Russell Collection of Early
Keyboard Instruments

HD5-JG1763.29: Double-manual harpsichord,
Jean Goermans/Pascal Taskin. Paris, 1763/83-84.

Stringing the 1764/83 Goermans/Taskin Double-manual Harpsichord

Like many other instruments either made or re-worked by Pascal Taskin, this harpsichord has the gauge numbers of the strings which were intended to be used to string it stamped on the wrestplank. Each number is stamped with a metal die stamp in the wrestplank veneer near the tuning pins for the notes to be strung in the corresponding gauge number, and stamped lines between the tuning pins indicate the transitions from one gauge number to the next.

Wrestplank gauge markings:

8'	4'
9 - g² to f³	10 - f² to f³
8 - g¹ to f²	9 - g¹ to f²
7 - a to f¹	8 - b to f¹
6 - f to g	7 - e to a
5 - c to e	6 - B to d
5 - A to B	6 - G to A
4 - G & G	5 - E to F
3 - F & F	4 - C to E
2 - E & E
2 - C to D	4 - B1 to C
1 - A1 to B1	3 - G1 to A1
0 - G1 & G1	2 - F1 & F1
00 - F1 & F1

The 8' gauge numbers vary from 00 in the bass to gauge 9 in the treble, and similarly the 4' gauge numbers run from gauge 2 to gauge 10. In both the 8' and the 4' registers some gauge numbers are repeated: gauges 2 and 5 are repeated in the 8', and gauge 4 and gauge 6 repeat in the 4'. On the 1774 'Ruckers'/Taskin in the Brussels Instrument Museum the word rouge is written near the note F₁, jeaun[sic] near the first repeated gauge number, and blanc near the second repeated gauge number. Thus it is clear that Taskin intended the notes from F₁ to the first repeated gauge number to be strung in rouge or red brass strings, from the first to the second repeated gauge number in jeaun or yellow brass strings, and the remainder in blanc or (white) iron strings.

Thus for this instrument the notes to be strung in each material are:

String Material	8'	4'
red brass:	F1 to D	F1 to C
yellow brass:	E to B	C to A
iron:	c to f³	B to f³

The red brass, yellow brass and iron used for the stringing of plucked keyboard instruments in eighteenth-century France were all relatively soft ductile materials. Phosphor-bronze, spring brass and patent steel strings do not make good modern substitutes. Rather, one should try to find red brass, yellow brass and iron which are as soft and weak as possible but which will still maintain their pitch without breaking. Normally suitable stringing materials stretch and drop in pitch as soon as they are placed on the instrument, and they usually take several weeks to several months before stabilising and maintaining a constant pitch.

The diameter of the strings corresponding to each gauge number has been calculated using measurements of the old strings on the 1733 François Étienne Blanchet double-manual harpsichord in Château Thoiry near Paris (see references below). These give the following gauge number-size equivalents:

Gauges:

If the available modern strings do not have exactly the same diameters as those given above then the transition notes from one string size to the next should be modified slightly one way or the other to compensate for the difference in the string diameter.

Taskin's pitch was probably about a¹ = 409Hz, which is slightly more than a semitone below modern pitch (a¹ = 440Hz). No difficulty should be encountered using the above stringing materials and gauge numbers at a pitch of a¹ = 415Hz (ie one semitone below modern pitch). The gauge diameters and material transition notes given above would, however, not be valid if the instrument were tuned to modern pitch (a¹ = 440Hz), in addition to which most modern soft-wire equivalents of the eighteenth-century strings would break at this pitch.

References:

• Jean-Louis Val, 'Une détermination de la taille des cordes de clavecin employées en France au XVIIIième siècle', Revue de musicologie, 56, Nº 2 (1970) 208-14.
• Grant O'Brien, 'Some principles of eighteenth-century harpsichord stringing and their application', The Organ Yearbook, 12 (1981) 160-76.
• Martha Goodway and J. Scott Odell, 'The metallurgy of 17th- and 18th-century music wire', The Historical Harpsichord Volume 2, Howard Schott editor, (Pendragon Press, Stuyvesant, NY, 1987).

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