Instruments of Tudor England
The inventory of instruments at various palaces of Henry VIII gives us a good idea of some of the instruments that Thomas Mulliner may have had access to at his various places of employment and privately. Instruments accounted for in Henry’s inventory include harpsichords, clavichords, spinets, regals, virginals, portative organs, and of course organs found in churches and chapels.[1]
[1] Andrew Ashbee, Records of English Court Music, vol. vii (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1993), 390-398.
Stringed keyboard instruments
Stringed keyboard instruments were the most numerous types of keyboard instrument in Henry VIII’s instrument collection. Instruments in this category consist of harpsichords, clavichords, spinets, and virginals. In Tudor England, the term “virginal” was used generically for any plucked keyboard instrument, including the harpsichord.[1] Henry VIII was fortunate to possess many harpsichords. These were described in his inventory as being “longe virginals made harp fashion.”[2] The harpsichords of Tudor England were usually imported from Italy and Flanders.[3] One particularly important instrument showcasing the diversity of these instruments during this age is the Theewes harpsichord. The Theewes harpsichord included an organ underneath the soundboard. Both Thomas Tallis and William Byrd had close connections with its owner, Anthony Roper, meaning that it would have been likely they would have seen it, or played it, at some point.[4] It’s registers consisted of two 8’ stops and a 4’ stop.[5]
The most common of all the stringed instrument was the virginal (and in turn, the spinet), which appeared to be the most popular instrument of the age. The virginal was typically a box shaped instrument, built without legs and was usually placed on a table. Spinets tended to be similar in construction, however, their strings usually ran at an angle of 30º to the keyboard (whereas the virginal’s strings were at a 90º angle).[6] English virginals tended to be of the “spinet” style in construction; their plucking point was much closer to the bridge as opposed to the Flemish muselars which had a more central plucking point.[7] Virginals, and spinets like them, typically had just one stop – an 8’.
Little is known about the exact style of clavichords Henry VIII owned. However, they would have most likely been fretted clavichords, usually rectangular in shape. In these instruments, a given pair of strings may be struck by more than one tangent. Enabling the playing to produce two, three, or sometimes four different notes dependant on the distance of the tangent from the instrument’s bridge.[8] Clavichords also allowed the performer to produce a vibrato effect through a technique known as Bebung – the rocking of the tangent against the string.
[1] Mark Kroll, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord, Cambridge Companions to Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 31.
[2] Kroll, The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord, 31.
[3] Kroll, The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord, 13.
[4] Kroll, The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord, 13.
[5] Kroll, The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord, 13.
[6] Edwin Ripin and Lance Whitehead, “Spinet,” Grove Music Online, accessed 21 Sep. 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052458.
[7] Kroll, The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord, 31.
[8] Edwin Ripin et al., “Clavichord,” Grove Music Online, accessed 15 Sep. 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000005909.
Proposed stoplist of the Wetheringsett Organ.
Dominic Gwynn, “The Classical British Organ 1500-1600,” The Tracker – Journal of the Organ Historical Society 52, no. 4 (2008): 23.
Proposed stoplist of the Wingfield Organ.
Dominic Gwynn, “The Classical British Organ 1500-1600,” The Tracker – Journal of the Organ Historical Society 52, no. 4 (2008): 23.
Portative organs and organs
Henry VIII possessed numerous types of organ style instruments. Instruments in his collection included regals, portative (chamber) organs, and pipe organs. Regals were commonplace in England from 1500 onwards.[1] Henry VIII and Mary I were known to frequently play the regal for their own entertainment, which highlights this instrument’s valued status amongst the most important members of Tudor society.[2] Regals produced their sound through one, more commonly two, sets of beating reeds.[3] The reeds occasionally had small resonators, however this was not usually the case.[4] Regals typically had no legs and were usually placed on tables – like virginals. The bellows, used to supply wind to the instrument, were placed on the same level as the keyboard behind the reeds.[5] By 1547, there is evidence that English makers of regals had started to add small-scale flue (non-reed pipes) stops to regals. This suggests that the regal and portative organ were beginning to merge, in regard to construction style and tonal pallet.[6]
Portative (chamber) organs were typically a small organ consisting mainly of flue pipes. These organs were usually contained within a small decorative box. They usually had only one manual, however, occasionally larger instruments had pedal pulldowns (a mechanism used to play the pipes on the keyboard in the feet).[7] In Henry’s collection of instruments, some of the portative organs also contained a set of regal stops (a crude trumpet like stop) to complement the flue stops – which were repurposed from regal instruments.[8] In Henry’s court, these portative instruments were commonly found in his Privy Chambers and occasionally in chapels to contrast with the larger organs usually found in those spaces.[9]
The organs commonly found in chapels and churches during Tudor England were not typically large instruments by modern standards – although they were larger than portative organs.[10] Sadly, no organ from the Tudor period survives. The best examples of organs from around Henry VIII’s reign are the Wetheringsett and Wingfeld soundboard fragments. While these fragments do not reveal much regarding the exact sound or specifics of construction of these instruments, they do imply a stoplist. The Wetheringsett and Wingfield soundboards are different in size, which means their specifications are different.
These suggested stoplists indicate that both instruments had quite considerable tonal resources for their time – much greater than the stringed instruments and smaller organs of Henry’s collection. These organs were designed for bigger occasions and intended to produce music on a grander scale than the instruments designed for private use at court.
[1] Peter Williams, “Regals,” Grove Music Online, accessed 15 Sep. 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000023059.
[2] Thomas, “Music in the Royal Courts.”
[3] Williams, “Regals.”
[4] Williams, “Regals.”
[5] Williams, “Regals.”
[6] Williams, “Regals.”
[7] Barbara Owen, “Chamber organ,” Grove Music Online, accessed 15 Sep. 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000005383.
[8] Peter Williams, “Portative,” Grove Music Online, accessed 15 Sep. 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000022143.
[9] Williams, “Portative.”
[10] Mulliner, The Mulliner Book, ed. Caldwell, xxxiii.
Citterns and Gitterns
Citterns and gitterns were very popular lute style instruments at Henry’s court and in wider Tudor society. It is known that Thomas Mulliner did play the cittern and possibly the gittern.[1] The cittern is a plucked instrument with wire strings and a shallow pear-shaped body that tapers from the instrument’s neck.[2] The strings are attached at the bottom end of the body and pass over a movable bridge. Frets of a hard material are inlaid into the fingerboard.[3] The gittern is a short-necked lute which is similar to the mandore.[4] It had a rounded back, like the lute, and no clear division between the body and neck of the instrument. It is played in a similar manner to the cittern and shares the same repertoire.[5] In terms of the repertoire in The Mulliner Book, both the cittern and gittern can be used interchangeably to play the pieces originally written for cittern.
[1] Mulliner, The Mulliner Book, ed. Caldwell, xxxiii.
[2] James Tyler, “Cittern,” Grove Music Online, accessed 15 Sep. 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000005831.
[3] Tyler, “Cittern.”
[4] Laurence Wright, “Gittern,” Grove Music Online, accessed 15 Sep. 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000011223.
[5] Wright, “Gittern.”