Couchet.

Flemish family of virginal and harpsichord makers, descendants of the Ruckers family. The most important member was Joannes Couchet (b Antwerp, 2 Feb 1615; d Antwerp, 30 March 1655), a grandson of Hans Ruckers. In 1626 he apprenticed himself to his uncle Joannes Ruckers and worked with him until his death in 1642, when Couchet himself became a master harpsichord builder. He had seven children, of whom three became harpsichord makers: Petrus Joannes Couchet joined the Guild of St Luke as a master harpsichord builder in 1655 or 1656, and Joseph Joannes Couchet and Maria Abraham Couchet both became members of the guild in 1666 or 1667. (Joseph Joannes Couchet signed his instruments in this form, though his name appears in archival sources as Joannes Joseph).

The instruments Joannes Couchet built are essentially identical in construction, decoration and sound to those of the other members of the Ruckers family; there is, in fact, strong evidence that many of the later instruments signed by Joannes Ruckers were actually built and decorated by Joannes Couchet during his apprenticeship in Ruckers’s workshop. Except for the initials, the rosettes used by Joannes Couchet resemble those used by Joannes Ruckers. In spite of these similarities, Joannes Couchet and his sons did broaden the tradition established by the Ruckers. Joannes Couchet built at least one double-manual harpsichord with an unusual extended upper-manual compass, and another with the unusual registration of two unisons instead of the normal one unison plus its octave. In a letter of 1648 Gaspard Duarte mentioned large single-manual harpsichords built by Couchet with two unisons and an octave, and a compass of F' to d''', as well as small harpsichords (presumably C/E to c''') with two unison strings. Joannes Couchet himself, in a letter to Constantijn Huygens, described a harpsichord he built for Huygens with a compass down to F' and two sets of strings at unison pitch. In the same letter he admitted to a personal preference for the sound of a single unison with an octave, and mentioned that he also made harpsichords a tone above normal pitch (corresponding to the Ruckers 5-voet virginals). Instruments conforming to these types survive (see list below). A single-manual harpsichord by Joseph Joannes Couchet has a chromatic compass of C to c''' and three rows of jacks. Such inventions and innovations represent an important transition between the traditions established by the Ruckers and the practice of makers in the late 17th century and the 18th.

Only five instruments by Joannes Couchet are known to exist. A single-manual harpsichord in the Russell Collection, University of Edinburgh, originally of compass C/E–c''' but now C–c''' chromatic, is dated 1645. A double-manual harpsichord (1646) in the Brussels Instrument Museum originally had an extended upper-manual keyboard compass of G'/B'–c''' (instead of the traditional C/E–c'''), with a lower-manual compass of C/E–f'''; the keyboards have been aligned, and the instrument widened to give the present compass of G'/B'–f'''. The Vleeshuis Museum, Antwerp, has a large muselar virginal with its original compass of C/E–c''' and a fine contemporary painting of Antwerp inside the lid; it is dated 1650. A double-manual harpsichord in south-eastern France is dated 1652 and now has a compass of G'/B'–e''' with a split B'/E key; it was originally a single-manual instrument, unusual in having two unison choirs of strings with no octave. The Metropolitan Museum, New York, has an undated double-manual harpsichord (originally single) with a compass of F'–c''' (originally F'G'A'–c''', pitched a tone higher than normal, like the Ruckers 5-voet virginals). The Gemeentemuseum at The Hague has a double-manual harpsichord (1669) signed Petrus Joannes Couchet, but its construction differs from that of the Ruckers and Couchet tradition, and its authenticity is doubtful. A harpsichord in private possession in France, now a double which was given a ravalement by Taskin in 1778, was made from a single harpsichord either by Petrus Joannes or by Joseph Joannes (probably the latter) in 1671. A single-manual harpsichord (1679) of original compass C–c''' chromatic, on loan to the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, is signed by Joseph Joannes Couchet. Besides the unusual original compass, it has three rows of jacks (instead of the usual two), with two sets plucking the same set of 8' strings. A double-manual harpsichord, now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, is dated 1680 and was ‘mis a grand ravalement’ by Taskin in 1781, giving it a compass of F'–f'''. Its original compass was probably F'G'A'–d''' and it may have had a disposition with two unisons and an octave, though the more usual single unison and octave are not to be excluded. A large instrument in the Nydahl Collection, Stockholm (unsigned and undated), is also probably a late work of Joseph Joannes Couchet. It was ravalé by Taskin and given two manuals and a compass of F'–f''', but it was originally a single with the compass F'–d'''e''' with the usual octave and unison disposition, but pitched a tone above normal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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R. Russell: The Harpsichord and Clavichord (London, 1959, 2/1973)

F. Hubbard: Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making (Cambridge, MA, 1965, 2/1967)

E.M. Ripin: ‘The Couchet Harpsichord in the Crosby Brown Collection’, Metropolitan Museum Journal, ii (1969), 169–78

N. Meeùs: ‘Le clavecin de Johannes Couchet, Anvers 1646’, Brussels Museum of Musical Instruments Bulletin, i (1971), 15–29

W.R. Dowd: ‘A Classification System for Ruckers and Couchet Double Harpsichords’, JAMIS, iv (1978), 106–13

G.G. O’Brien: ‘Ioannes and Andreas Ruckers: a Quatercentenary Celebration’, EMc, vii (1979), 453–66

J. Lambrechts-Douillez, eds.: De familie Couchet/The Couchet Family (Antwerp, 1986)

G. O’Brien: Ruckers: a Harpsichord and Virginal Building Tradition (Cambridge, 1990)

G. GRANT O’BRIEN