Alfred James Hipkins (17 June 1826 – 3 June 1903) was an English musician, musicologist and musical antiquary. In 1840, at the age of 14, Hipkins became an apprentice piano tuner in the pianoforte factory of

John Broadwood & Sons John Broadwood & Sons is an English piano manufacturer, founded in 1728 by Burkat Shudi and continued after his death in 1773 by John Broadwood. Early history John Broadwood (1732–1812), a Scottish joiner and cabinetmaker, came to London ...

Ltd. In 1846, he was charged with training all of Broadwood's tuners in

equal temperament An equal temperament is a musical temperament or tuning system, which approximates just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into equal steps. This means the ratio of the frequencies of any adjacent pair of notes is the same, wh ...

, as many were still using the older

meantone Meantone temperament is a musical temperament, that is a tuning system, obtained by narrowing the fifths so that their ratio is slightly less than 3:2 (making them ''narrower'' than a perfect fifth), in order to push the thirds closer to pure. Me ...

system. In 1849, he was named to the status of "senior workman," and he remained an employee of this company for the rest of his life. Despite having very limited musical training on the pianoforte and the organ, he gained a reputation for his performances of Chopin's music. He wrote many reviews of books on musical ethnology or musical antiquity for ''The Athenæum'' and ''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainze ...

''. In 1891 he gave the Cantor lectures on ''Musical instruments, their construction and capabilities'' to the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

Hipkins married in October 1850 and the marriage produced a son John, who became a noted wood-engraver, and a daughter

Edith Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English words ēad, meaning 'riches or blessed', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian languages and Dutch. Its French form is Édith. Contractions and vari ...

, who became a highly successful portrait painter. Hipkins,

Carl Engel Carl Engel (July 21, 1883 – May 6, 1944) was a France, French-born United States, American pianist, composer, musicologist and publisher from Paris. He was also president of G. Schirmer, Inc., a writer on music for The Musical Quarterly, a ...

and Thomas Taphouse created three of the outstanding antiquarian collections of musical instruments in the U.K. According to his will, the

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

received his collection of tuning forks and the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

received his collection of musical instruments.

Selected works

* * * reprinted in 1975 with an introduction by Edwin M. Ripin * reprinted in

References

External links

* 1826 births 1903 deaths British classical organists British male organists British harpsichordists British performers of early music British keyboardists British musicologists Piano tuners 19th-century classical musicians 19th-century British male musicians Male classical organists 19th-century organists 19th-century musicologists {{Musicologist-stub