Harpsichord News

March 16-17, Charlottesville, Virginia

The main site of this year's Southeastern Historical
Keyboard Society Conclave was the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Appropriately, then, many presentations were centered around the musical and
intellectual life of our third President, Thomas Jefferson.

The first session, Thursday, March 15, opened with James
Holyer's presentation of "A Survey of the Literature on Thomas
Jefferson and Music" in the University of Virginia's Alderman
Li-brary. Representing a new generation of scholars, Holyer is pursuing a
master's degree in sacred music at Southern Methodist University where he
studies organ with Larry Palmer. He provided us with a complete bibliography of
publications on Jefferson and music, and guided us through a review of this literature,
describing the extent to which individual biographers discussed
Jefferson's musical life.

Following this session, University of Virginia librarians
Jane Penner and Heather Moore showed items from the Special Collections
Department. The ninth edition of the Bay Psalm Book, published in the
seventeenth century, was of particular interest since it represents the
"earliest printed music in Colonial America." We were also able to
view portions of the Jefferson family's Monticello Music Collection.
Unfortunately, the music composed by Thomas Jefferson has been lost. On
Thursday evening, the conferees enjoyed a private tour of Monticello.

The Friday morning sessions on March 16 opened with a
presentation by Karen Hite Jacob--"Thomas Jefferson: Finding
Inspiration Beyond Our Borders." In her paper and accompanying handout,
Dr. Jacob focused upon Jefferson's lifelong interest in learning. While
he always took an active part in his family's and friends'
education, Jefferson became interested in public education only later in his
life.

It was great to see harpsichordist and musicologist David
Chung again; we missed him at the SEHKS Conclave 2000 in Greensboro, North
Carolina. Having completed his doctoral work at Cambridge University a couple
of years ago, David returned home to Hong Kong where he is currently assistant
professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University. "The Development of French
Overtures in French Keyboard Music c. 1670-1730" was the topic of
his paper. Composers such as d'Anglebert made transcriptions for
harpsichord of Lully's overtures, including the "Ouverture
d'Isis" and the "Ouverture de Cadmus." An extensive
handout showed the progression of d'Anglebert's various methods of
arranging a Lully overture. Chung also discussed post-Lully (original)
overtures for harpsichord by Dieupart, Siret, Dandrieu and François
Couperin. In summary, he noted several important elements in the French
overtures for keyboard: the union of French ornamentation and Italian harmonic
progressions and counterpoint; the art of accompaniment from a figured bass;
and composers' incorporation of virtuosic writing.

Joyce Lindorff, associate professor of keyboard studies at
Temple University, presented a lecture-recital: "Perfect Vibrations:
Pasquali's 'Art of Fingering' and the New Keyboard Aesthetic."
Pasquali's compact treatise (Edinburgh, 1758), published after the
composer's death in 1740, dealt with fingering, ornamentation, technique
and tuning; it reflected the newly emerging keyboard aesthetic--namely,
the preference for legato performance.

The ideas of Domenico Alberti (1710-1746), one of the
first composers of keyboard music to adopt the new Classical texture, impressed
Pasquali. He agreed that, in order to produce a full tone on the harpsichord,
one must not release the key too soon; further, the harpsichordist must play
with legato fingering. While C. P. E. Bach still re-ferred to the detached
style as the usual one, Pasquali insisted that it should be used rarely. Dr.
Lindorff rounded out her lecture-recital with selected passages from Handel's
Concerto, op. 4, no. 1, and Alberti's Sonata I; she played each example
twice, first in a more detached style--secondly, in the newer legato
style. Most of the audience concurred with Pasquali that the harpsichord gains
power of sound when played with more legato.

Friday morning's second session started with Sarah
Mahler Hughes (associate professor of music at Ripon College in Ripon,
Wisconsin) who presented a paper on "Two 18th-Century Keyboard Settings
of 'Adeste Fideles' from London and Philadelphia." After
tracing the origin of the tune "Adeste Fideles," which turned up in
Portugal, France, and later in London, Dr. Hughes contrasted two settings by
Veronika Dussek Cianchettini (1769-1833) and Rayner Taylor
(1747-1825). The former, a Bohemian pianist/composer, was the younger
sister of well-known pianist/composer Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812).
Both Dusseks moved to London where they taught and performed; Veronika
eventually married the publisher Cianchettini. Rayner Taylor (1747-1825)
emigrated from London to America in 1793. Taking the post of organist and music
director at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, he was also a
composer and teacher and one of the founders of The Musical Fund Society. Dr.
Hughes found both Cianchettini and Taylor's settings of "Adeste
Fideles" "pleasing and diverting," but noted important
differences between them. While Cian-chettini's version, composed for a
pianoforte with an expanded range, is more technically demanding than Taylor's,
the latter's setting was meant to be played in church, on the organ with
a limited compass.

Once again, Dr. Larry Palmer (Southern Methodist University)
amused, entertained and educated his audience by taking a fresh new ap-proach
to historical material. Assuming the role of French organist and composer
Balbastre (1727-1799), he sent us an E-mail message in the form of a
memoir --"Claude-Benigne Balbastre: From Dijon to Citoyen."  In keeping with
the Jeffersonian theme of this SEHKS Conclave, Palmer à la Balbastre
recounted his meeting Jefferson's wife Martha and daughters Patsy and
Polly during their stay in Paris. In fact, Balbastre owes his fame not only to
Charles Burney, who also met him in Paris, but largely to Polly Jefferson, an
accomplished harpsichord pupil. And Mrs. Jefferson, also a devotée of
the harpsichord, copied out the composer's pieces "La Canonade" and "War March," as well as Rameau's "Les Sauvages." Dr. Palmer informed us that these pieces by
Balbastre can be seen on microfilm at the University of Virginia Library.

Balbastre reminisced about the turbulent cultural, political
and musical changes he witnessed in the late eighteenth century, including the
waning and subsequent eclipse of the clavecin by the new pianoforte. The
composer endured the worst insult--seeing his Pascal Taskin
clavecin's innards re-moved and replaced by a pianoforte mechanism! Dr.
Palmer's lecture was enhanced by tape recordings of his performance of
several of Balbastre's clavecin pieces.

On Friday afternoon the conferees enjoyed an excursion to the
Hebron Lutheran Church in Madison, Virginia, for more presentations and
concerts. Judy Ann Fray, docent of the historic church, told us about the
historical background of the building and the organ. The original organ, made
by David Tannenberg in Lititz, Pennsylvania, was hauled by ox cart to Madison
and installed in 1802; it has been in use ever since. In 1970, when the organ
was refurbished by George Taylor and Norman Ryan, all parts were documented.

MANUAL (54 notes) (Stop names perhaps not original.)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Principal
dulci (#1-12 quintadena                                                                basses)

                  8'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Gedackt
(All stopped wood)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Octave
(All open metal)

                  4'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Flute
(All open wood)

                  22⁄3'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>     Quinte (All open metal)

                  2'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>            Octave
(All open metal)

                  13⁄5'
style='mso-tab-count:1'>     Terzian (breaking to
31⁄5' at middle c)

                                    Mixture
II (#1-24: 19-22; #25-54: 8-12)

We were then treated to a recital on the Tannenberg organ by
Joseph Butler (associate professor and associate dean of the College of Fine
Arts, Texas Christian University). His program included works by Froberger,
Pelham, Handel, J. S. Bach, Böhm, Brahms and Muffat.

Andrew Willis, immediate past president and current
secretary of SEHKS, then introduced George Lucktenberg, founder of SEHKS almost
21 years ago. In his address, entitled "The Southeastern Historical
Keyboard Society--An Idea Whose Time Had Come," he looked back over
his career as a harpsichordist and founder of SEHKS and pondered the future of
our organization. "We're at another turning point," stated
Lucktenberg. Now that the specialty of early music has established itself, he
cautioned against undermining its progress with an "earlier than
Thou" attitude. He shared his many thoughts about how SEHKS can continue
to be a significant force in the musical world. SEHKS President Peter Dewitt
then presented an award to Dr. Lucktenberg.

After the group was treated to a wonderful catered buffet in
the Hebron Lutheran Church Parish Hall, Peter Dewitt presented awards to Karyl
Louwenaar Lueck and Karen Hite Jacob, past presidents, for their many years of
significant contributions to the organization. The evening's concert of
German Vespers was provided by Zephyrus, a Charlottesville-based vocal ensemble
directed by Dr. Paul Walker, professor of organ and harpsichord at the
University of Virginia. Joined by Brad Lehman at the Tannenberg organ, Jennifer
Myer and Eva Lundell, violins, and Sarah Glosson, viola da gamba, Zephyrus
performed music by Böhm, Schütz, Buxtehude, Scheidt, and Praetorius.

The Saturday morning session opened with John Watson,
conservator of instruments at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, whose paper
ad-dressed "America's Only Surviving Harpsichord and Other Glimpses
of Jefferson's Keyboard Milieu." Although Jefferson was neither a
harpsichordist nor a composer, he sought the best available keyboard instruments
for his wife and two daughters throughout his life.

Vera Kochanowsky and Thomas MacCracken, duo harpsichordists
and forte-pianists from Washington, D.C., then performed Mozart's only
sonata for two fortepianos, K. 448 in D Major. MacCracken played an instrument
made by John Lyon in 1986, modeled on a Walther; and Steve Dibbern made
available a fortepiano he constructed from a Zuckerman kit (Stein replica) for
Kochanowsky.

The next presentation, "Once Again: Expressive Devices
on Eighteenth-Century Harpsichords," was given by Edward Kottick,
musicologist and retired professor from the University of Iowa. He challenged
the widely-held opinion that the devices added to harpsichords by late
eighteenth-century French and English builders, in order to accommodate the
growing desire for dynamic gradations, were "accretions or
encrustations." Builders created devices such as machine stops, swells
and the peau de buffle, not to compete with fortepiano makers, but rather to
meet the needs of a changing aestshetic. 
Perhaps it is only the twentieth-century
viewpoint--"anti-pedal and anti-dy-namic," even with regards
to late eighteenth-century keyboard music--which misunderstands the raison
d'etre of these "improvements."

Judith Conrad, an active keyboard performer and technician
from Fall River, Massachusetts, evoked "Tranquility at Home" in the
late eighteenth century with "A Bit of Musick upon the Fretted
Clavichord." She performed music by Handel, Balbastre, Alexander
Reinagle, John Snow and William Boyce on a clavichord made by Steve Barrell
(Amsterdam, 1990).

Stan Pelkey, an assistant professor of music at Gordon
College in Wenham, Massachusetts, presented a paper on "Approaches to
Sonata Procedures in British Keyboard Music from 1760-1820." He
focused mainly upon the contributions of Samuel Wesley and Charles Wesley.

Conferees were able to rotate among three
"No-fear" instrument repair workshops Saturday afternoon: Edward
Kottick, changing a plectrum; Ted Robertson, changing a string; Ed Swenson,
leathering a hammer. At the annual Builder's Instrument Showcase,
conferees had a final opportunity to view and hear instruments exhibited by
Steve Dibbern, Ted Robertson, Ed Swenson, Steven Barrell, Richard Abel, and
Willard Martin. Joyce Lindorff's demonstrations were all the more
effective because she selected repertoire appropriate for each instrument.

The afternoon session concluded with a performance of Madame
Brillon's "Trio en Ut Mineur a Trois Clavecins" (1780) by
Virginia Pleasants, David Chung and Joyce Lindorff. Intended for one English
fortepiano, one German fortepiano and one harpsichord, Brillon's Trio was
played in 2001 on a fortepiano made by Steve Dibbern from a Zuckerman kit, a
harpsichord built by Willard Martin, and an 1855 Erard grand pianoforte restored
by Ed Swenson.

The beautiful Dome Room of the Rotunda at the University of
Virginia was the site of the Conclave's final event. This building, like
many others on the campus, was designed by Thomas Jefferson. Harpsichordist
Charlotte Mattax Moersch played an unmeasured prelude by Jean-Henry
d'Anglebert and three pieces by Lully arranged by d'Anglebert.
Karyl Louwenaar Lueck performed harpsichord pieces by An-toine Forqueray, four
of which were arranged by his son Jean-Baptiste Forqueray. Andrew Willis, fortepianist,
played works by J.G. Albrechtsberger, C.P.E. Bach and Georg Benda. After
enjoying J.S. Bach's Concerto in C Major for Two Harpsichords (BWV 1061),
played by Mattax and Louwenaar, the audience was treated to a hilarious
performance of "Das Dreyblatt" by Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, a
grandson of J.S. Bach. All six hands negotiated, or attempted to negotiate,
their way around a single fortepiano!

The SEHKS Conclave 2001 was successful in all respects, from
excellent presentations and recitals to terrific hospitality; the experience
was enhanced by the rich historical setting of the Charlottesville, Virginia
area. Thanks to Vicki Dibbern for making all the local arrangements, to builder
liaison Steve Dibbern, to the program committee (Ardyth Lohuis, Ed Kottick and
Andrew Willis), to Karen Hite Jacob for the program book, and to Dr. Paul
Walker for making arrangements at the University of Virginia.

Dana Ragsdale is professor of harpsichord and piano and
director of Southern Arts Pro Musica at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Having played her New York debut harpsichord recital in 1977 in Weil Recital
Hall, she has also been a guest artist on the Winterfest Concerts and with the
Fiati Chamber Players in New York City. A participant in the Performing Arts
Touring Program, Dr. Ragsdale has also made numerous appearances at Piccolo
Spoleto USA in Charleston, South Carolina. Promenade, the Baroque ensemble in
which she performs, can be heard on a compact disc, "Music from the Court
of Versailles."

Larry Palmer is a contributing editor of THE DIAPASON.

Celebrating the Couperin

Jane Clark and Derek Connon: The mirror of human life: Reflections on François Couperin's Pièces de Clavecin. King's Music, 2002.

School of Politesse: François Couperin Pièces de Clavecin (Ordre 1, pieces 1-6; Ordres 6, 13, 19, and 27 complete, played by Jane Clark, harpsichordist). Janiculum compact disc (JAN D206). Book and recording available in the US ($16.99 each, plus postage) from Rhinebeck Records <rhinebeckrecords@compu serve.com>.

Complete Seventeenth-Century French Unmeasured Preludes, played by Nannette G. Lunde, harpsichordist. Sparrow CD 101 (two compact discs issued in 2002) available from Skyline Publications <www.skylinestudio.com&gt;.

Armand-Louis Couperin: Pièces de Clavecin played by Brigitte Haudebourg. Arcobaleno compact disc AAOC-94352 (issued in 1999) <www.kuysleis.com&gt;.

Indispensable! One word characterizes this new book by Jane Clark and Derek Connon.

The largest part of the paperbound volume (pages 47-109) consists of a catalogue of movements making up the four books of François Couperin's Pièces de clavecin. From ordre to magnificent ordre, Jane Clark shares the most recent discoveries about the composer's often-elusive titles. In her introductory essay "Aspects of the social and cultural background" Clark writes of Couperin's connections to the Bourbon-Condé family, in particular to the music-loving Mlle de Charlolais (later the Duchesse Du Maine), facilitator, at the châteaux of Châtenay and Sceaux, of aristocratic theatrical entertainments, many of which have direct bearing on Couperin's music.

"Aspects of the literary scene" is Derek Connon's compendium concerning the increasingly-conservative French court during Couperin's time, the transvestite Abbé de Choisy, satiric offerings by the imported Italian theatrical troupes and their contrast to the style of the French Theatre, vaudeville, songwriters, the Fair theatres, and the Calotins. Both Clark and Connon note that Couperin had wide-ranging, non-highbrow literary tastes, and a particular interest in uniting Italian and French influences in his music.

In her choice of repertoire for the book's separate-but-complementary compact disc, Jane Clark "attempts to illustrate Couperin's theatrical sense" as it developed through the successive volumes of his Pièces de clavecin. In this traversal she succeeds elegantly, abetted by the properly-French timbres of her Feldberg Whale harpsichord after Jean Goujon.

Nannette G. Lunde's two-disc set comprising all the known 17th-century French unmeasured preludes for harpsichord is also a distinguished addition to the harpsichord discography. Beginning with sixteen "white-note" preludes of Louis Couperin, she continues with the multiple pieces in this style by Nicolas Lebègue, Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Jean Henry d'Anglebert, Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Gaspard Le Roux, and unique examples from the pens of Marchand, Rameau, Siret, and Michel (?) Forqueray. Twenty-nine anonymous preludes from widely-dispersed manuscripts complete this comprehensive project.

Lunde plays with style, conviction, and, above all, musicality in this often problem-plagued repertoire. Her solutions for organizing the improvisatory works are sensible, her artistry subtle, and the sounds from her 1988 Willard Martin harpsichord (after a Blanchet instrument of 1720), appropriate. Tuning in 1/4-comma meantone temperament and her choice of a low "French opera" pitch (A=392) allow these works to sound both pungent and dark-hued.

A suggestion to listeners: approach these discs as you would a large selection of appetizers from a gourmet menu! Too many at one time could lead to aural distress. The preludes were intended to preface dance movements or to test tunings. Use them as introductions to other, more rhythmically-structured works; savor the preludes one or two at a time, thus avoiding an oversdose.

Harpsichordist Brigitte Haudebourg achieved a first prize at the Paris Conservatoire in 1963 (studying with Marcelle Delacour and Robert Veyron-Lacroix). Since then she has pursued a successful career as soloist, continues as artistic director of an international summer festival of baroque art and music in Tarentaise, and has recorded at least fifty compact discs! She gives annual master classes at American universities in Laramie and Houston.

Haudebourg's playing of the (nearly) complete harpsichord works of Armand-Louis Couperin gives much pleasure. (The only solo works omitted from this disc are four pieces comprising "Les Nations"—a somewhat tongue-in-cheek glorification of French music in which the composer saved the best representation for his own country, following less-flattering musical evocations of the English, Italians, and Germans.)

Gems in this collection include the virtuosic Les Cacqueteuses (fowl humor), l'Arlequine (a piece that stands up well in comparison to the work of the same name by Armand-Louis' predecessor François), and the wrenching l'Affligée (with its particularly poignant harmonies in the pathetic key of B-flat minor).

An "edition" by Haudebourg of these pieces for the French publisher Zurfluh consists of the original 1751 publication in facsimile, with slightly more than a page of commentary (in French) containing biographical information plus a few sentences about some of the people referred to in the titles. This same information, complete with English translation, may be found in the notes to the compact disc.

The harpsichord music of Armand-Louis Couperin presents a particularly felicitous choice for playing from facsimile, since most of the pieces utilize the familiar treble and bass clefs of present-day usage. Only three works detour into the alto (C) clef for a few measures (Allemande, Arlequine, and Affligée). For many years I have played from a facsimile issued in Basel, Switzerland by Mark Meadow (under the imprint Musica Musica). Like the readily available and clear facsimile edition published by Broude Brothers Limited in their Performers' Facsimile series (PF41; $17.50), Meadow based his reprint on an original in the Library of Congress, uniquely identifiable by the Couperin signature scrawled at the lower right of the first page of La Victoire, the opening piece in the volume.

To learn more about Mme Victoire, to whom A-L Couperin dedicated his Pièces de clavecin, consult the indispensable book by Clark and Connon! Thus we come full circle in this celebration of France's major musical dynasty.

Send news items or comments about Harpsichord News to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275        ([email protected]).

Books about the phenomenon known as the 20th-century harpsichord revival continue to appear. Among recent publications, none is so engrossing as Violet: The Life and Loves of Violet Gordon Woodhouse, written by her great-niece Jessica Douglas-Home (The Harvil Press, 84 Thornhill Road, London N1 1RD; £20). The geneological connection is especially important in this instance, for the author has had full access to unpublished letters and family diaries, enabling her to give full exposure both to the public persona and the unconventional private life of the English harpsichordist and clavichord player.

Mrs. Gordon Gordon Woodhouse (Violet and her husband officially changed their name to become an unhyphenated double one) was placed by author Osbert Sitwell in that company of "human genius who form so rare a race." Critic and composer Kaikhosru Sorabji wrote that Violet's technique and musicianship "are not surpassed by any English-speaking musician whose medium of expression is a keyboard instrument." Various editions of Grove's Dictionary assign her the honor of being the first to record the harpsichord (in July 1920) and the first to play a radio broadcast on the instrument (March 1924).

Drawn to the harpsichord through the influence of Arnold Dolmetsch, she attracted to her musical salon such figures as the artists Picasso and Rodin; the impressario Diaghilev; authors Law-rence of Arabia, Wilfred Owen, Ezra Pound, Bernard Shaw, and the three Sitwells--Osbert, Sacheverall, and Edith; and eminent composers Bartok, Delius (who, in 1919, composed his Dance for her), Vaughan Williams, and Ethel Smyth (one of Violet's passionate admirers).

Passion constituted a large part of Violet's intriguing story!  Although she married Gordon Woodhouse, they agreed that the marriage would remain unconsummated, and Violet's friend Adelina Ganz even accompanied the bridal pair on their honeymoon. Four years into the marriage, Violet's lover Bill Barrington joined the household. Subsequently the ménage à trois became a ménage à cinq when Denis Tollemache and Maxwell Labouchère, in love with Violet, also took up lodgings chez Woodhouse.

In addition to this tangled web of male companionship there was a continuing saga of Violet's female friends Christabel Marshal, Radclyffe Hall (who dedicated a book of Lesbian erotic poetry to Violet), Ethel Smyth, and of Dame Ethel's friends Virginia Woolf and the Princesse de Polignac. Scandal was never far-distant from the Gordon Woodhouses, but the most titilating event of all was the murder of Gordon's two maiden aunts by their longime butler, an event that saved the Woodhouse family fortune for Gordon and allowed him to maintain Violet in the extravagent life to which she had become accustomed.

It was this pampered existence which kept her, for much of her life, away from a professional career and the recording studios. Aristocratic women of means did not play concerts for money! But when she did give concerts, Mrs. Woodhouse appeared not only as a soloist, but also with such leading musicians as Sarasate, Casals, and Lionel Tertis. Receiving glowing reviews which were the envy of many other players, she was the only possible rival to the great Landowska, and to many listeners Woodhouse was the finest harpsichordist of her generation. Jessica Douglas-Home's book presents a fascinating picture of English aristocratic and musical life from late in the Victorian era through the second World War. Well-written and beautifully produced, the book features line drawings at the beginning of each chapter, a bound-in purple bookmark-ribbon, and a generous portfolio of photographs. The author claims April 23, 1871 as Violet's birthdate (not 1872, as in Grove's), and she repeats the claim that Mrs. Woodhouse was the first artist to make harpsichord records.

But she probably wasn't. In Claude Mercier-Ythier's coffee-table extravaganza Les Clavecins (Expodif Éditions, Paris) he cites a 1914 cylinder recording on which French organist and harpsichordist Paul Brunold (1875-1948) played pieces by Couperin and Rameau on the 1732 Antoine Vater harpsichord--obviously an earlier entry for the "first to record" sweepstakes.  Mercier-Ythier's 1996 book (which I found remaindered in an Alsacian flea-market sale) carries a hefty price (750 French francs, or about $150), but it is a volume filled with elegant color plates and photographs of harpsichords and harpsichordists, historic and modern. The French text includes chapters on harpsichord history, the various national schools of harpsichord making, the harpsichord revival and modern instruments, decoration, and the recent trend toward more-or-less exact copies of historic instruments.

While coverage of French matters seems to be reasonably gounded in fact, other 20th-century items are treated with a somewhat cavalier attitude toward accuracy. In just five pages (121-126) I caught the following errors:  Landowska was born in 1879 (not 1877); her housekeeper Elsa Schunicke's name gained an extra syllable (and she was promoted to secretary); Dolmetsch did not work at Chickering's in Boston "from 1902 until 1909" (he was employed there from 1905 until 1911); Hubbard and Dowd started their harpsichord-making together in 1949 (not 1965), and Mercier-Ythier does not seem very certain about which one wrote the book Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making. Falla's puppet opera for the Princesse de Polignac (El Retablo de Maese Pedro) dates from 1923, not 1919; Poulenc composed his Concert Champêtre in 1927-28, not 1929; but why worry, it's only "modern stuff," right? Buy this one for the pictures and refer to my Harpsichord in America: A 20th-Century Revival for details!

I've not yet run across Brunold's "first" harpsichord recording, but for many years I have been a devotee of Violet Gordon Woodhouse's artistry, having searched out her too-few 78-rpm recordings. Now the complete recorded legacy is available on one compact disc: Violet Gordon Woodhouse (Great Virtuosi of the Harpsichord, Volume Three: Pearl GEMM CD 9242). To complete the picture of Mrs. Woodhouse gained from reading the new biography, listen to her supple playing of just about everything on this generous disc, but especially to her remarkable performance of Bach's "Italian" Concerto, made in 1927 (Woodhouse's first electric recordings). Here is music-making that confirms the high opinions of her contemporaries!

The other volumes of this series are also recommended.  Great Virtuosi of the Harpsichord, Volume One: Pearl GEMM CD 9124) contains 75 minutes of playing by Marguerite Delcour (1924), Anna Linde, Simone Plé; Landowska-students Alice Ehlers and Eta Harich-Schneider (disarmingly called "Harry-Schneider" in Mercier's book); Marguerite Roesgen-Champion, Julia Menz, Yella Pessl, Régina Patorni-Casadesus; and the best keyboard player from the Dolmetsch clan, son Rudolph, recorded between 1929 and 1933.

Great Virtuosi of the Harpsichord, Volume Two, features the first recordings by Ralph Kirkpatrick, made for Musicraft between 1926 and 1929.  Bach (Partita 5, Italian Concerto, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue), Purcell, the Virginalists, Couperin, Rameau, and two Scarlatti Sonatas are all performed on the artist's 1909 Dolmetsch harpsichord, an instrument which had originally belonged to the composer Busoni. The record producer, Teri Noel Towe, comments, "Some listeners confuse Ralph Kirkpatrick's tenacious and unswerving commitment to the composer's intentions with dullness and mistake his exquisite attention to detail and technical accuracy for dryness.  There is a special beauty and unique warmth to Kirkpatrick's sometimes austere but always direct, 'no nonsense' performances; his interpretations are always superbly conceived, often transcendent, and occasionally hypnotic."

Another recent release is A Recital of 20th-Century Harpsichord Music (Music and Arts CD-977), Kirkpatrick's unique recital at the University of California, Berkeley, given on 26 January 1961.  This unedited concert program features coughing, applause, and the world premiere performance of Henry Cowell's Set of Four, with its typical tone clusters and the specific octave trills for the left hand, so proudly pointed out later by Mr. Kirkpatrick in his introduction to the printed score.  I wish I could be more enthusiastic about this disc, but, unfortunately, I find the performances particularly lacking in suppleness and charm, especially in the decidely "non-grazioso" fast bangup of Delius' Dance, and the startling number of misreadings and wrong rhythms in the first movement of Persichetti's [First] Sonata for Harpsichord (at that time the only one there was). Kirkpatrick played only this one movement at his recital, and his reading sent me searching for my copy of the composer's manuscript to see if it really differed so markedly from the later printed version.  It didn't!

Other works chosen for this program included Lou Harrison's Six Sonatas, Ernst Lévy's Fantasie Symphonique, and works by Peter Mieg, Halsey Stevens, Douglas Allanbrook, and David Kraehenbuehl, whose Toccate per Cembalo, together with Mel Powell's exciting Recitative and Toccata Percossa, are the best-played selections.

What possessed the producers to include Igor Kipnis' fine review of Frances Bedford's Harpsichord and Clavichord Music of the 20th Century as a major part of the accompanying booklet defies logic!  There is no information about the music on the disc, but rather a general background of 20th-century composition for harpsichord and some very Kipnis-specific examples of how Bedford's catalog is useful.  With a full program of music unfamiliar to most players and (probably) all listeners, it surely would have been helpful to provide information about the specific composers and works found on this particular compact disc. All-in-all this release has historic and archival value, but it will not do much to garner general appreciation for 20th-century harpsichord music.

Fortunately that is not the case with Into the Millennium (Gasparo GSCD-331), a brilliant offering of attractive modern works, beautifully played by harpsichordist Elaine Funaro.  It was good to hear again the riveting Raga by Penka Kouneva, Dan Locklair's The Breakers Pound (especially its idiomatic and moving Prelude), and Tom Robin Harris' Jubilate Deo, a Ligeti-inspired two-and-one-half minute minimalist romp which truly is "joyful in the Lord."  (For those who follow the score of this work, Funaro chose not to play the composer's published new ending to this piece, preferring the original one!)  Other pieces on this appealing program from the Aliénor Harpsichord Composition Competitions include Edwin McLean's Sonata [I], Nicole Clément's Covalences Multiples, Stephen Yates' Suite, and two non-Aliénor works by Isaac Nagao and Peter B. Klausmeyer.  Two harpsichords (by William Dowd and Joop Klinkhamer) were lovingly recorded in a resonant acoustic (Duke University Chapel). Exemplary notes and a striking cover photo of  a flower-decorated Reinhard von Nagel harpsichord. Brava!

And the video? Landowska, a Documentary by Barbara Attie, Janet Goldwater, and Diane Pontius (AGP Productions, 16 Levering Circle, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004; 610/664-7316). The great Wanda's life is detailed in a montage of period photographs, films of 20th-century historical events, and interviews with those who knew her well (companion--secretary--student Denise Restout, Polish baritone Doda Conrad, record producer John Pfeiffer), those who heard her play (author William F. Buckley, Jr., French harpsichordist Magdeline Mangin), authors who have written about her (Alice Cash, Larry Palmer), and several other leading figures from the contemporary harpsichord scene (the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Laurence Libin, harpsichord-maker Willard Martin, and star performer Skip Sempé).

Especially vivid are the Restout sequences filmed at the home she shared with the harpsichordist, now the Landowska Center in Lakeville, CT; and the unique anecdotes from Conrad, who first met Landowska in 1912, and Pfeiffer, who recorded her final discs for RCA Victor.  Both of these men have since died.  Conrad's description of Landowska and Restout taking up lodging in a New York hotel best known as a brothel and his reference to Landowska's husband Henri Lew's propensity for visiting such institutions gives a certain added piquancy to the biography.

But, as always, it is Landowska herself who is the star of this feature!  Liberal segments from her only filmed appearance (for NBC Television's Wisdom Series, 1953) document for a new group of listeners and viewers the virtuosity of her music-making, as well as her public persona, a savvy mix of humility and self-awareness.  Responding to Jack Pfeiffer's questions, she recounts highlights of her early career (such as her memorable visit  to Tolstoy to play for him outside Moscow during a Russian winter), her delight in the natural beauty of her Connecticut home and its surroundings, and her love for the music of the past, her love of performing, and her love for her audience.

For all Landowska afficionados, this film is a reminder of her continuing place in our cultural history and in our hearts.  For those who have not yet had the opportunity to experience Landowska's artistry, it should be required viewing. Her role in the 20th-century revival of the harpsichord and early music is so central that every one of her successors owes a debt of gratitude to this pioneering figure.  Besides, her dramatic life-story, played out amidst the upheavals of 20th-century history, is more engrossing than fiction could ever be!

A Bach year roundup

Miscellaneous items received (and collected) by the
Harpsichord Editor during the Bach anniversary year 2000:

* Advertisement for the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque
Music (London, 5 June'14 July): "For 74 years Lufthansa has been
moving people around the world. Now we'd like to commemorate a fellow
German who's been doing it for slightly longer. Bach's music has
been moving people for over 250 years. . ." [found in the publication
Early Music from the Early Music Network UK].

* Harpsichordist Bradley Brookshire presented
Bach's Art of Fugue at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City on the last
day of 2000. Unusual was the simultaneous projection of a computer-generated,
digitally projected score scrolled across a large screen at the rear of the
stage, above the harpsichordist. Supertitles (!) explained the contrapuntal
devices utilized by the composer ("Theme in Tenor in Inversion,"
etc.). These addenda to Bach's plan were conceived and executed by
computer specialist James McElwaine.

* A spate of Goldbergs: in England, Gary Cooper played
Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (Mar 4) at Tudeley Church, Kent, site
of twelve magnificent stained glass windows by Marc Chagall, and home to an
extensive early music concert series. At Oberlin (Ohio) Lisa Goode Crawford
presented the set in Kulas Recital Hall, Oberlin College (Feb 8). Larry Palmer
played half of them (Aria, 1-7, 14, 21-22, 25, 27-30, Aria) in Marvin Chapel,
Tyler (Texas) on Sept 21, a repeat from his 31st annual faculty recital at Southern
Methodist University, Dallas (Sept 11): music BY and ABOUT J. S. Bach,
including Schumann's Fugue III on BACH (played on the harpsichord),
Hindemith's Sonate II for Organ, March of the Night Watchman (from
Bach's Memento) of Widor, Ricercar on the Name BACH by Waldemar Bloch,
and Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C, BWV 547.

* In Savannah (Georgia) the exact 250th anniversary of
Bach's death (July 28) was commemorated at the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of the Ascension with this program played by Gene Jarvis: Italian
Concerto, BWV 971, Partita in B-flat, BWV 825 (harpsichord); Toccata and Fugue
in D minor, BWV 565, Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582 (organ). Dr. Irene Feddern
played three organ chorales (By the Waters of Babylon, 653; Rejoice Now,
Beloved Christians, 734; O Lamb of God, 618), and Quoniam tu solus sanctus from
the Mass in B minor was sung by baritone Christopher Roper, with Pam Titus,
horn.

* LARGELY BACH, three concerts of music by Bach, his
friends and family, played on 18th-century period-style instruments, took place
in Beloit (Wisconsin) at Beloit College (Sept 27, Oct 23, and Nov 8) featuring
the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, the Roosevelt-Fuerst Duo (violin and
harpsichord) from Freiburg, Germany, and harpsichordist Max Yount, professor of
music and music department chair at Beloit.

* Hundreds of compact discs celebrated Bach during
2000: among the finest, the continuing series of Bach cantatas in stellar
performances on period instruments, led by Masaaki Suzuki, with his Bach
Collegium Japan (available on BIS Records). Suzuki's performances are
consistently among the most satisfying to be heard on recordings, for they are
both intensely involved and historically-informed, presented without extremes
or dogmatism, yet securely based on scholarly foundations.

* Richard Troeger continued his engrossing and
rewarding traversal of Bach's keyboard works played on the clavichord
(Lyrichord) with volume 2 (the Seven Toccatas, LEMS 8041) and volume 3
(Inventions, Sinfonias, Little Preludes, LEMS 8047).

* Memphis organist and choral conductor John Ayer has
recorded The Art of the Chorale, An Organ Anthology (Pro Organo CD 7064, CD
7119), on which his superb choirs sing chorale settings (many by Bach) followed
by organ settings from various composers (Buxtehude, Hanff and Walther to
Mendelssohn, Reger, Langlais, Manz, Near, and William Lloyd Webber). Bach organ
works included are Komm, heiliger Geist (BWV 651), Aus tiefer Not' (686),
Vom Himmel hoch (606), Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (659), and Vor deinen Thron
(668).

* If transcriptions are your delight, Shawn Leopard
and John Paul have recorded the complete Bach Keyboard Trio Sonatas played on
two Lautenwerke (gut-strung harpsichords) built by Anden Houben (Lyrichord LEMS
8045).

* From his archives, Baltimore harpsichordist Joseph
Stephens has issued two compact discs of recital performances: Live from the
Cathedral Joseph Stephens, harpsichordist, Plays Bach (AMR 19971003) and Music
for Two Harpsichords (Stephens with Lloyd Bowers), available from Dr. Stephens
[email: [email protected]].

* Do not neglect to read Christoph Wolff's
up-to-the-year, state-of-the-art view of the composer in THE 250th anniversary
biography Johann Sebastian Bach, The Learned Musician (Norton; ISBN
0-393-04825-X).

News items and features are welcome for these columns.
Please address them to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist
University, Dallas, TX 75275. Email:
HYPERLINK<mailto:[email protected]&gt; <[email protected]>.

A Bach makes news

All Charges Dropped Against Singer Who Threatened Murder

My eyes were drawn to a news item from the Associated Press: "charges against heavy-metal singer Sebastian Bach will be dismissed if he avoids trouble for a year. The former lead singer for Skid Row, whose given name is Sebastian Bierk, was charged with terroristic threats and drug possession when apprehended during a bar fracas." (Reported in the Santa Fe New Mexican for July 27).

Bierk's brush with the law recalls an event in the life of "our" Sebastian Bach (as reported by various biographers, most recently Christoph Wolff, in Bach: The Learned Musician (pages 83-84): young JSB appeared before the Arnstadt Consistory on August 4, 1705, to complain about abusive treatment from a certain bassoonist named Geyersbach, with whom the composer had an altercation and street brawl. Bach's cousin Barbara Catharina witnessed the event, and her eyewitness testimony helped clear Bach of responsibility for initiating the incident, but the governing body suggested that perhaps he should have refrained from calling Geyersbach "a greenhorn bassoonist!"

Publications

Entrancing Muse: A Documented Biography of Francis Poulenc

Carl B. Schmidt's 2001 biography of the French composer is both complete and felicitously written. A chronological life story and details about Poulenc's works fill fourteen chapters. Extensive appendices include an explanatory "dramatis personae;" a complete listing of Poulenc's concerts, tours, and broadcasts; his recordings; and a "work-in-progress" list of drawings and portraits of the 20th-century master. (Pendragon Press: Lives in Music Series, number three; ISBN 1-57647-026-1).

The author's retelling of events surrounding the creation of Concert Champêtre for Harpsichord and Orchestra is comprehensive. To flesh out the words, two photos of the composer with Wanda Landowska (from the legacy of Momo Aldrich) are included. There is, however, a misprint in the dating of the photos. Momo's notation on the back of the pictures reads "Eté [19]28"--the season and year of mutual work on the piece (not the published 1918, at which time the composer had not yet met the pioneering harpsichordist).

Contemporary Music Review: volume 19 part 4; The Contemporary Harpsichord: A New Revival

Contemporary Music Review: volume 20 part 1; The Contemporary Harpsichord: New Perspectives

Two extensive and important paper- bound volumes published by Harwood Academic Publishers, edited by Jane Chapman, these books offer much information on the last century's development of the "modern" harpsichord. "A New Revival" comprises writings about compositions recorded on an accompanying compact disc (not sent with my copy). Among the articles are Annelie de Man's "Contemporary Music in the Netherlands;" "Points of Departure: An Interview with Simon Emmerson" (Jane Chapman); "Thoughts Before and After a Sonata"  (George Mowat-Brown and Helena Brown); "Déploration--In Memoriam Morton Feldman" (Brian Cherney, and in conversation with vivienne spiteri [sic]); "One Man's Noise Is Another Man's Music: The Demise of Pitch in Kevin Malone's Noise Reduction" (Pamela Nash); "Karyl Goeyvaerts' Litanie V for Harpsichord and Tape or Several Harpsichords" (Christine Wauters, Mark Delaere and Jef Lysens); and "Instrumentum Magnum" (Caroline Wilkins). Two gaffes noted in Chapman's introduction: "Challice" for "Challis" [p. 3]; and Howard Schott's name listed as "Henry" in her end notes [p. 6].

"New Perspectives" focuses more on the instrument's recent history: articles include "Harpsichord--a Mother of Necessity?" (Jukka Tiensuu); "Major 20th Century Composers and the Harpsichord" (Frances Bedford); "L'Interprète--La Memoire du Compositeur [The Performer--the Essence of the Composer]" (Elisabeth Chojnacka); "The Electroacoustic Harpsichord" (Simon Emmerson); "Notes Inégales in Contemporary Music" (Jane Chapman); "Ligeti's Harpsichord" (Ove Nordwall); "Brian Ferneyhough's Etudes ranscendantales" (Roger Redgate) together with an interview (Jane Chapman); "A Discussion of Overture to Orpheus with the composer Louis Andriessen" (Pamela Nash); "Lavender and New Lace: Sylvia Marlowe and the 20th-Century Harpsichord Repertoire" (Larry Palmer); and "The Harpsichord Works of Iannis Xenakis" (Ian Pace).

Early Keyboard Journal

Published under the editorship of Carol Henry Bates, this joint venture of the three early keyboard societies (Southeastern, Midwestern, and Western), Volume 19 (2001) is a veritable feast of valuable information for harpsichordists. Included are extensive articles by John R. Watson ("Instrument Restoration and the Scholarship Imperative"); David Chung ("Keyboard Arrangements and the Development of the Overture in French Harpsichord Music, 1670-1730"); the first part of an exhaustive catalog by R. Dean Anderson ("Extant Harpsichords Built or Rebuilt in France During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries--An Overview and Annotated List"); and Cynthia Adams Hoover's report on the extremely successful exhibition PIANO 300 at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., together with brief descriptions of its European counterparts in Leipzig, Nuremberg, Berlin, and Prague.

Another musical B

Franz Benda (1709-1786), Bohemian composer at the court of Frederick the Great, composed a duet Sonata in E-Flat, opus 6, for Madame la Contesse de Hueseler. This pleasant work in two movements (Allegro Vivo; Presto Scherzando) for keyboard, four-hands has been edited by Norman D. Rodger, from an undated print in the Library of Congress. The few errata in the original have been corrected with care by the editor. If played on the harpsichord, several thick passages may need to be thinned a bit (such as repeated thirds low in the bass at measure 4 of the second movement, or the string of successive octaves beginning in measure 20), but, in general, the work sounds well for our instrument, and is a pleasant, charming addition to the repertoire. The score is available from Good Pennyworth Press, P. O. Box 1004, Oak Park, IL 60304 (312/491-0465).

Moonspender joins murders with pluck

Thanks to reader Michael Loris, we list some musical references in Jonathan Gash's eleventh Lovejoy murder mystery, Moonspender (Penguin Books, 1988). The story includes mention of a Tallis madrigal, the Tantum Ergo, Purcell, Franz Listz [sic], organ, positiv, harmonium, Bach, Boehm flute, and, most welcome of all, harpsichord, which first appears on page 17: ". . .though I like her because she's bonny and plays the harpsichord for Les Moran's music shop in the High Street."

The big moment occurs on page 157: "Not many two-manual harpsichords play during working hours, so the music led me to Dorothy, my favorite witch . . . 'John Dowland?' I guessed. . . 'A pavan from his Lachrymae, Lovejoy. . .' Her instrument was a kit assembly, based on an early seventeenth century Flemish maker called Ruckers.  New, it costs half the price of a new car."

Keep those harpsichord and organ references coming our way, please.

Features and news items are welcome for these columns. Please address them to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275;<[email protected]>.

More than the notes

"Beyond Notation" was the well-chosen title for a conference presented at the University of Michigan, September 26-29, 2002. Sponsored by The Westfield Center and the University, the focus was on Mozart--ornaments, improvisation, cadenzas, Eingänge [introductory flourishes and "lead-ins" to the written harmonies] as essential, even compulsory, additions in the composer's keyboard music.

Robert Levin, Malcolm Bilson, Seth Carlin, Penelope Crawford, Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, and Andrew Willis were the presenters. Through their lively and informative talks, as well as their expert playing, ideas for further study were encouraged. Small master classes and participation by the auditors, a welcome feature, afforded an opportunity to put these ideas into immediate practice.

May this conference be the first of many investigations "Beyond the Notes."

--Virginia Pleasants

Earliest known harpsichord recording

The first publication of Wanda Landowska's 1908 Berlin cylinder recordings forms the rarest track of the compact disc included with Martin Elste's new book Milestones of Bach Interpretation [Meilensteine der Bach-Interpretation 1750-2000], (Metzler/ Bärenreiter, 2000). The great 20th-century harpsichordist committed her art to sixteen cylinders at the request of Carl Stumpf, founder of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv. The present disc gives us the the contents of two cylinders in a performance of the first movement of Bach's Italian Concerto, BWV 971.

So here we have documentation of the performance which led Albert Schweitzer to write, "Any one who has heard Frau Wanda Landowska play the Italian Concerto on her wonderful Pleyel clavecin finds it hard to understand how it could ever again be played on a modern piano." (Schweitzer: J. S. Bach [English translation by Ernest Newman of the 1908 German edition], v. 2, p. 353).

I wish that I could report great aural delight at hearing this historic issue, but, alas, there is almost as much surface noise as there is music to be heard here. But these near-four-minutes of harpsichordery now take pride of place as the earliest known harpsichord recordings, predating Violet Gordon Woodhouse's 1920 acoustic recordings by twelve and one-half years.

Sixteen additional musical examples serve as aural illustrations for Elste's 421-page traversal of the changing styles in Bach interpretation during the centuries since the composer's death. Schweitzer's own magisterial organ performance of Bach's Fugue in G minor (BWV 578) recorded in London in 1936, contrasts most sharply with Carl Weinrich's stringently no-nonsense contemporaneous reading of the ubiquitous Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, recorded by Musicraft on the "Praetorius" Organ at Westminster Choir College, Princeton NJ. An absolutely dry and unforgiving acoustical enviroment makes the total accuracy of the playing seem even more astonishing!

Early music pioneer Arnold Dolmetsch's 1932 playing of the Prelude in B-flat minor (Well-Tempered Clavier, I) on the clavichord is splendid music making, complete with a wonderful improvised cadenza. Two contrasting performances of the Siciliano from the Sonata in C minor for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1017, showcase the art of Licco Amar and Günther Ramin (1928) and that of Alexander Schneider and Ralph Kirkpatrick (1948).

Among non-keyboard-specific examples, Alfred Cortot leads a Parisian school ensemble in a 1932 performance of the first movement of Brandenburg Concerto II (BWV 1047), treating us to an idiosyncratic lift before the entrance of the concertino, a musical view in sharp contrast to the third movement of the same concerto, led with unremitting staccato articulations, by Otto Klemperer in 1946. This conductor's work, too, is idiosyncratic (and unique) in that he employs soprano saxophone in place of the notated clarino trumpet part. Two recordings of a dramatic excerpt from the Saint Matthew Passion—the recitative describing the rending of the temple veil and and the resurrection of the saints—both employ the same Evangelist (Karl Erb) but show a marked trend toward a less romanticized aesthetic as one compares Willem Mengelberg's April 1939 rendition with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra to a March 1941 performance conducted by Thomaskantor Günther Ramin with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Elste's book is a fascinating and comprehensive contribution to the story of our changing expectations regarding the performance of earlier music. In the first part of his volume the author traces the development of historical musicology, urtext editions, the growing acceptance of harpsichords and historically-informed organs as musical media for concert performances, and details (in a ten-page, easy-to-read chart) important dates at which various "trend setters" of Bach performance in concerts and on recordings were achieved [beginning in Vienna, 1816, where the Kyrie and Gloria of the B-minor Mass were performed in houseconcerts sponsored by lawyer R. G. Kiesewetter; through such "milestones" as the first recording, in 1927, of movements from a Brandenburg Concerto with harpsichord as the keyboard instrument; and continuing to 1986, Gustav Leonhardt's first recording using a German-inspired harpsichord by William Dowd, based on the instruments of Bach's contemporary, Michael Mietke of Berlin].

In the second part of his study, Elste surveys nine decades of Bach recordings, genre by genre (vocal works, orchestral works, chamber music, works for keyboards), including an admirable number of recordings from this side of the Atlantic: among them The Haydn Society, Musicraft, Allegro, and Columbia, as well as English and German labels, some of which have been available here.

The text is, of course, in German (ISBN numbers: Metzler-Verlag: 3-476-01714-1 or Bärenreiter: 3-7618-1419-4). With its wealth of unusual black and white illustrations, its easily decipherable time lines and charts, and, especially, the fascinating compact disc of historic performances from the Bach repertoire, Martin Elste's book is a must for the connoisseur. And for the slight-of-German, it is still a desirable acquisition. Who knows? Perhaps an English edition might be hoped for in the future.

Features and news items are welcome for these columns. Send them to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, or via e-mail:

<[email protected]>.