Octave spinet

Italian octave spinet in the Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin , (Cat.-No. 4797)

The octave spinet is an originally Italian keyboard instrument from the harpsichord group . It is smaller than the normal spinet and its pitch is one octave higher. Some of these instruments, e.g. B. the one shown here, do not have the typical, roughly triangular shape of the spinet, but their housing is rectangular. Nevertheless, they are spinets and not virginals , because one of the two bridges that limit the vibrating part of the string is a pin on the sound post .

For use, the instrument is either placed on a table or has a separate base that (like the instrument itself) takes up the shape of the respective furniture style . Octave spinets are also not infrequently built into sewing boxes or the like.

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• Hans Schröder: The collection of old musical instruments, museum for Hamburg history. Alster-Verlag, Hamburg 1930.
• http://www.historische-tasteninstrument.de/instrument/spinette_7.htm
• http://www.lexikon-musikinstrument.de/oktavspinett.shtml

Web links

Commons : Spinett  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Two-manual octave spinet in the collection of the Grassi Museum at the University of Leipzig
• Detailed information about the Ottavino on Vince Ho's Early Music website (English)