Content area
Full text
CHARLES MOULD, PETER MOLE, with contributions by THOMAS STRANGE. Jacob Kirkman, Harpsichord Maker to Her Majesty (Raleigh NC, USA: Lulu Press Inc., 2016). 202 pp" illus. No ISBN. Print on demand. £47.99 (hardback), £37.99 (paperback).
Two workshops dominated London harpsichord making in the second half of the eighteenth century, outranking all competitors in the number and quality of their instruments. The founder of one of these- Burkat Shudi-was the subject of a published monograph over a century ago (William Dale, Tschudi the Harpsichord Maker, London, Constable, 1913), but the founder of the other firm, Jacob Kirkman, has had to wait longer: the work under review is the first book-length study devoted to his life and instruments. It is based on Charles Mould's unpublished 1976 doctoral dissertation, The Development of the English Harpsichord with particular reference to the work of Kirkman, incorporating extensive subsequent research by Dr Mould himself and by Dr Peter Mole, with contributions from Thomas Strange. Discoveries and suggestions from other scholars, such as Maria Boxall (on Hermann Tabel) and Jörg-Dieter Hummel (on Friderich Ring), are also included. The book is presented as a joint project, and the contributions of the three authors are not separately identified. It is divided into two parts, the first being a biography of Jacob Kirkman and the second a study of Kirkman instruments.
The story of Kirkman's life is of interest, not only because of the insight it provides into the character of the man himself, but also because of the light it can throw on the social context in which the instruments were made and played. The authors' account begins by presenting what is known about Kirkman's ancestors. This is made more difficult by the fact that the relevant early records seem not to be mutually consistent, and by uncertainty whether the name 'Kilchmann'-which can be traced as far back as the fourteenth century-refers to the same family as 'Kirchmann', which is the form used by Jacob's parents (later anglicized by him to 'Kirckman' or 'Kirkman'). A family tree is presented on p.7, representing what seem to be the most likely connections between the various ancestors and their families: this helps the reader to navigate the maze, though its tiny type is rather hard to read.