this photograph, which was taken close to the intarsia, with the Perspex screen temporarily removed.

Not surprisingly, given the low angle from which the instrument is seen, the artist simplified the 17 paired courses to 17 single strings, all clearly visible here except for parts of the third from the rear (near the top of the photograph), which is partly missing.

My 1985 annotations might be of interest.

The vertical lines mark the grouping of the frets in 4s and 3s.

The bb’’ and c#‘’ tangents were omitted. Verbeek observes that “We are inclined to believe that the fact that two tangents are missing is not due to an accidental omission. This anomaly, in our view, is not fortuitous. Be that as it may, in practical terms, it means actually that this clavichord is not in playable order.”

It is likely that they were omitted not to show an “unplayable” instrument but because, had they been included they would each, because of the clustering of the tangents in relation to the strings, partly have clashed with the tangent below. I suggest that they were omitted for essentially the same Not surprisingly, given the low angle from which the instrument is seen, the artist simplified the 17 paired courses to 17 single strings, all clearly visible here except for parts of the third from the rear (top of the photograph), which is partly missing.

My annotations might be of interest.

The vertical lines mark the grouping of the frets in 4s and 3s.

The bb’’ and c#‘’’ tangents were omitted. Verbeek observes that “We are inclined to believe that the fact that two tangents are missing is not due to an accidental omission. This anomaly, in our view, is not fortuitous. Be that as it may, in practical terms, it means actually that this clavichord is not in playable order.”

It is likely that they were omitted not to show an “unplayable” instrument but because, had they been included they would, because of the clustering of the tangents in relation to the strings, partly have clashed with the tangent below. I suggest that they were omitted for essentially the same practical reason as the other 17 strings.

Note also the spacing of the slots in the rack at the rear. The tuning is Pythagorean, in the same Gb-B configuration seen in the earlier Arnaut of Zwolle manuscript. For example, the first three semitones (at the top left of the photo), between c’’ - c#’ - d’’ - eb’‘, are minor - major - minor. Although the c#‘’ was evidently intended to sound a consonant third (virtually 4:5) above a’, it is, in Pythagorean spelling, strictly a db, a fifth below ab.

Note also the spacing of the slots in the rack at the rear. The tuning is Pythagorean, in the same Gb-B configuration seen in the Arnaut of Zwolle manuscript. For example, the first three semitones (top left of the photo), between c’‘, c#’, d’‘, eb’‘, are minor - major - minor. Although the c#‘’ was evidently intended to sound a consonant third (virtually 4:5) above a’, it is, in Pythagorean spelling, strictly a db’'.

1 Like

| CDV Claudio Di Veroli
September 21 |

  • | - |

Amended, without unintended repetitions:

Many thanks to Claudio for sharing his excellent photo of the Urbino clavichord intarsia.

This clavichord is famous for being the oldest depiction of a fretted clavichord, and about one century earlier than the earliest extant such instrument. The compass is F-G-A-Bb-chromatic to c’‘’: four octaves with a short octave from low F. There was no standard pitch at the time, but a working modern replica by Pierre Verbeek is strung and pitched for A=440Hz. (see https://harpsichords.weebly.com/urbino-palazzo-ducale-clavichord-15th-c.html : for more details Verbeek’s full paper of 2011, entitled “The Urbino clavichord revisited”, is available for viewing and free download.

The reconstruction may well have been at A=440Hz, but Verbeek writes “The pitch might have been a2 = 440 Hz or higher.” I would say much higher. With an f’ string of about 336 mm and iron treble strings (Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht (1511), refers to the use of both iron and brass strings for clavichords whose strings are not all tuned in unison), the instrument could have been tuned as much as a fifth above a’=440Hz, If strung in brass throughout, it might perhaps have sounded at the Arnolt Schlick’s (1511) two pitches, in the region of a minor third above A=440Hz,

In a subsequent message Claudio notes “It is even possible (not that easily in my picture, it would require an even greater resolution) to count in the intarsia the 17 courses, as described by Verbeek.”
I can offer (with apologies for this being a quick phone-camera copy of a manually annotated 1985 print) this photograph, which was taken close to the intarsia, with the Perspex screen temporarily removed.

Urbino.jpg

Not surprisingly, given the low angle from which the instrument is seen, the artist simplified the 17 paired courses to 17 single strings, all clearly visible here except for parts of the third from the rear (near the top of the photograph), which is partly missing.

My 1985 annotations might be of interest.

The vertical lines mark the grouping of the frets in 4s and 3s.

The bb’’ and c#‘’’ tangents were omitted. Verbeek observes that “We are inclined to believe that the fact that two tangents are missing is not due to an accidental omission. This anomaly, in our view, is not fortuitous. Be that as it may, in practical terms, it means actually that this clavichord is not in playable order.”

It is likely that they were omitted not to show an “unplayable” instrument but because, had they been included they would, because of the clustering of the tangents in relation to the strings, partly have clashed with the tangent immediately below. I suggest that they were omitted for essentially the same practical reason as the other 17 strings.

Note also the spacing of the slots in the rack at the rear. The tuning is Pythagorean, in the same Gb-B configuration seen in the earlier Arnaut of Zwolle manuscript. For example, the first three semitones (at the top left of the photo), between c’’ - c#’ - d’’ - eb’‘, are minor - major - minor. Although the c#‘’ was evidently intended to sound a consonant third (virtually 4:5) above a’, it is, in Pythagorean spelling, strictly a db, a fifth below ab.

Note also the spacing of the slots in the rack at the rear. The tuning is Pythagorean, in the same Gb-B configuration seen in the Arnaut of Zwolle manuscript. For example, the first three semitones (top left of the photo), between c’‘, c#’, d’‘, eb’‘, are minor - major - minor. Although the c#‘’ was evidently intended to sound a consonant third (virtually 4:5) above a’, it is, in Pythagorean spelling, strictly a db’'.

1 Like

there was a significant article analyzing this intarsia and the portrayed instrument in the near past. As soon as I can remember which journal and locate it, I will post the reference,

Hi Anne, you mean an article more recent than the one I quoted by Verbeek (2011)?

MORE ON THE URBINO FRETTING

Hi Lewis Jones! Very interesting your criticism of otherwise-excellent Verbeek and your added details. Let me add some historical perspective as well (again, well-known to “clavichordati” of course).

BASS FRETTING. A relatively obvious design feature of fretted clavichords is already present in Urbino’s intarsia: fretting cannot be applied to all the instrument’s range: as we proceed towards the bass, fretting groups reduce from 3 keys to 2 and eventually to a single course per key. Doing otherwise in the extreme bass would have two undesirable consequences:
A - a larger space between tangents, thus a significantly longer case for the whole instrument
B - keys moving laterally as the tangents become significantly misaligned with respect to the keys.

QUADRUPLE FRETTING. Throughout most of the range, the Urbino fretting alternates fretting groups of 3 and 4 notes (see Verbeek Fig. 15). This appears to have been the norm in Italian earlier instruments: it is found in the much later, undated (but obviously 16th century) and unsigned (but most likely Italian) instrument in the Heyer Collection, Leipzig, depicted in Russels’s “The Harpsichord and Clavichord”, plate 11.

TRIPLE FRETTING. As we know, at a later stage quadruple-fretting was found to be inconvenient, and the “triple fretting” (except sometimes for the 4 treble-most keys) became the norm: this allowed to play all the minor and major thirds…

Edit: … especially when, under meantone temperament, all the minor thirds became consonant. Triple-only fretting had an obvious further advantage. Except for the extreme bass, with four courses per octave, the fretting was the same in most octaves of the instrument: this made matters easier for the player. For example, if the fretting had, say, f’, f#’ and g’ sharing the same course, the player knew that the second f-g was unplayable throughout the instrument’s range.

STRINGS AND RESOLUTION. Hi Lewis Jones again. Thanks for your comments re pictures and strings. Excellent your detail of the 17 courses!
Please note that my pictures were NOT taken through the perspex protection, but by hanging my arms over it! Any lack of detail is due to (a) using neither flash nor tripod and (b) using an amateur camera with a horizontal maximum resolution of 4000 pixels.
Of course, I could have taken a detailed picture of the courses, but that would have entailed stretching my arms forward and inevitably, without a tripod, getting a blurred picture.

| CDV Claudio Di Veroli
September 22 |

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STRINGS AND RESOLUTION. Hi Lewis Jones again. Thanks for your comments re pictures and strings. Excellent your detail of the 17 courses!

Thank you. It’s wonderful to have Claudio’s high resolution photo of the whole clavichord; my detailed 1985 image is part of a composite, literally pasted together on a board (using 80s technology!).

We can clearly see an advance, since the design represented by Arnaut of Zwolle, which allowed the compass to be enlarged from his 3 octaves to the 4 octaves in Urbino. Whereas Arnaut’s tangents are disposed as though they were all on a single string (the instrument described by Baude is essentially a keyed monochord, elaborated with extra unison-tuned courses to accommodate polyphony),
in Urbino the spaces between the fretted groups of tangents (3 + 4 + 3 + 4, etc.) are closed up, such that, descending from the alto register, each successive course of strings is less stressed than its predecessor. Whereas all the open strings in Arnaut are in unison, as are the treble strings in Urbino, the alto and tenor Urbino courses descend progressively in pitch, leading to the lowest 5 unfretted courses (F, G, A, Bb, B) which serve only one note each.