Harpsichord News

Larry Palmer

Larry Palmer is a contributing editor of THE DIAPASON.

Some spring recital programs

George Lucktenberg played the dedication concert for the Philip Tyre double harpsichord at Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, HI (March 12, 1999). His program: Passacaille in C, L. Couperin; Suite in A minor, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre; La Couperin, La Régente, La Leclair, La Sylva, and La Mandoline, Forqueray; La Felix, La Cazamajor, La Forqueray, Medée, Duphly; Sonata in E, BWV 1016, for violin and harpsichord, and "Brandenburg" Concerto 5, J. S. Bach.

Ian Pritchard, Senior Recital, Warner Concert Hall, Oberlin Conservatory (April 3, 1999): Toccata, Picchi; Capriccio sopra Il Cucho, Toccata Nona [1637], Frescobaldi; Suite XIX in C minor and Tombeau Blancrocher, Froberger; On the Cut [1999], Manu Vimalassery; Ubik [1997], David Pritchard; Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, J. S. Bach.

Larry Palmer, presented by Dallas Goethe Center at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation (April 9, 1999), playing his Franco-Flemish double harpsichord by Richard Kingston. Preludes and Fugues in D, BWV 874, and B-flat, BWV 890, J. S. Bach; Seven Innocent Dances [1996], Rudy Davenport; La Couperin, F. Couperin; La Rameau, J-P Rameau; Passacaille in G minor, Georg Muffat; Menuet (Thérèse), Massenet; Dance, Delius; Gavotte from Capriccio, Richard Strauss; Concerto in D Major, BWV 972, Vivaldi-Bach.

Harpsichord Technique: A Guide to Expressivity

When Nancy Metzger's harpsichord method was published in 1989 it quickly became the tutor of choice for many of us who attempt to instruct "other" keyboardists in the subtleties of the harpsichord. It is a pleasure to report that the second edition of this fine instruction book is even better than the first! At exactly the same number of pages, it has, nonetheless, a completely  different, easier-to-read type, frequent revisions of the text to aid in clarifying various matters, and a much-reduced complement of pieces to play (three, as opposed to eleven in the first edition).

To compensate for the smaller number of harpsichord pieces, an added Appendix lists recommended pieces and editions.

The heart of Metzger's method remains the thirty pieces originally published in  Méthode ou Receuil de Connaissances elementaires pour le piano forte ou clavecin attributed to J. C. Bach and F. Pasquale Ricci (Paris, 1786). As the author writes, "Because these works blend absolute simplicity with thorough musicality, they are . . .  ideal vehicles for the application of the principles presented . . ."

Topics covered in Harpsichord Technique include harpsichord touch (beginning with proper hand position and super-legato), style brisé,  articulation, the differentiation of good and bad notes, and an excellent discussion of the elements of rhetorical playing, dance rhythms, and rhythmic alterations such as inequality and variable dotting. As conclusion Metzger offers a chapter concerned with musical expression: "prose and verse in baroque music: in which we beat time at the harpsichord (verse), in which we rhapsodize at the harpsichord (prose), and the stylus phantasticus."

Whether one proceeds from beginning to end of this well-organized method, or picks and chooses from the pedagogically-sound examples, Nancy Metzger's book will aid immensely in the journey toward artistic expression at the harpsichord. Published by Musica Dulce, orders may be addressed to 6827 Coachlite Way, Sacramento CA 95831.  Information is available via email from [email protected]

Features and news items, as well as suggestions for topics to be featured in these columns, are welcome. Address them to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275 or, via email, [email protected]

Status Report on London's Handel House Museum

Director Jacqueline Riding reports in the latest Museum Newsletter that the interiors of both numbers 25 and 23 Brook Street have been transformed. Ceilings have been plastered on both the first and second floors of number 25. Panelling, based on profiles from the adjoining houses, is almost complete in the bedroom and parlor. Floorboards have been laid on the first floor.

Meanwhile, fabric has been ordered for the bed, curtains and window cushions in the Handel rooms. The design has been completed for the upholstery of a full tester bed, 8 feet 7 inches high, dressed in crimson harrateen with silk trimmings. A paint analysis has yielded some surprising results, bringing the project ever closer to recreating interiors that Handel might recognize.

£1.5 million are still needed. This sum will fund completion of the refurbishment of the two adjoined properties, help in the development of education and access programs, the acquisition of furnishings, artifacts, prints and drawings, the providing of live music, the design of exhibitions, and the ongoing maintenance and preservation of the Museum. American supporters may contribute through The Handel House Foundation of America, c/o Coudert Brothers, Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036-7703.

Clavichord Day in Boston

At the Boston Early Music Festival, a concurrent event on Thursday June 14 will be devoted to the clavichord. The Boston Clavichord Society and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, in collaboration with the Festival, present speakers and performers, including Mikko Korhonen (Finland), Darcy Kuronen (Curator, Department of Musical Instruments at the Museum), Howard Schott, Peter Sykes, and Richard Troeger. Instruments to be heard include antique clavichords from the Museum collection and modern instruments by Andrew Lagerquist and Allan Winkler. Events are scheduled from 10:30 till noon and from 1 until 3:30 in Remis Auditorium. Admission is free.

Harpsichord-associated events at BEMF: Byron Schenkman (1999 winner of the Bodky award) will play a harpsichord recital (In the Shadow of the Sun King: French Harpsichord Music from the Time of Thésée) and give a masterclass; Alexander Weimann plays Couperin's Les Folies françaises in a concert titled Tragicomedia in France; and, of course, harpsichords (played by Peter Sykes and Alexander Weimann) will be prominent as the keyboard continuo for the Festival's featured event: the staged performances of Lully's tragedie en musique, Thésée. For information or tickets,

e-mail:

website: .

Here & There

* Jazz harpsichordist Stan Freeman was found dead in his home in Los Angeles on January 13. He was 80 years old. As Time magazine headlined it in 1960, "Come-On-A-Stan's House, He Give You Harpsichord," referring to Freeman's 1951 chart-topping record with Rosemary Clooney, "Come On-A My House" (Columbia Records). Freeman followed Clooney's hit with his own jazz version scored for harpsichord, guitar, bass, and drums (1960).

* Writing in Early Music News (UK) for January 2000, author Robert White made a case for dubbing the 20th century The Harpsichord Century! Harpsichordists Maggie Cole, Malcolm Proud, and Alastair Ross gave a Wigmore Hall (London) concert under that title on December 14, 1999, emulating the special event which had taken place exactly a century earlier when Violet Gordon Woodhouse gave what must have been the earliest "modern" performance of Bach's Concerto in C for three harpsichords in a house concert at 6 Upper Brook Street.

* The very useful one-volume Guide to the Harpsichord by Ann Bond is now available in a paperback edition (Amadeus Press, $17.95; ISBN 1-57467-063-8). There are no changes from the orginial 1997 edition, save for the soft cover (and lower price).

* Harpsichordist and organist Nancy Metzger has a new web site dedicated to promoting historically informed performances of Baroque keyboard literature. Through this site, located at , the viewer may access performance tips under the title "The 7 Wonders of the World of Baroque Music." Also on view are a full description and a sample page from Metzger's book, Harpsichord Technique: A Guide to Expressivity, as well as her current recital calendar. The online order form lists bargain prices for the book, companion cassette, and her compact disc Suites & Treats, packaged with the monograph "What to Listen for in Baroque Music."

* Richard Kingston Harpsichords has a new address: P.O. Box 27, Mooresboro, NC 28114; ph 704/434-0104; emails and

Features and news items are always welcome for these columns.       Please send them to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275.

Email: [email protected]

Larry Palmer is a contributing editor of The Diapason.

A work by Dutilleux

It is extremely rare that I come upon a harpsichord-inclusive piece of music that has not been listed in Frances Bedford's Harpsichord and Clavichord Music of the Twentieth Century, but such was the case when I read the Chicago Symphony Orchestra program for concerts played during the last weekend in January. On the program was Symphony Number Two (Le double) by Henri Dutilleux (born 1916)--scored for two orchestras: a chamber group of oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, celesta, timpani, string quartet and HARPSICHORD, plus another complete orchestral force with harp and a large battery of percussion instruments.

Dutilleux' Second Symphony, commissioned by the conductor Charles Munch to celebrate the Boston Symphony's 75th anniversary, resembles a baroque concerto grosso, and is a work lasting approximately 30 minutes. Michael Gielen conducted and Mary Sauer (principal pianist of the Chicago Symphony) was harpsichordist for this set of performances. [With thanks to faithful reader and longtime friend Roy Kehl for sending the Symphony program.]

Violet

The early 20th-century harpsichordist Violet Gordon Woodhouse (1871-1948) is the subject of a dramatic presentation with music, Violet, by her biographer Jessica Douglas-Home. It was performed on December 16 in London's Bush Hall (a 1904 ballroom) by harpsichordist Maggie Cole with actors Maggie Henderson and Robert McBain.

The exotic Violet is surely an apt subject for a drama: drawn to the harpsichord through Arnold Dolmetsch she became a player of exquisite sensitivity, the first to make commercial recordings at the harpsichord. Her intense musicality had its counterpart in her unconventional personal life: married to Gordon Woodhouse, the couple shared a home with three other men in a long-lasting ménage à cinq. Women, too, were passionate in their devotion to Violet, among them the composer Ethel Smyth and the writer Radclyffe Hall. Devotées of her playing included the three literary Sitwells, George Bernard Shaw, T. E. Lawrence, and Serge Diaghilev.

Virginia Pleasants reports from London

The London musical scene has been enriched by the openings of the Handel House Museum (November 8, 2001) and the York Gate Collections at the Royal Academy of Music (February 27, 2002).

To honor one of music's most famous composers the Handel House Trust acquired his longtime residence at 25 Brook Street in central London, the site not only for the composition of several of the composer's most famous works (including Messiah), but also of rehearsals for their performances. Music is again to be heard in regular concerts on two harpsichords: a single-manual William Smith replica of an instrument in the Bate Collection, Oxford, and a two-manual Ruckers-style instrument by Bruce Kennedy. Both commissioned instruments are professionally maintained and are available to students for practice and concerts. A future addition will be a chamber organ, like the harpsichords a replica of an instrument Handel played in these rooms.

Lectures on Handelian subjects, both independently and in conjunction with concerts at nearby St. George's Church, are offered by the Museum. At last London boasts a major tribute to one of its most famous composers! [Contact information: The Handel House Museum, 25 Brook Street, London W1K 4HB; Website: http://www.handelhouse.org;

Email: [email protected]].

The Royal Academy of Music has officially opened its York Gate Collections of Musical Instruments at a site adjacent to the Academy (1 York Gate). There, nine pianos from the collection of Kenneth and Mary Mobbs are on loan. The collection shows the development of the grand piano in England during the first half of the 19th century; it provides a welcome corollary to the Academy's famed collection of string instruments.

Early Music: Chopin (!)

The Oxford University Press journal Early Music (Volume XXIX/3, August 2001) includes Laurence Libin's article "Robert Adam's Instruments for Catherine the Great" and several contributions on the topic "Chopin As Early Music," among them Jim Samson's "Chopin, Past and Present;" Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger's "Chopin and Pleyel;" and Jonathan Bellman's "Frédéric Chopin, Antoine de Kontski and the carezzando Touch."

These articles are highly recommended. I hope our readers will share them with their pianist friends, who, in general, often ignore the gentle sensitivity of Chopin's music and, if one believes contemporary reports, of his own playing.

Some years ago I read with great interest a small volume by Edith J. Hipkins: How Chopin Played (From Contemporary Impressions collected from the Diaries and Notebooks of the late A. J. Hipkins, F.S.A [1826-1903]), published in London (J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd, 1937). In this book the daughter of the harpsichord-playing pioneer relayed her father's observations of the great composer, impressions from very early in Hipkins' career as an employee of the Broadwood piano firm, where Chopin visited in April 1848. Hipkins reported that "Chopin's fortissimo was the full pure tone without noise, a harsh inelastic note being to him painful. His nuances were modifications of that tone, decreasing to the faintest yet always distinct pianissimo." [page 5]

Concerning Chopin's touch, Hipkins wrote "He changed fingers upon a key as often as an organ-player." (A footnote to this statement relates that "At the age of sixteen Chopin was appointed organist to the Lyceum at Warsaw.") [page 5]

Hipkins: "To return to pianos, [Chopin] especially liked Broadwood's Boudoir cottage pianos of that date, two-stringed, but very sweet instruments. . .  He played Bach's '48' all his life long. 'I don't practise my own compositions,' he said to Von Lentz. 'When I am about to give a concert, I close my doors for a time and play Bach.'" [page 7]

[A copy of this book having gone "astray" in our university library, I am doubly indebted to Mrs. Rodger Mirrey of London, who sent me a photocopy of the entire 39-page text.]

Still more from Early Music

The issue for February (Volume XXX/1) includes several items of interest to the harpsichordist: "Keyboard Instrument Building in London and the Sun Insurance Records, 1775-87" (Lance Whitehead and Jenny Nex); "The Dublin Virginal Manuscript: New Perspectives on Virginalist Ornamentation" (Desmond Hunter); "Repeat Signs and Binary Form in François Couperin's Pièces de claveçin" (Paul Cienniwa); plus correspondence about Domenico Scarlatti's 'tremulo' (Carl Sloane and Howard Schott) for erudition. And Howard Schott's lovely obituary of Igor Kipnis, for nostalgia.

[Send items for these columns to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275; email [email protected]]

Larry Palmer is a contributing editor of The Diapason.

A work by Dutilleux

It is extremely rare that I come upon a harpsichord-inclusive piece of music that has not been listed in Frances Bedford's Harpsichord and Clavichord Music of the Twentieth Century, but such was the case when I read the Chicago Symphony Orchestra program for concerts played during the last weekend in January. On the program was Symphony Number Two (Le double) by Henri Dutilleux (born 1916)--scored for two orchestras: a chamber group of oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, celesta, timpani, string quartet and HARPSICHORD, plus another complete orchestral force with harp and a large battery of percussion instruments.

Dutilleux' Second Symphony, commissioned by the conductor Charles Munch to celebrate the Boston Symphony's 75th anniversary, resembles a baroque concerto grosso, and is a work lasting approximately 30 minutes. Michael Gielen conducted and Mary Sauer (principal pianist of the Chicago Symphony) was harpsichordist for this set of performances. [With thanks to faithful reader and longtime friend Roy Kehl for sending the Symphony program.]

Violet

The early 20th-century harpsichordist Violet Gordon Woodhouse (1871-1948) is the subject of a dramatic presentation with music, Violet, by her biographer Jessica Douglas-Home. It was performed on December 16 in London's Bush Hall (a 1904 ballroom) by harpsichordist Maggie Cole with actors Maggie Henderson and Robert McBain.

The exotic Violet is surely an apt subject for a drama: drawn to the harpsichord through Arnold Dolmetsch she became a player of exquisite sensitivity, the first to make commercial recordings at the harpsichord. Her intense musicality had its counterpart in her unconventional personal life: married to Gordon Woodhouse, the couple shared a home with three other men in a long-lasting ménage à cinq. Women, too, were passionate in their devotion to Violet, among them the composer Ethel Smyth and the writer Radclyffe Hall. Devotées of her playing included the three literary Sitwells, George Bernard Shaw, T. E. Lawrence, and Serge Diaghilev.

Virginia Pleasants reports from London

The London musical scene has been enriched by the openings of the Handel House Museum (November 8, 2001) and the York Gate Collections at the Royal Academy of Music (February 27, 2002).

To honor one of music's most famous composers the Handel House Trust acquired his longtime residence at 25 Brook Street in central London, the site not only for the composition of several of the composer's most famous works (including Messiah), but also of rehearsals for their performances. Music is again to be heard in regular concerts on two harpsichords: a single-manual William Smith replica of an instrument in the Bate Collection, Oxford, and a two-manual Ruckers-style instrument by Bruce Kennedy. Both commissioned instruments are professionally maintained and are available to students for practice and concerts. A future addition will be a chamber organ, like the harpsichords a replica of an instrument Handel played in these rooms.

Lectures on Handelian subjects, both independently and in conjunction with concerts at nearby St. George's Church, are offered by the Museum. At last London boasts a major tribute to one of its most famous composers! [Contact information: The Handel House Museum, 25 Brook Street, London W1K 4HB; Website: http://www.handelhouse.org;

Email: [email protected]].

The Royal Academy of Music has officially opened its York Gate Collections of Musical Instruments at a site adjacent to the Academy (1 York Gate). There, nine pianos from the collection of Kenneth and Mary Mobbs are on loan. The collection shows the development of the grand piano in England during the first half of the 19th century; it provides a welcome corollary to the Academy's famed collection of string instruments.

Early Music: Chopin (!)

The Oxford University Press journal Early Music (Volume XXIX/3, August 2001) includes Laurence Libin's article "Robert Adam's Instruments for Catherine the Great" and several contributions on the topic "Chopin As Early Music," among them Jim Samson's "Chopin, Past and Present;" Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger's "Chopin and Pleyel;" and Jonathan Bellman's "Frédéric Chopin, Antoine de Kontski and the carezzando Touch."

These articles are highly recommended. I hope our readers will share them with their pianist friends, who, in general, often ignore the gentle sensitivity of Chopin's music and, if one believes contemporary reports, of his own playing.

Some years ago I read with great interest a small volume by Edith J. Hipkins: How Chopin Played (From Contemporary Impressions collected from the Diaries and Notebooks of the late A. J. Hipkins, F.S.A [1826-1903]), published in London (J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd, 1937). In this book the daughter of the harpsichord-playing pioneer relayed her father's observations of the great composer, impressions from very early in Hipkins' career as an employee of the Broadwood piano firm, where Chopin visited in April 1848. Hipkins reported that "Chopin's fortissimo was the full pure tone without noise, a harsh inelastic note being to him painful. His nuances were modifications of that tone, decreasing to the faintest yet always distinct pianissimo." [page 5]

Concerning Chopin's touch, Hipkins wrote "He changed fingers upon a key as often as an organ-player." (A footnote to this statement relates that "At the age of sixteen Chopin was appointed organist to the Lyceum at Warsaw.") [page 5]

Hipkins: "To return to pianos, [Chopin] especially liked Broadwood's Boudoir cottage pianos of that date, two-stringed, but very sweet instruments. . .  He played Bach's '48' all his life long. 'I don't practise my own compositions,' he said to Von Lentz. 'When I am about to give a concert, I close my doors for a time and play Bach.'" [page 7]

[A copy of this book having gone "astray" in our university library, I am doubly indebted to Mrs. Rodger Mirrey of London, who sent me a photocopy of the entire 39-page text.]

Still more from Early Music

The issue for February (Volume XXX/1) includes several items of interest to the harpsichordist: "Keyboard Instrument Building in London and the Sun Insurance Records, 1775-87" (Lance Whitehead and Jenny Nex); "The Dublin Virginal Manuscript: New Perspectives on Virginalist Ornamentation" (Desmond Hunter); "Repeat Signs and Binary Form in François Couperin's Pièces de claveçin" (Paul Cienniwa); plus correspondence about Domenico Scarlatti's 'tremulo' (Carl Sloane and Howard Schott) for erudition. And Howard Schott's lovely obituary of Igor Kipnis, for nostalgia.

[Send items for these columns to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275; email [email protected]]

Larry Palmer is harpsichord editor of THE DIAPASON.

Facsimiles from Fuzeau: Sources for Lifelong Learning

Alternately fascinating and frustrating, facsimiles of original manuscripts and printed editions have become increasingly available. For the harpsichordist there is little that is more rewarding than playing from an actual musical “picture” as presented by the composer. Reading from the “original” certainly does not answer all questions, but it does give an unadulterated source as basis for making one’s own musical decisions. For this reason, I heartily recommend playing from facsimiles as a challenging, and often a cleansing, exercise in musical growth.

To utilize these recent scores from publisher Jean-Marc Fuzeau of France, it will help to have an adventurous spirit, as well as a willingness to learn the occasional unfamiliar clef, frequently used in earlier music manuscripts to avoid excessive employment of ledger lines.

Alessandro Poglietti: Rossignolo  [Collection Dominantes Number 5905].

Works for harpsichord or organ by the Italian composer who died in 1683 during his flight from Vienna following the Turkish siege of that city. Three main sources for these pieces are introduced by Peter Waldner, whose notes in French, English, and German include both biographical and bibliographical information and a listing of available modern editions. Fuzeau’s publication comprises three slim paperbound volumes in a folder: an autograph manuscript from the Austrian National Library, Vienna (Cod. 19248), an early edition from the Music Library of the Benedictine Monastery of Marienberg, Burgeis (60/q 366), and another copy of an old source, now housed in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin (Mus.ms. 17670). All utilize the soprano clef (notes written a third higher than the customary G clef) and the familiar bass clef on F. Individual pieces include a Toccata, Canzone, Allemande Amour, Courante, Sarban, Gigue, Ayre, as well as Il Rossignolo Capricio [sic] and a Petitte Ayre gay “in imitation of the Nightingale.”

Johann Kuhnau: Neue Clavier-übung, Partie I (1689) [Collection Dominantes Number 5716], consists of seven short keyboard suites in C, D, E, F, G, A, and B-flat, prefaced by eleven pages of introductory material by Philippe Lescat. Each group of pieces begins with a Prelude (the fourth suite, a Sonatina). The volume is engraved in a large, clear format employing the first line soprano clef and the familiar bass clef on F.

For a modern performing edition of these works (and others, including the popular and appealing Biblical Sonatas) by Bach’s immediate predecessor as Cantor of Leipzig’s  Thomaskirche, consult the beautifully-presented two-volume set of Kuhnau’s Collected Works for Keyboard edited by C. David Harris, available from The Broude Trust, New York (ISBN 0-8540-7660-4).

Christoph Graupner: Monatliche Clavir Früchte (1722) [Collection Dominantes Number 5855].

Not surprisingly, this collection of “Monthly Keyboard Fruits” comprises twelve groups of keyboard pieces illustrating the months of the year. (I suppose one could create a larger work--Seasons--by playing these suites in groups of three!) Graupner, student of and assistant to Kuhnau in Leipzig, spent most of his distinguished career in Darmstadt. Soprano and bass F clefs, notes by Oswald Bill.

Louis Marchand: Pièces de clavecin (Book I, 1699; Book II, 1702), Air (La Venitienne) [La Musique Française Classique Number 5761].

Book One contains a Suite in D minor, consisting of a (measured) prelude and eight dance movements (including an elegant Chaconne with four couplets) engraved primarily in soprano and third line F clefs (with occasional deviations to G and third line C clefs). Book Two contains a Suite in G minor, the prelude of which has some unmeasured passages. Seven short dance movements follow.

Edited by Thurston Dart, Marchand’s two suites were published by Editions L’Oiseau Lyre in 1960. Dart’s edition does not contain the short Air (printed by Ballard as the character piece “La Venitienne” [in Pièces Choisies pour le clavecin]), included in the facsimile (with easy-to-read G and F clefs). Introductory notes to Fuzeau’s publication include an essay on “French Harpsichord Makers of Marchand’s Time” by Philippe Lescat. An amusing attribution in his Bibliography replaces American harpsichord maker and instrument historian FRANK Hubbard’s first name with the more Gallic spelling FRANCK.

Christian Gottlob Neefe: Zwölf Klavier-Sonaten (1773) [Collection Dominantes Number 5880].

Twelve early classic works for clavichord by Beethoven’s teacher; published in Leipzig with a dedication to “Herr Kapellmeister [C P E] Bach in Hamburg.” The original print featured a clear, clean text (soprano, bass F clefs). The inevitable printer’s errors are noted and corrected in introductory material by Pascal Duc.

Number Twelve in the Fuzeau series Méthodes & Traités  fills two volumes, each containing more than 200 pages. Clavecin presents in chronological order selections from the most important French sources concerning the harpsichord. A reading knowledge of French would be helpful, but for those who are challenged by the language, a great amount of enjoyment may be gleaned from the generous offering of harpsichord-related images, easily-deciferable information, and the many musical examples.

Beginning with tuning and building information from Mersenne’s Harmonie universelle (1636) and Denis’ Traité de l’accord de l’espinette (1650), volume one continues with ornament tables found in the keyboard volumes by Chambonnières (1670), d’Anglebert (1689), Dieupart (1701: a volume dedicated to the Countess of Sandwich), Le Roux (1705), François Couperin (Book I, 1713), Dandrieu (1724), Dagincourt (1733), Michel Corrette (1734), Louis-Claude Daquin (1735), Rameau (1736), Van Helmont (1737), Jollage (1738), and Royer (1746), plus complete facsimiles of Saint-Lambert’s Les Principes du Clavecin, (1702) and Couperin’s L’art de toucher le clavecin (1717). [Consult the original layout of Couperin’s Troisième Prélude (page 175) to substantiate a correct reading of the never-corrected faulty first bass note at the beginning of the last score: the guide (guidon) from the preceding line shows it to be a “C,”  but the engraver actually notated a “B-flat,” creating a chord unidiomatic to an 18th-century piece.]

Also included are two documents including important information for stylistic performance of French keyboard music: a letter by Le Gallois concerning the playing of the prélude non mésurée (1680) and Rameau’s two-page commentary on proper touch at the harpsichord (1724), ending with his intriguing comment that the same techniques are applicable as well to the organ.

Volume Two continues this rich treasure trove with Michel Corrette’s Les Amusemens du Parnasse, a short and easy method for the harpsichord (1749). This includes a simple Suite in C for beginners, with fingerings provided AND utilizing the familiar G and F clefs, followed by an additional twelve pages of easy pieces. At the end of the volume Marpurg’s Art de toucher le clavecin (1797) gives a fin de siècle example of keyboard instruction, concluding with another lengthy set of easier pieces by Mr. Sorge, organist and mathematician of Lobenstein (once again using “modern” clefs).

Other gems reprinted in this second volume include composer Duphly’s handwritten remarks on fingering (1769) as preserved in the copy of his Pièces de clavecin, Book I, belonging to his student, English Lord Fitzwilliam; illustrations of harpsichord construction from Diderot’s Encyclopédie (1751- 1772); Lessons and Principles of Harmony by Bemetzrieder (1771) reproduced from a copy once owned by the important 19th-century musical reformer Choron; and several more enchanting engravings of variously styled harpsichords with other instruments from the Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne by Laborde (1780).

For more complete details, including current prices, consult the publisher’s website: <classical-music.fuzeau.com>. A recent promotional offering, a miniature volume of selected pages from facsimile publications, is offered at this address. Let your discoveries begin!

Send news items or comments about Harpsichord News to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275;

<[email protected]>.

Mark Stevenson

British harpsichord maker Mark Stevenson died of cancer on July 4, 2000, aged 56. Born in Cambridge in 1943, Stevenson studied art history at St. John's College. By age 30 he was working full-time as a builder of harpsichords. More than 200 of his finely-crafted, historically-inspired instruments are in use in many countries throughout the world.

Bruges 2001

The 38th Early Music Festival in Bruges, Belgium, will include the 13th playing of its well-known harpsichord competition, 1–8 August 2001, as well as a separate competition for fortepianists, 5–8 August. Both events are open to players born after 31 December 1968.  Members of the international jury include Borbala Dobozy, Jesper Christensen, Gustav Leonhardt, Davitt Moroney, Ludger Rèmy, Christophe Rousset, and chairman Johan Huys.

Harpsichord competition repertoire for the first round consists of François Couperin: Prelude 5 from L'Art de toucher le clavecin; J. S. Bach: Sinfonia 12 in A, BWV 798; and Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in C, K 421 (L 252). Those advancing to the semi-final round will play G. Salvatore: Toccata Prima; Byrd: Fantasia number 46 in D minor; Chambonnières: Pavane L'Entretien des Dieux; J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in B minor, WTC II (BWV 893); and Scarlatti: Sonata in B-flat, K 57 (L 38). Pieces by Rameau (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Les Trois Mains from Nouvelles Suites, 1728) and the Bach Concerto in A, BWV 1055 are on the docket for the final event of the competition.

For application forms or further information, contact the Festival Office, Collaert Mansionstraat 30, B-8000 Brugge; telephone 0032 50/33 22 83; <http://www.musica-antiqua.com&gt;;  email:<[email protected]>.

Bärenreiter Urtexts of Bach Harpsichord Concerti now available

In light of the competition requirements above, it is well to note that the Neue Bach Ausgabe edition of Bach's complete Keyboard Concerti (NBA VII/4) is now available as separate, individual concerti from Bärenreiter-Verlag of Kassel. These scores reflect the scholarship and care expected from the new Bach edition, and the reductions of the string parts for a second keyboard avoid unwanted doublings and inappropriate slurs or other markings. Clean and easy on the eyes, these will doubtless become the editions of choice for most players who learn these concerti. (The Concerto in A, BWV 1055, is BA 5227, priced at DM 24, with string parts also available at DM 6.50 each.)

Recent Issues of Early Music

Early Music for May 2000 contains Andreas Beurmann's rebuttal letter concerning insinuations that his early Iberian harpsichords are not authentic. In the issue for August, Edward Corp's brilliant reconstruction of Couperin's probable early biography is to be found in "François Couperin and the Stuart Court at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1691–1712: A New Interpretation."

Bach's Last Cantata

French author Philippe Delelis has written a suspense-filled novel (completely fictitious) concerning the missing cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. Set in modern-day Paris, the book is replete with references to musical craft and number symbolism, especially that found in The Musical Offering, as well as a goodly number of murders. There are clever connections, as well, to the lives and music of Mozart, Mahler, and Webern. I emphasize (as does the author) that the work is pure fiction, but it is a fascinating read, and an absorbing postscript for this Bach-celebratory year. The recent English translation (by Sue Rose) of Delelis's La Dernière Cantate is available from The Toby Press, London (tobypress.com). ISBN 1 902881 31 1 (Paperback).

News items and features for these columns are welcome. Address them to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275. Email: <[email protected]>.