Alfred James Hipkins

[2] In 1891 he gave the Cantor lectures on Musical instruments, their construction and capabilities to the Royal Society of Arts.

[5] His chief energies were devoted to a study of the science of music and of the history and quality of keyboard instruments.

He wrote profusely on musical history, contributing 134 articles to 'Grove's Dictionary',[6] and several to the ninth edition of the 'Encyclopædia Britannica'.

[2] His major publications were 'Musical Instruments, Historic, Rare, and Unique' (1881), a standard work illustrated in colour by William Gibb;[1][7] and 'Description and history of the pianoforte and of the older keyboard stringed instruments' (1896).Hipkins married in October 1850 and the marriage produced a son John, who became a noted wood-engraver, and a daughter Edith, who became a highly successful portrait painter.

Hipkins's performances on harpsichord and clavichord, notably of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations and Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, exerted a strong influence on Arnold Dolmetsch and other early musicians[9] and were highly praised by George Bernard Shaw[10] This article on a musicologist is a stub.