Muselar

(Dutch).

A term used by C. Douwes (Grondig ondersoek van de toonen der musijk, Franeker, 1699) and revived by modern writers to designate Flemish virginals which, having their keyboards placed off-centre to the right, consequently have strings that are centrally plucked for most of the instrument's range. This gives the muselar a distinctive flute-like tone of great beauty, quite unlike that produced by any of the registers of a harpsichord or by a virginal of any other design, and since the late 1960s several makers have constructed replicas of the 17th-century originals.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

G. Leonhardt: ‘In Praise of Flemish Virginals of the Seventeenth Century’, Keyboard Instruments, ed. E.M. Ripin (Edinburgh, 1971, enlarged 2/1977), 42–6

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

EDWIN M. RIPIN