Alcock & McGee

This Canberra-built instrument is based on the original built in 1552 by Marco Jadra and now in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.

The virginal shares the same plucking action as the harpsichord, but with a single set of strings running parallel to the keyboard.

This instrument has a range of 50 notes with short octave, GG/BB–c´´´. The short octave replaces three of the expected notes in the extreme bass with more useful notes sounding a third lower: The apparent BB key plays GG; the C♯ plays AA; and the E♭ plays BB. The first true chromatic note is F♯.

The thin case walls of the virginal are made from Queensland kauri, chosen for its similarity to the Italian cypress of the original. The Sitka spruce soundboard has a geometric vellum rose which was copied from a chitarrone in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Virginals such as this example are really meant to be enclosed in an outer case for protection, often elaborately decorated.

Gillian Alcock (1950–2018) was an instrument maker who built several early keyboard instruments in partnership with Terry McGee, before specializing in hammered dulcimers in the early 1980s. Both were active in the early years of the Australian Association of Musical Instrument Makers, when there were regular exhibitions held at the School of Music.

The virginal was kindly donated to the Keyboard Institute by Jeanette and Warwick Richmond in June 2008.