Virginals

Virginals

Flemish virginals by Hans Ruckers, 1583, Antwerp (Paris, Musée de la Musique). Note the inset keyboard placed left of centre.
Classification	Keyboard instrument
Playing range
C2/E2 to C6 (45 notes); some Italian models C2 to F6 (54 notes)
Related instruments
harpsichord, spinet, clavicytherium

The virginals or virginal is a keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. It was popular in Europe during the late Renaissance and early baroque periods.

A virginal is a smaller and simpler rectangular form of the harpsichord with only one string per note running more or less parallel to the keyboard on the long side of the case. Many, if not most, of the instruments were constructed without legs, and would be placed on a table for playing. Later models were built with their own stands.

The mechanism of the virginals is identical to the harpsichord's, in that its wire strings are plucked by plectra mounted in jacks. Its case, however, is rectangular, and the single choir of strings—one per note—runs roughly parallel to the keyboard. The strings are plucked either at one end, as with the harpsichord, or, in the case of the muselar, nearer the middle, producing a richer, flute-like tone.

The origin of the name is obscure. It may derive from the Latin virga meaning a rod, perhaps referring to the wooden jacks that rest on the ends of the keys, but this is unproven. Another possibility is that the name derives from the word virgin, as it was most commonly played by young women, or from its sound, which is like a young girl's voice (vox virginalis). A further view is that the name derives from the Virgin Mary as it was used by nuns to accompany hymns in honour of the Virgin.

In England, during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, any stringed keyboard instrument was often described as a virginals, and could equally apply to a harpsichord or possibly even a clavichord or spinet. Thus, the masterworks of William Byrd and his contemporaries were often played on full-size, Italian or Flemish harpsichords, and not only on the virginals as we call it today. Contemporary nomenclature often referred to a pair of virginals, which implied a single instrument, possibly a harpsichord with two registers, or a double virginals (see below).