Harpsichord
Alternate name(s)
- Cembalo angelico
Maker
Vincenzio Sodi
Date1782
Place MadeFlorence, Italy, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedAmong the authentic inscriptions by the maker is one in ink on the back of the keyboard guide rack:Vincenzio Sodi Fece Anno d[omini] 1782 in Firenze
References to the instrument published prior to its acquisition by the Museum give the date as 1780, as in the inscription on the front of the nameboard:
Vincentius Sodi Florentinus fecit anno Domini 1780
The inlaid piece of wood with this inscription, however, appears to have been inserted later and might have been added by Leopoldo Franciolini, through whose hands the instrument passed in the early twentieth century. More credence should be put in the several unquestionably original inscriptions written in Sodi's hand (as established by comparison with the inscriptions in other Sodi instruments). In these, the date is given as 1782, although in two instances the last digit was altered to 0, presumably by Franciolini:
On the back of the keyboard guide rack:
Vincenzio Sodi Fece Anno d[omini (superscript abbreviation)] 1782 in Firenze
On the soundboard bar nearer to the bridge:
Sodi Vincenzio Sodi Fiorentino Fece Anno dom[ini (superscript abbreviation)] 1782
The "Sodi" at the beginning of this inscription was probably added immediately afterwards as a clarification when the writer noticed that the "Sodi" in the normal position between "Vincenzio" and "Fiorentino" was somewhat illegible because the ink had spread in one of the kerfs that had been sawed to facilitate bending of wood.
On the back-register jack for FF:
+
1 [the number of the jack]
1782
On the FF key lever:
1780 [the last digit has been altered]
+
On the f3 key lever:
V.S.i.
61 [the number of the key]
1780 [the last digit has been altered]
One should note that Sodi consistently signed his forename as "Vincenzio", not "Vincenzo", as in many modern references to him.
Markingsnone
DescriptionFF-f3 (5 octaves)
2 x 8' stringing; two registers of double-tongued jacks (the missing front row replaced with modern single-tongued jacks) with sole-leather plectra on one side and oil-tanned leather (peau de buffle?) on the other, thus providing alternative 2 x 8' registrations of hard or soft plectra, in the manner of the cembalo angelico described in an anonymous pamphlet published in Rome in 1775 (translation in Raymond Russell, The Harpsichord and Clavichord: an Introductory Study [London: Faber and Faber, 1959], pp. 131-142.
Original disposition:
Back register
8'> peau de buffle
<8' sole leather
Front register
8'> sole leather
<8' peau de buffle
The instrument is in a thick-cased style that is not imitative of traditional Italian inner-outer construction. The walls, of 11 to 11.5 mm thick walnut (cheek piece, bent side, and tail) and 15 mm thick poplar (spine) are, in the usual Italian manner, attached to the edges of the bottom, which is of softwood 19.5 to 21 mm thick and is in one panel with grain parallel to the spine.
The exterior walls were presumably originally intended to be finished in their natural walnut, with a walnut molding around the bottom edge. The interior over the soundboard and wrest plank is veneered in cypress, with walnut veneer over the upper edges. The exterior walls (except the spine) are now painted with foliage on a green ground, perhaps by Franciolini. The lid, of softwood, may be original, but the exterior is painted like the walls (with a coat-of-arms on the flap exterior). On the inside is an oil-on-canvas painting (landscape with figures) of uncertain age. The instrument rests on two trestles with turned legs, perhaps taken from another harpsichord.
DimensionsExternal dimensions of the case, excluding the molding around the bottom:
Length: 2358 mm (including the veneer, about 3 mm thick, on the front surfaces of the key cheek)
Width (near the bottom, at the front of the keyboard): 936 mm
Length of cheekpiece: 479 mm (including the veneer, about 3 mm thick, on the front surfaces of the key cheek)
Length of tail 340 mm
Height 222 mm to 229 mm (This includes veneer about 2 to 3 mm thick on the upper edges of the walls.)
Dimensions of the bottom panel:
Length: 2340 mm
Widt:h 913 mm
Cheekpiece: 465 mm
Tail: 315 mm
Component of tail parallel to the spine: 146 mm
Component of tail perpendicular to the spine: 280 mm
The three-octave measure: 492 mm.
String length:
f3 91 mm
c3 124
f2 185
c2 245
f1 354
c1 474
f 712
c 943
F1 369
C1 795
FF 1911
ProvenancePurchased in 2000 from the Harpsichord Clearing House, Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Previously owned by Conrad Seaman, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Used for concerts by Conrad Seaman. Some previous owners are listed by Boalch, who, however, was in error in stating it to have been owned by the Detroit Institute of Arts.
A photograph of the instrument taken in the shop of Leopoldo Franciolini, Florence, about 1910, in is Ripin (see Published References).
Published ReferencesN.B.: References to the instrument prior to its acquisition by the Museum in 2000 give its date as 1780.
Boalch, Donald H. Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord, 1440-1840, first edition (London: George Ronald, 1956), p. 116 and plates 4 and 5.
-------. Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440-1840, third edition, edited by Charles Mould (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p. 636.
Harpsichord Clearing House, advertisement, Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 51, no. 2 (Summer 1998), back cover.
Koster, J. "Three Grand Pianos in the Florentine Tradition," Musique-Images-Instruments, vol. 4 (1998), pp. 115-116.
-------. "An Angelic Harpsichord," America's Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 28, no. 2 (May 2001), pp. 6-7.
-------. "Sodi, Vincenzio," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second ed., Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, eds. (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001), vol. 23, p. 618.
-------. “Towards an optimal instrument: Domenico Scarlatti and the new wave of Iberian Harpsichord making,” Early Music, Vol. XXXV, No. 4 (November 2007), p. 595.
-------. "Traditional Iberian Harpsichord Making in its European Context," Galpin Society Journal 61 (2008), pp. 8, 66.
Ripin, Edwin M. The Instrument Catalogs of Leopoldo Franciolini, Music Indexes and Bibliographies, no. 9 (Hackensack, N.J.: Joseph Boonin, 1974), "Photograph 37," p. 135.
Rolfo, María Virginia. Vincenzio Sodi: Life and Work (M.M. thesis, Univeristy of South Dakota, 2011), pp. 125-142.
Sutherland, David. "The Florentine School of Cembalo-Making Centered in the Works of Bartolomeo Cristofori," Early Keyboard Journal, vols. 16-17 (1998-99), pp. 49-53.
Credit LinePurchase funds gift of Conrad Seamen; Arne B. and Jeanne F. Larson Fund, 2000
Object number09825
On View
Not on view
1530 ca.
