ECUADORIAN CLAVICHORDS

See also Doubtful and non-Latin-American clavichords

E.1. ECUADOR: Quito, Pedro Traversari Collection, no. 4137

Photo: Richard Rephann

Type 3
Museo de la Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana ‘Benjamin Carrión’, Matriz, Quito: Colleción de Instrumentos Musicales ‘Pedro Pablo Traversari’.
Sources of information: Richard Rephann: Catalogue of the Pedro Traversari Collection, Quito, 1978, includes small black & white photos; also personal communication.
Anon., 17C(?).
C/E–a². Multiple fretted, beginning at note e. Scale c²=177 mm.
Compartments to left and right of keys. Light-coloured naturals, dark sharps.
Keylever cranking (see detail below) is reminiscent of clavichord No. 2 in the Leipzig museum (see Hubert Henkel, Clavichorde, Leipzig, VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1981) .
No. of bridges: 2, straight and perpendicular to long sides. No. of hold-downs: 2.
Secondary soundboard under the keylevers.
Dimensions: 907 × 335 × 93 mm. Undecorated. Coffered lid.

Keylevers of clavichord E.1

 

E.2. ECUADOR (?): present whereabouts unknown

Photo: Richard Rephann

Type 3
Formerly in Quito, Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana.
Source of information: Richard Rephann, personal communication.
Anon., perhaps 18C.
C/E–c³. Probably multiple fretted.
Compartments to left and right of keys. Light-coloured naturals, dark sharps.
Straight keylevers.
No. of bridges: 2, straight and perpendicular to long sides. No. of hold-downs: 2, plus two supplementary hold-downs apparently fixed to the soundboard with screws (presumably non-original).
Undecorated. Two-part lid with closing board attached. No front-board, and probably never was one. In style, this instrument is somewhat similar to the two Peruvian ones (P.1 and P.2). It seems rather wide for its length.
The only evidence of this instrument is this photo in the possession of Richard Rephann, probably dating from c. 1974, which is stamped on the back ‘Casa de la Cultura Ecuatorian.’ and shows this instrument and no. E.1. Presumably this instrument was at one time in the Traversari Collection, but it was not there when Rephann catalogued the collection 1974–78.