Albert Delin Explained

Albert Delin (17 April 1712, Ath – 26 November 1771, Tournai;[1] also known as Albertus Delin) was a harpsichord maker in the Austrian Netherlands.

Biography

Born in Ath in Southern Netherlands (now in Belgium), he soon moved to the nearby town of Tournai to practice his trade. Little is known of his training but a remarkable number of his instruments have survived. His building style is quite contrary to his more famous contemporaries, like his neighbours Dulckens in Antwerp, the Hass family in Hamburg or the Taskins of Paris, that at the time created complex machines with an extensive variety of registers and knee levers. Delin's surviving instruments are simple, reminiscent of the old Ruckers instruments of a century before and of good workmanship as witnessed by the number of surviving instruments.

Surviving instruments

Decor of the instruments

Delin's original case decor seems to have been simple, but some of his instruments later received "makeovers". Most notably his 1760 clavicytherium, was retrofitted with an extravagant gilded, rococo door.[6] The 1738 spinet is elaborately painted with a forest scene on the inside of the lid, while the case is covered with a menagerie of monkeys playing musical instruments.[7]

The soundboard paintings in Delin's instruments are typical Flemish floral motifs, with visible outlines, flat coloring and little detail, a style similar to the Ruckers.[8]

Bibliography

J. Tournay, "À propos d’Albertus Delin (1712-1771). Petite contribution à l'histoire du clavecin", in La facture de clavecin du XVe au XVIIIe siècle, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1976, pp. 139–232.

J. Tournay, "The Double Orientation in Harpsichord Building in the Low Countries in the Eighteenth Century", in The Harpsichord and its Repertoire, Utrecht, 1990, pp. 21–45.

See also

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40782 Grove Music Online, Published online January 2001
  2. Kottick EL, A History of the Harpsichord,2003, Indiana University Press, pp. 291–292
  3. The website of the musical instrument museum in Paris, Musée de la Musique http://collectionsdumusee.philharmoniedeparis.fr/doc/MUSEE/0161937
  4. Kottick EL, A History of the Harpsichord,2003, Indiana University Press, p294
  5. Chung, David. 2005. Review of Jean-Henry D’Anglebert: Pièces de clavecin (Paris, 1689). Hank Knox, clavicytherium. Les Productions Early-music.com, 2003. Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music 11.1.
  6. Kottick EL, A History of the Harpsichord, 2003, Indiana University Press, p295
  7. The website of the musical instrument museum in Paris, Musée de la Musique http://collectionsdumusee.philharmoniedeparis.fr/doc/MUSEE/0161937
  8. Kottick EL, A History of the Harpsichord,2003, Indiana University Press, p293