Raymond Russell Collection of Early
Keyboard Instruments

St Cecilia's Hall Museum of Instruments, Niddry Street, Cowgate, Edinburgh EH1 1LJ

A Brief History of the Raymond Russell Collection

Contents

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The Raymond Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments, housed in St Cecilia's Hall on Niddry Street in the Cowgate, Edinburgh is one of the world's most important collections of its type, and attracts visitors from all over the globe. It presently comprises some 51 instruments dating from the middle of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Most of these are the precursors of the piano - harpsichords, spinets and virginals which produce sound by mechanically plucking the strings, and a large number of restored clavichords which strike the strings with metal blades know as tangents. But there are also some important early pianofortes, including the earliest extant English grand piano, together with a number of small pipe organs from the same historical period covered by the rest of the instruments.

Raymond Russell

Photograph by Joe Rock

Raymond Russell FSA FTCL (1922-1964), after whom the Collection is named, was a man of many varied interests. He began to collect early keyboard instruments shortly after the Second World War and in 1959 published his book The Harpsichord and Clavichord - an Introductory Survey (Oxford, 1959, second edition, 1973) in which many of his own acquisitions now in the Raymond Russell Collection are illustrated. He became an acknowledged expert in this field and wrote the catalogue for the collection of keyboard instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum. His other interests included the collecting of antiquarian books associated with the history of anatomy and surgery. At the time of his death in 1964 he was researching the fortifications of Valetta on Malta.

Russell was an accomplished harpsichord player and passionately keen to see the re-establishment of the traditions of making and playing of early keyboard instruments. In the course of assembling his collection he was not averse to exchanging earlier acquisitions for better or more representative examples and his final collection covers the most important schools of harpsichords and clavichord building - Italian harpsichords and virginals from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; four harpsichords by members of the Ruckers family who worked in Antwerp in the seventeenth century; a mature example of French harpsichord building by Pascal Taskin, Paris 1769; a beautifully preserved English virginal by Stephen Keene; a North German harpsichord by J. A. Hass, Hamburg of 1764. English instruments from the eighteenth century are well represented and include a rare single-manual harpsichord by Thomas Hancock, London, 1720, and a sequence of spinets showing their evolution from the late seventeenth to late eighteenth centuries. There is also a large clavichord of 1763 also made by Hass, which is one of the finest examples of its type and which has exquisite baroque decoration.

The Raymond Russell Collection Comes to Edinburgh.

By 1958, when his collection was almost complete, Russell conceived the idea of presenting most of it to a British university where it could become a live museum of restored instruments and a centre for the study of keyboard organology and performance practice. Professor Sidney Newman, Reid Professor of Music at the University from 1941-1970, eagerly took up Russell's proposals. When the University acquired the site of St Cecilia's Hall in late 1959 an ideal setting for the housing of Russell's collection presented itself, and Russell showed great enthusiasm for the project. (The long gallery on the east side of the building is known as the Newman Gallery in memory of Professor Newman).

Shortly after Raymond Russell's death his mother, Mrs Gilbert Russell, presented the University with 19 instruments from her son's collection. Her gift is recorded on two brass plaques in the galleries with the dedication to fulfil a wish long entertained by him. Plans for the restoration of St Cecilia's Hall and provision of suitable accommodation for the instruments began in 1964, the work being undertaken by Ian G. Lindsay and Partners. The Russell instruments came to Edinburgh later that year and were temporarily housed in New Town and in George Square during the period of the rebuilding of St Cecilia's Hall. J.J.K. Rhodes and W.R. Thomas looked after the collection during this period.

The Faculty of Music already possessed a sizeable collection of musical instruments from various sources, most of which now form the basis of the The John Donaldson Collection of Musical Instruments presently housed in the Reid Concert Hall Museum of Instruments. Six keyboard instruments were added to the Russell gift and formed an amalgamated collection of 28 instruments which, together with the newly restored St Cecilia's Hall, was first presented to the public in 1968.

The Collection Grows - 1968 to 2004

Photograph by Joe Rock

A further twenty-four instruments have been added to the Collection since its opening. Five have been received as gifts or bequests, ten are on loan from private individuals or other museums and nine have been bought for the Collection with funds raised by The Friends with additional support from various organisations. Two of Russell's instruments which were not of the original gift were bought in the early '70s - the 1755 marquetry Kirckman harpsichord - apparently his favourite instrument - and an exceptionally beautiful sounding and looking Goermans/Taskin harpsichord. Among the more important recent acquisitions should be mentioned the Francis Coston double-manual English harpsichord dating form the 1720s, one of the earliest examples of its type and possessing an exceptionally fine soundboard painting. Coston had connections with the first Duke of Chandos, the patron of G.F. Handel.

In 1995 the Collection acquired a late eighteenth-century English chamber organ with enharmonic tunings available for the accidental keys, and a Jacob Kirckman single-manual harpsichord with two unison registers only, without the usual 4-ft - a rare variant which gives enhanced tone in the treble part of the compass.

Research and Teaching

Over the period of the last 25 years, interest in early music and authentic performance on historical instruments has increased enormously and the crafts of building harpsichords, clavichords, pianos and early instruments generally has been re-awakened. John Barnes, who was curator of the Collection from 1968 to 1983, initiated a programme of careful and scientific restoration of the instruments in the Collection. These restorations were thoroughly documented and notable for their use wherever possible of reversible restoration methods. His examinations of the instruments have revealed many of the constructional procedures of their makers which has shed light on their musical function and the connections linking makers to a particular school with each other.

Dr Grant O'Brien, the immediate past Curator, made an exhaustive study of the Flemish harpsichord-making tradition as exemplified by the work of the Ruckers family and is working on the identification of Italian keyboard instruments. Students from the Music Faculty are invited to participate in projects of study centred on the Collection and recent postgraduate research into the work of the eighteenth-century Hamburg clavichord making tradition of the Hass family under the supervision of Dr O'Brien has been an excellent example of this continuing work. Undergraduate teaching in the Faculty of Music includes various projects which involve contact with the Collection under staff supervision, and the staff run a course on keyboard organology for postgraduate students.

Restoration and Conservation

The whole subject of restoration of antique instruments has been quite profoundly reviewed over the last few years. Most of the instruments in the Collection have been frequently repaired in the past. Very few can be regarded as being in an original state, although subsequent alterations carried out in the historical period should be considered a valid part of their history. Much restoration work carried out in this century has had a deleterious effect on antique instruments, partly due to an ignorance of the original materials used in their construction. As a result many old instruments now no longer have their original set-up of stringing, voicing and regulation. Because many restorers in the past simply threw away old strings and action cloths from the instruments they worked on, much vital information has been lost. It is paradoxically often the ever-diminishing number of unrestored instruments which provide the most important sources of information about the original state of these instruments.

Photograph by Joe Rock

There are several instruments in the Collection which fall into the latter category and which will be left unrestored. However, there are many improvements which can be made to playing instruments. There is now a greater understanding of stringing practices, and wire similar to that used on old instruments is now available. Reversible repair techniques which do not damage the structure are still being carried out on playing instruments. The use of natural bird quill for the plectra which pluck the strings and of woven woollen material instead of felt ensures that the restored instruments both sound and play in a manner as similar to that of their historical state as can be achieved on the basis of modern organological research. The instruments in the Raymond Russell Collection are regularly tuned and maintained, and used throughout the year for concerts and recitals in St Cecilia's Hall. The galleries are maintained in a closely-monitored climatic environment with control of temperature and relative humidity. Dust precipitators are in constant operation removing pollutants from the atmosphere, and the amount of light reaching the often highly-decorated instruments is restricted using either curtains or protective film to reduce the levels of harmful ultra-voilet light and of infra-red heat radiation from entering the windows.

Playing the Instruments and Recordings

The Raymond Russell Collection instruments do not leave the building but are occasionally brought into the Concert Hall and used for recitals and concerts. There is a strict policy of instrument use, restricting their exposure to one major use per instrument per year.

Support for the Collection

A large portion of the funds for new acquisitions for the Collection have been raised by The Friends of St Cecilia's Hall and the Raymond Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments a group founded by Professor Peter Williams in 1971.
The contribution of The Friends to the life of the Collection is invaluable. The Friends produce and market a range of publications, postcards, technical drawings and recordings relating to the Collection.
Details of how to become a member of The Friends are available from the foyer of the Hall or by contacting: