![[St Cecilia's Hall]](stceciliashall.jpg)
![[1764-84 Goermans 3-4 view]](Goermans.jpg)
![[University of Edinburgh]](EUcrest.gif)
The Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments, housed at St.Cecilia's Hall, is one of the world's most important collections of its kind, and attracts visitors from many countries. It presently consists of some 47 instruments, dating from the middle of the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century. It principally contains those stringed keyboard instruments which are the precursors of the piano - namely harpsichords, spinets and virginals (which produce sound by mechanically plucking the strings) and a smaller number of clavichords (which strike the strings with metal blades, known as tangents). Also represented are some important early pianofortes including the earliest extant English grand, together with a number of small pipe organs of the same historical period.
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Raymond Russell, FSA, FTCL (1922-1964), after whom the Collection is named, was an enthusiastic collector of historical harpsichords and clavichords. Russell was a selective collector and his final collection covers the most important schools of harpischord and clavichord building - Italian harpsichords and virginals from the 16th and 17th centuries, four harpsichords by members of the Ruckers family of Antwerp from the 17th century, a mature example of French harpsichord building by Pascal Taskin, Paris 1769; a beautifully preserved English virginal by Stephen Keene; a rare North German harpsichord by J A Hass, Hamburg 1764 and one of the finest examples of a large clavichord by the same maker, with exquisite baroque decoration, of 1763. English instruments from the 18th century are well represented including a rare single manual harpsichord by Thomas Hancock, London 1720 and a sequence of spinets showing their evolution from the late 17th to late 18th centuries.
By 1958, when Russell's collection was almost complete, he conceived the idea of presenting most of his collection to a British university where it could become a 'live' museum of mainly 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 and when the University acquired the site of St.Cecilia's Hall late in 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 in honour of Professor Newman).
Shortly after Raymond Russell's death in 1964, his mother, Mrs Gilbert Russell presented the University with 19 instruments from her son's collection and her gift is recorded on two brass plaques in the galleries with the dedication 'To fulfill a wish long entertained by him'.
The University of Edinburgh already possessed a sizeable collection of musical instruments including a number of keyboard instruments suitable for inclusion with those belonging to Russell. The amalgamated collection was opened to the public in 1968 at the same time as the opening of the rebuilt St. Cecilia's Hall. Several instruments have been received on loan from the Royal Museum of Scotland, including two anonymous virginals - possibly the oldest surviving Scottish keyboard instruments. Purchases of new instruments for the collection in recent years include an unusual Italian virginal with divided accidental keys to accommodate meantone tuning, an early 19th century English grand piano by Thomas Loud, and in 1991 a very important early 18th century English two manual harpsichord by Francis Coston, of London c.1725.
Over the period of the last 25 years interest in 'early music' and authentic performance on reproduction instruments has increased enormously and the crafts of building harpsichords and clavichords, have been re-awakened. The present Curator, Grant O'Brien, initiated a programme of thorough documentation of the instruments with photographs, measurements and full-scale technical drawings. His examinations of the instruments have revealed many of the working practices of their makers which has shed light on the approach of the original makers to their craft and the connection linking makers to a particular school with each other.
![[Newman Gallery general view]](newmangallerygeneralview1.jpg)
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The Collection also provides a teaching resource on the history of keyboard instruments for students and staff in the Faculty of Music at the University.
The whole subject of restoration of antique instruments has been quite profoundly reviewed over the last few years. Many of the instruments in the Collection have been frequently repaired in the past and do not necessarily represent their original or latest historical states. Reproduction 'old' wire is an obvious improvement over the materials available twenty years ago, and our knowledge of string gauges and tensions has enabled replication of historical stringing and sound of many instruments very closely. There are however a number of instruments which have been left unrestored because of their fragility and the rarity of the information that they give to us - they are historical documents in their own right.
Instruments in 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. Restored instruments are regularly tuned and maintained.