This similarity is highlighted by contrast, through comparison with two other virginals, by Honofrio Guarracino (1678) and Stephen Keene (1668), with different plucking point profiles. As a case study, they allow us to access: a) how relevant to its timbre is the plucking point profile of an instrument? b) which other constructional details might be important to the timbre of a virginal? Despite their differences, the sounds of these instruments do have some degree of similarity, both from the physical and sensorial point of view. In this paper, the Bertolotti and Poggio virginals are compared from the point of view of both sound and construction. However, this is not the case, as the timbral difference between these instruments is easy to spot. Plucking a string nearer or farther from its end is a well-known way of obtaining different timbral qualities from a harpsichord, so it might be expected that these two virginals would sound very much alike. Although their construction is quite different, they share a remarkable similarity in one aspect: from C to e'', and with only two exceptions, their plucking point percentages match to within 1%. The Russel Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments includes two virginals, one polygonal made in 1586 by Alessandro Bertolotti, another rectangular made c.1620 and attributed to Francesco Poggio.
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March 2023
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