Flemish family of harpsichord and virginal makers. In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries their instruments influenced the manufacture of string keyboard instruments throughout western Europe, and during the 20th-century revival of harpsichord making their sound has been highly regarded and emulated.
JEANNINE LAMBRECHTS-DOUILLEZ (I), G. GRANT O’BRIEN (II)
It seems likely that the family originated in Germany: a merchant named Hans Ruckers, whose name appears in documents in the Antwerp city archives dating from 1530, is described as from ‘Weyssenburg’, and a German organ builder named Arnold Rucker was depicted by Dürer when he visited Antwerp in 1520.
(2) Joannes [Hans, Jan] Ruckers
(3) Andreas [Andries] Ruckers (i)
(4) Andreas [Andries] Ruckers (ii)
(b Mechelen, between c1540 and c1550; d Antwerp, 1598). He married Adriana Cnaeps in 1575; they had 11 children. Two of his sons later followed him as harpsichord makers, and his daughter Catharina married into the Couchet family of instrument makers; her son Joannes worked in the Ruckers workshop. In 1579 Hans Ruckers became a member of the Guild of St Luke, the Antwerp arts guild, although his name appears in the guild register in 1576 and 1578; Antwerp citizenship was usually a condition of membership of the guild and since Ruckers did not become a full citizen until 1594 he may previously have lived outside Antwerp as an ‘outside citizen’, possibly in Schoten, where his father-in-law was a landowner. In 1584 he rented a house in the Jodestraat of Antwerp, a few metres from where Rubens lived; in 1597 he bought the property. From the marriages that his children and grandchildren made into Catholic families it may be inferred that Ruckers himself was Catholic; one of his children was baptized secretly during the short period of Protestant rule in Antwerp, and his business continued during the religious persecution which affected other builders, some of whom had to leave the city.
The work of Hans Ruckers resembles that of older builders such as Hans Bos and Marten van der Biest, and even in some respects that of Hans Grauwels, but it is not known whether he learnt his craft with any of these makers. Links between Ruckers and Van der Biest are known: Van der Biest (although he seems to have been a Protestant) was a witness at Ruckers's wedding, and a man from the Ruckers workshop joined Van der Biest in Amsterdam (where he began building after losing his property in Antwerp) after 1585. Another Antwerp harpsichord maker and member of the Guild of St Luke, Willem Gompaerts (b c1534; d after 1600), stood godfather to Catharina Ruckers.
Hans Ruckers built the various parts of his instruments separately and numbered them for later identification and assembly (where an instrument has parts with discrepant numbering it is likely that it was made after his time from parts of different instruments). After assembly he would finish the instrument (according to the report of a lawsuit in 1594 relating to events in 1585) by means of ‘the “secret” and his craft’ and by stringing, voicing and ‘signing it with the usual mark’ (his initials worked into the rose of the instrument). The few surviving instruments by Hans Ruckers are mostly virginals from the 1580s and 1590s (see Virginal, figs.5 and 6), now in Berlin, Bruges, New York, Paris and New Haven (Yale University). Although he is known to have been an organ builder (he was paid for work on the organ of the St Jacobskerk and of Antwerp Cathedral from 1591 onwards), no example built by him is known.
(b Antwerp, bap. 15 Jan 1578; d Antwerp, 29 Sept 1642). The eldest son of (1) Hans Ruckers, he married a granddaughter of the composer Hubert Waelrant. On his father’s death he became a partner in the business with his brother, (3) Andreas Ruckers (i), but in 1608 Joannes bought out his brother to become sole owner. In view of Joannes’s young age, and the fact that he was not yet registered as a master in the Guild of St Luke, it is possible that Gompaerts, the family friend, was connected with the Ruckers workshop at that time. The ledgers of the guild record the entry in 1611 of ‘Hans Rukers, sone, claversigmaker’, evidently Joannes Ruckers; from 1616 he served the archdukes of the Netherlands in Brussels as a builder of organs and harpsichords (in 1623 he shared with Jan Breughel, Rubens and two others the privilege of being excused service in the civic guard). About 1627 his nephew Joannes Couchet joined the Ruckers workshop. In 1656 the house was owned by Joannes Ruckers’s grandson, a cloth merchant, although Couchet continued the workshop after his uncle’s death. His more than 35 extant instruments are now in Berlin, Brussels, Edinburgh, London, Paris and elsewhere.
(b Antwerp, bap. 30 Aug 1579; d Antwerp, after 1645). Second son of (1) Hans Ruckers. He and his brother learnt their craft from their father. In 1605 he married; he had seven children, although four died very young. His daughter Anna married the painter Jan Davidsz. de Heem in 1644. It is not known where he moved after he sold his share in the workshop to his brother in 1608, but in 1616 he seems to have lived ‘bij Kerckhof, bij den scoenkramen’ (now the Groenplaats en Schoenmarkt; the house has not been identified). He lived in Lombardenvest in 1619 and in 1640 he was in Huidevettersstrate, probably as a tenant. He was still alive in September 1645, and references to an Andreas Ruckers as godfather to his daughter Anna's children in 1651 and 1654 may be to him. He does not appear in the records of the Guild of St Luke, but Jan Moretus, dean of the guild, mentioned him as a member in 1616–17, and in 1619 the guild ordered a harpsichord from him. Instruments made or signed by him, dated between 1607 and 1644, are now in Antwerp, Berlin, Boston, Bruges, Brussels, Cincinnati, Edinburgh, The Hague, Leipzig, London, Munich, Nuremberg, Paris, Vermillion (South Dakota), Washington, DC, New Haven (Yale University; see Harpsichord, fig.5) and elsewhere.
(b Antwerp, bap. 31 March 1607; d Antwerp, before 1667). The only son of (3) Andreas Ruckers (i) to become a harpsichord maker. He married Joanna Hechts in 1638, and the mention in the same year (in the records of the Guild of St Luke) of ‘Rickart, claversingelmaker, wijnmeester’ may refer to him. In 1639 he rented a house in Everdijstraat. His wife died of the plague in 1653, leaving him with six young children. He probably learnt his craft in his father's workshop: an inscription dated 1644 refers to his father as ‘Andreas, den Ouden’, an indication that they were both active in that year. At least seven instruments by Andreas Ruckers (ii) survive from the 1640s and early 1650s. They are in Boston, Copenhagen, Leipzig, London, Nuremberg, Paris and Peeblesshire, and are the last instruments made by this branch of the family.
Several other Antwerp harpsichord makers were close to the Ruckers, and were probably subcontractors to the family workshops. The Gompaert, Britsen and Hagaerts also helped the family in difficult times, such as after the deaths of Hans, Andreas (ii), and Joannes Couchet (1655).
Two virginals (in Namur and New York) have roses, with the initials ‘CR’, that are somewhat like other Ruckers roses. They are built in the Ruckers tradition, are decorated with 17th-century features, and incorporate subsequent alterations. They are no longer thought to have been the work of Christoffel Ruckers, an organ player living around the middle of the 16th century in Dendermonde, who, however, has not been identified as a member of the main Ruckers family.
The extant Ruckers virginals are, with the exception of one six-sided virginal made by (1) Hans Ruckers in 1591, all rectangular in shape with the keyboard on one of the long sides and the strings running almost parallel to the long direction of the instrument. These virginals were made in six different sizes depending on their pitch, the larger instruments being six Flemish feet (170 cm) long and the smallest two and a half Flemish feet (71 cm). The larger of these different sizes of virginal were made in two distinct types called spinetten and muselars. The spinetten had their keyboard placed towards the left-hand side of the instrument and were rather bright in sound since the strings were plucked near their ends. But the muselars, with their keyboard placed to the right (see fig.1), had a round, ‘plummy’ sound since the strings were plucked nearer to their middle. The most elaborate virginals combined two instruments, one at octave and one at unison pitch; when the octave instrument was positioned on top of the larger, the actions would couple and play together from the keyboard of the large virginal. The octave instrument was, however, normally stored in an empty space beside the keyboard of the unison virginal from which it was slid for playing; for this reason it was called ‘the mother with the child’.
Unlike the virginals, which had only one set of strings each, Ruckers harpsichords had two sets, one an octave above the other. The single-manual harpsichord had a register of jacks for each set of strings. The double-manual harpsichords were unlike such instruments found today in that the two keyboards were not aligned but were positioned to sound a 4th apart. The manuals were completely uncoupled and each activated its own two rows of jacks, thus giving four rows of jacks altogether. When one manual was being used the jacks of the other manual were disengaged. Thus a Ruckers double-manual harpsichord served as two instruments in one, playable at either of two pitches a 4th apart. The Ruckers family also built compound instruments, combining a single- or double-manual harpsichord with a small virginal filling the space normally left outside the bentside of the harpsichord (for illustration see Harpsichord, §3(i) and Virginal).
The largest, 6' virginals, most of the single-manual harpsichords, and the upper manual of the normal double-manual harpsichords must all have sounded within about a semitone flat of modern pitch. This pitch will subsequently be referred to as ‘reference pitch’. The smaller sizes of virginal were made at pitches which sounded a tone, a 4th, a 5th, an octave and a 9th above reference. The lower manual of a normal double-manual harpsichord sounded at a pitch a 4th below reference, and at least one surviving double-manual harpsichord by (1) Hans Ruckers (1612; now at Fenton House, London) was made with one manual sounding a 5th below reference pitch. The normal compass of the Ruckers keyboard is from C/E (short octave) to c''', except that the quart virginal and the special double-manual harpsichord sounding a quint below reference both had C/E to d''' compasses. In addition, special extended-compass instruments were sometimes made, apparently for export outside Flanders. Single-manual instruments including those by (2) Joannes Ruckers (1637; now the Russell Collection, University of Edinburgh, and 1639; now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London) and one by (3) Andreas Ruckers (i) (1636; collection of M. Thomas, London) with chromatic basses to C were probably made for export to England. Extended-compass double harpsichords with a chromatic lower-manual keyboard G' to c''' and an F to f''' chromatic upper manual were also made, and the pitch relation between the keyboards of these instruments is the reverse of that of the normal Ruckers double (i.e. with the lower manual at reference pitch and the upper manual pitched a 4th below). This type of instrument seems to have been made specially for customers in France (examples include an instrument of 1616 by (1) Hans; now in the collection of M. Nirouet, Paris; 1627 by (2) Joannes; private ownership, Switzerland; 1628 by (2) Joannes; now at Versailles Palace; and 1646 by (4) Andreas (ii); now in the Musée de la Musique, Paris). The lower-manual compass of these instruments fits the music of Chambonnières and Louis Couperin, and the upper manual duplicates early French organ pitch and compass (see fig.2).
Ruckers' practice was to write a number on many of the action parts and on the case of each instrument as it was being made. The single virginals were marked with the length of the instrument in Flemish feet (6, 5, 4½, 4), the ‘mother’ and ‘child’ virginals were marked ‘M’ and ‘k’ (‘Moeder’ and ‘kind’), and single- and double-manual harpsichords were marked ‘St’ (‘Staartstuk’; ‘tailpiece’). Underneath these marks the serial number was written, a separate serial being used for each type of instrument. The existence of these numbers has made it possible for some undated instruments to be assigned an approximate date and for the rate of production to be estimated. (3) Andreas Ruckers (i), for example, made about 35 to 40 instruments a year.
The importance of Ruckers instruments lies in their remarkable sound, which is the result of their extremely sophisticated design. The lengths, gauges and materials of the strings were chosen with great care. Both soundboard and bridges were made of good materials and were carefully and accurately tapered to give the right thickness and stiffness in each part of the range. Also, the area of radiating soundboard was contrived to give an even balance between the bass, tenor and treble parts of the compass. The resulting sound is rich and resonant without any part of the register dominating another.
The original decoration of Ruckers instruments was rather elaborate. Block-printed paper patterns (with motifs taken from Renaissance pattern books) were placed inside the key-well (above the keys) and above the soundboard around the inside of the case. These patterned papers were also sometimes used inside the lid in conjunction with a repeating wood-grained paper on which Latin mottoes were printed (see fig.1); or sometimes the insides of the lids were beautifully painted by contemporary artists such as Rubens, Jan Breughel and Van Balen. The outsides of the instruments were painted with an imitation of marble or sometimes of huge jewels held in place by an iron strapwork. The soundboards were embellished with tempera paintings of flowers, birds, scampi, insects, snails, fruit and the like. The date was also painted somewhere on the soundboard or wrest plank.
Decorative gilded roses placed in the soundboards incorporate the initials and trade mark of the builder, and are surrounded by a wreath or spray of flowers painted on the soundboard. All the roses of the Ruckers family represent an angel playing a harp, with the initials of the builder on either side of the angel. The exact posture of the angel and the layout and modelling of the rose varies from one member of the family to the other (see fig.3) and serves as one of the methods of determining the authorship of the instrument. The roses of (1) Hans Ruckers and the early type of rose used by (2) Joannes Ruckers are virtually identical, both having the initials hr; but the right wing of the angel of the former’s rose is clearly visible, whereas it is missed in the rose of the latter. After joining the Guild of St Luke (1611) (2) Joannes Ruckers gradually stopped using the hr rose and began to use an array of IR roses, different designs and sizes being used for virginals, single-manual and double-manual harpsichords. The roses of (3) Andreas Ruckers (i) and (4) Andreas Ruckers (ii) are very similar to each other, but differ in numerous subtle details. A number of instruments, signed simply andreas rvckers me fecit and made after the year 1636, bear the Andreas (ii) type of rose and may therefore have been made by the younger Andreas.
Ruckers instruments were justly famous in their own day, and their sound became an ideal during the 17th and 18th centuries in almost all of northern Europe. They were often altered and extended to suit later keyboard literature, sometimes by simple, even makeshift alterations and sometimes by an elaborate rebuilding process involving the replacement of all the action parts and the extension and redecoration of the case. This process was commonly applied to double-manual harpsichords, the new keyboards being aligned to allow simultaneous use of contrasting registers. In France the process was known as ravalement. By leaving the original soundboard almost unaltered, the beauty of the sound could be preserved. In late 17th- and in 18th-century Europe, Ruckers instruments were more highly valued than those of any other makers. Counterfeits were made with the decoration and appearance of genuine rebuilt instruments, and existing instruments of suitable kinds were modified, given a fake label and rose, and sold at an inflated price. Examples survive in the Musée de la Musique, Paris (inscribed Hans Ruckers and dated 1590; in fact by Goujon, 18th century), and at Ham House, Surrey (part of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, London; this instrument is inscribed Joannes Ruckers and dated 1634; in fact it is of English origin, c1725).
Ruckers instruments are important not only for their own beauty but also because of their historical position as models for the later schools of harpsichord building. By the middle of the 18th century the constructional methods of the indigenous schools of England, France, Germany, Flanders and the Scandinavian countries were securely based on the principles perfected by the Ruckers family. Soundboard design, action and stringing all reflect Ruckers practice, and the timbre is clearly reminiscent of Ruckers, even though characteristic also of the musical taste of the period and region.
There are now a number of well-restored Ruckers instruments, some in almost original condition, which can be heard in public concerts and on recordings. These instruments are extremely valuable as examples showing how they may once have sounded. However, restoration is not synonymous with preservation, as it nearly always involves loss as well as gain. The realization is thus growing that certain instruments should be left unrestored, in order that their extant original features may remain intact.
For further illustration see Transposing keyboard.
BoalchM
FétisB
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J.H. van der Meer: ‘Beiträge zum Cembalo-Bau der Familie Ruckers’, JbSIM 1971, 100–53
J.H. van der Meer: ‘More about Flemish Two-Manual Harpsichords’, Keyboard Instruments: Studies in Keyboard Organology, ed. E.M. Ripin (Edinburgh, 1971, 2/1977), 47–56
N. Meeùs: ‘Le diapason authentique: quelques réflexions à propos du clavecin transpositeur des Ruckers’, La facture de clavecin du XVe au XVIIIe siècle: Louvain-la-Neuve 1976, 79–87
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
S. Germann: ‘Monsieur Doublet and his confrères, II’, EMc, ix (1981), 192–207
J. Koster: ‘A Remarkably Early Flemish Transposing Harpsichord’, GSJ, xxxv (1982), 45–53
J. Lambrechts-Douillez and M.-J. Bosschaerts-Eykens [and others]: Mededelingen van het Ruckers-Genootschap (Antwerp, 1982–)
A. and P. Mactaggart: ‘A Royal Ruckers: Decorative and Documentary History’, Organ Yearbook, xiv (1983), 78–96
R. Shann: ‘Flemish Transposing Harpsichords’, GSJ, xxxvii (1984), 62–71
P. and A. Mactaggart: ‘The Colour of Ruckers Lid Papers’, GSJ, xxxviii (1985), 106–11
J. Shortridge: ‘Ruckers “Transposing” Double Harpsichords’, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.40 (1985), 23 only
G.G. O’Brien: Ruckers: a Harpsichord and Virginal Building Tradition (Cambridge, 1990) [incl. bibliography]
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Kielinstrumente aus der Werkstatt Ruckers: Halle 1996 [articles by F. Gétreau, J. Koster, J. Lambrechts-Douillez, L. Libin, J.H. van der Meer, N. Meeùs, S. Pollens, G.G. O’Brien and others]
J. Lambrechts-Douillez, ed.: Hans Ruckers (d 1598): Stichter van een klavecimbelatelier van wereldformaat in Antwerpen (Peer, 1998) [articles by F. Gétreau, J. Koster, L. Libin, J.H. van der Meer and others]