Harpsichord News

Larry Palmer is a contributing editor of THE DIAPASON.

Edward L. Kottick: A History of the Harpsichord.

"There may be those whose knowledge of the harpsichord encompasses the whole of its six-hundred-year history, but I am not among them." Thus begins Edward Kottick's 557-page magnum opus, now handsomely in print, courtesy of Indiana University Press. Such modesty, both courteous and engaging, brought an immediate reaction, "If not Kottick, who?" With his outstanding career as music historian and university professor, his successful sideline of harpsichord making, and the writing of two earlier books, one an invaluable guide to the instrument's care and maintenance, the other (with George Lucktenberg) a guide to European keyboard instrument collections, who could be better qualified to write such a comprehensive survey?

And comprehensive it certainly is! Kottick divides his book into five large sections, tracing the harpsichord's story, century by century. Part I: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries mines the distant past ("From Psaltery and Monochord to Harpsichord and Virginal"), introducing the putative (and colorful) "inventor" of the harpsichord, Hermann Poll, Henri Arnaut's manuscript drawing and description of the instrument, and a comparison of  Arnaut's description with an actual surviving instrument, a Clavicytherium now in the Royal College of Music, London.

Part II: The Sixteenth Century deals with the development of the harpsichord in northern Europe, Antwerp harpsichord building between Karest and Ruckers, and early Italian harpsichords, virginals, and spinets. In Part III: The Seventeenth Century the story progresses via the Ruckers-Couchet dynasty of harpsichord makers to those of the later Italian style, the seventeenth-century international style, and the national "schools" of harpsichord making in France, Germany, Austria, and England.

Part IV: The Eighteenth Century, not surprisingly the lengthiest section of the book, has chapters concerned with the decline of the Italian harpsichord, the increasingly-important instruments of the Iberian Peninsula, harpsichord building in France until the Revolution, instruments of the Low Countries in the post-Ruckers era, and discussions of the harpsichord in Germany, Scandinavia, Austria, Switzerland, Great Britain, and colonial America.

Part V: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries details the "hibernation of the harpsichord" in the 19th century, its revival from the 1889 Paris Exhibition until  World War II, and the subsequent period of the "modern" harpsichord from historically informed builders such as Gough, Hubbard, and Dowd, through the introduction of electronic instruments and the popularity of harpsichord kits.

A short postscript ("Into the Future") brings the 470 pages of text to a thoughtful conclusion. The remainder of the volume consists of a glossary, nearly fifty pages of end notes, an extensive bibliography, and the index.

Each chapter ends with a helpful "summing up" of the author's main points. The book is illustrated copiously with black and white pictures on nearly half its pages. There are 23 color plates, each one of a beautifully-decorated historic harpsichord, save for a single 17th-century painting: Andrea Sacchi's Apollo Crowning the Singer Pasqualini. Boxed "sidebars" present detailed information about many topics of interest, allowing the reader to sample various short snippets of engaging history, such as "The Guild of St. Luke," "Goosen Karest the Apprentice," "Italian Roses," "A Digression on Nonaligned Keyboards," "Raymundo Truchado's Geigenwerk," "J. S. Bach and Equal Temperament," "Kirkman's Marriage," or "The Delrin Story."

As if all this rich variety were not enough, the book comes with a companion compact disc comprising nineteen aural examples of plucked keyboard sounds from the Flemish Spinett Virginal by Marten van der Biest [1580] heard in Giles Farnaby's Why Ask You? to Landowska's iconographic performance at her Pleyel harpsichord of the first movement from Bach's Italian Concerto, and Kathryn Roberts playing Louis Couperin on a 1987 John Phillips instrument based on a 1707 harpsichord by Nicholas Dumont. All of these choices are apt; all, except for a poorly-recorded (but extremely interesting) example of a 17th-century German harpsichord transferred from a scratchy Hungaroton disc, demonstrate recorded sound ranging from good to superior. Most of the performances are winners, too, such as the arrangement and playing by Kenneth Mobbs of the 25-second Introduction to Handel's Zadok the Priest, demonstrating the Venetian swell of a 1785 Longman and Broderip harpsichord made by Thomas Culliford.

For anyone wishing to know the particulars of the two Scarlatti sonatas played by Ralph Kirkpatrick (listed only as Sonatas 35 and 36), they are K 366 (L 119)--an Allegro in F, and K 367 (L 172)--a Presto, also in F Major.

I did not find many errors in this extensive volume, but I was surprised to read Kottick's assertion that Sylvia Marlowe had used a blue William Dowd harpsichord for her engagements at the Rainbow Room Night Club in New York (note 51, page 522). This is a minor aberration, for the instrument employed was not a Dowd, but Marlowe's white Pleyel (purchased with funds borrowed from composer/critic Virgil Thomson). These well-received appearances were the real life inspiration for the fictional accounts in Francis Steegmuller's mystery novel Blue Harpsichord, published in 1949--the very year in which Frank Hubbard and William Dowd set up their first shop in Boston. Dowd did not build harpsichords under his own name until 1959.  Late in her career Marlowe did play a Dowd instrument, following many years of performing on her Pleyel and subsequent harpsichords built for her by John Challis.

A History of the Harpsichord [ISBN 0-253-34166-3] is printed on alkaline (non-acidic) paper that meets the minimum standards of permanence for printed library materials. Would that these pages could have been offered on thicker stock, for there is a fair amount of unwanted print bleed-through, especially from the illustrations. This book is priced at $75. It offers a compendium of interesting and detailed information, engagingly presented, and eminently readable. Kottick has produced a winner with this one.

Mimi S. Waitzman: Early Keyboard Instruments: The Benton Fletcher Collection at Fenton House.

Major George Henry Benton Fletcher (1866-1944) assembled a small but significant collection of early keyboard instruments in the early years of the 20th century. From the very beginning he held the view that his instruments should be restored, that they should be available to professional musicians and students, and that they should be housed in a suitable setting.

From 1934 until the building's destruction during World War II the instruments were displayed at Old Devonshire House, Boswell Street, in London. Since the collection had been turned over to England's National Trust, Fletcher's death did not result in the dispersal of his instruments. Five did not survive the war, but all the rest of them had been moved to rural England shortly before the bombing of Devonshire House. After the war Fletcher's instruments were reinstalled in a Queen Anne terraced house at 3 Cheyne Walk. From there, in 1952, the Trust moved them (together with an additional instrument --a 1612 Ruckers harpsichord belonging to Her Majesty the Queen) to Fenton House, a stately Georgian building in Hampstead. At present there are nineteen instruments dating from 1540 (the Italian virginals of Marcus Siculus) to 1925 (a clavichord built in Haselmere by Arnold Dolmetsch). Thirteen are by English builders.

Mimi Waitzman, curator of the Benton Fletcher Collection since 1984, is the author of a new, elegantly produced hardbound volume listing all the instruments, comprising virginals, spinets, harpsichords, clavichords, grand and square pianos. Beginning with a short history of the collection, the Introduction continues with descriptions of the various action types utilized in the instruments, illustrated by line drawings. Each of the instruments is given a full description, followed by listings of case materials and dimensions, compass, disposition, and details of stringing and scaling.

A companion compact disc contains appropriate musical examples played by Terence Charleston on fourteen of the instruments; these tracks are listed within the chapter for each instrument. Lavish color illustrations and high-quality duotone photographs add to the value of this publication, and the whole makes for a satisfactory "self-guided tour" or a private study in early keyboard instruments.

Published by The National Trust [ISBN 0-7078-0353-5], 112 pages, £24.99.

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.

Anticipation was high as the hour drew near for the first staged performance
of Johann Mattheson's Boris Goudenow.
Composed in 1710 for the Hamburg Opera, but never performed (probably for
political reasons), the opera slept the long sleep of libraries, narrowly
surviving destruction in the World War II bombing of northern Germany. Moved
secretly for safekeeping, the score remained in Armenia, was returned to
Hamburg in 1998, and now, on June 14, 2005, after almost 300 years, this ink on
paper was about to become living sound for an audience.

Just as I joined the capacity crowd entering the Cutler Majestic Theatre, a
celebratory fanfare sounded forth. I was one of the lucky ones who made it to
my mezzanine spot in the 1200-seat Beaux Arts hall before the overture began.
Those who were not so fortunate created a fair amount of chaos during the
opening scene of the opera, possibly adding some 18th-century-style realism to
the occasion!

Brilliant ceremonial rites at the Russian court, colorful dancing
(especially a divertissement of the disabled that closed the second act, and
the final chaconne), some striking stage pictures (sunrise over the Kremlin at
the beginning of Act III was particularly effective), and the luminously
stylistic, homogeneous playing of the BEMF Orchestra made this a memorable
evening at the opera. Mattheson's music was nothing out of the ordinary, and
gripping, engaging singing, especially from the women, was in short supply. A
bawdy, comic role--the servant Bogda (sung by William Hite)--stood out, as did
some touches such as the percussive clatter of thrown coins (in the Coronation
scene: a foretaste of Britten's slung mugs from Noyes Fludde
style='font-style:normal'>?), and the festive addition of handbells and
castanets for the final tableau.

One strange facet of Mattheson's work is its macaronic text: Italian arias
inserted freely into a primarily German libretto. An added oddity of this particular
performance in 18th-century style was the decision to keep the house lights
dark, although, with a (21st-century) projected text, it might be considered
unnecessary for the audience to refer to the printed texts that had been
provided. 

Festival Concerts

Just how important a mesmerizing singer can be to an opera was borne home
the following evening at Jordan Hall when the Festival offered Nights at the
Opera: Highlights from Beloved BEMF Productions. Opening with a superb reading
of orchestral excerpts from Lully's Thésée
style='font-style:normal'> (staged in 2001), continuing with ravishing and
riveting arias from Conradi's Ariadne (2003), delivered with dramatic intensity by Canadian soprano Karina
Gauvin, this was voluptuous music presented with authoritative diction and gorgeous
sound, to boot.

It was especially enlightening to have the orchestra front and center, on
stage rather than in the pit, allowing one to observe the close interaction
among the players, and the ways in which they were led by Festival musical
co-directors, lutenists Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs, and concertmaster
Robert Mealy. These leaders, along with the two continuo
harpsichordists--Kristian Bezuidenhout and Jörg Jacobi (who had produced
the printed score and parts used for the Boris premiere)--kept the music moving
with gut-wrenching inflections, infectious dance-based rhythmic nuance, and
some of the most satisfying cadential resolutions to be enjoyed on the planet.
For those not in attendance, these musical splendors may be heard at home in BEMF's
first commercial recording. Their performance of Conradi's Ariadne
style='font-style:normal'> has just been released as a three compact disc set
on the German CPO label (777 073-2).

Excerpts from Luigi Rossi's L'Orfeo,
a back-to-back demonstration of Handel's wholesale borrowing from Mattheson
(nearly-identical arias from the latter's Porsenna
style='font-style:normal'>, 1702, as used by the former in his Agrippina
style='font-style:normal'>, 1709), and Mattheson's undistinguished, lengthy
serenata concerning the virtues of chastity, Die Keusche Liebe
style='font-style:normal'>, failed to achieve the musical excitement generated
in the first half of the program.

Sequentia, ensemble for medieval music, presented the 8 o'clock Jordan Hall
concert on Thursday evening. This was not the ticket I had requested (thinking
that I should at least try to hear one of the 11 o'clock late-night concerts),
but I decided to accept providence and attend Lost Songs of a Rhineland Harper,
a program that proved to be a stunner! Framing two large parts of the program
with songs to texts by the learned medieval musician Boethius, the four-member
ensemble was heard in a variety of voicings, from unaccompanied monophony to
settings with harp, lyre and several flutes, including one made from a delicate
swan's bone. With translations projected on a large central screen hung from
the organ case, it was not difficult to follow the lengthy Latin texts.
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 

After intermission the dramatic impact was ratcheted up several notches,
especially in the  gripping
Icelandic saga, Atlakvida (Lay of Attila
the Hun), the earliest known retelling of the Rhinegold story later the basis
for Richard Wagner's four-opera Ring of the Nibelungs
style='font-style:normal'>. In considerably less time, Sequentia founder
Benjamin Bagby related the violent tale, becoming the embodiment of an
Icelandic harper, concentrated and severe in expression, and with such incisive
diction that the old Scandinavian text was chillingly clear. We listeners
experienced grim history as our ancestors might have done. Bagby's performance
was a startling, unforgettable theatrical tour-de-force.

Drama of another sort--that of program changes--informed the Friday evening
program Five Concerti and a Magnificat. An Overture (to the opera Porsenna
style='font-style:normal'>) and the double chorus Magnificat
style='font-style:normal'> were by Mattheson. The Overture, featuring BEMF's
principal oboist Washington McClain, was followed by the first program
substitution: the Bach Concerto in D minor for Two Violins
style='font-style:normal'> (with soloists Andrey Reshetin and Maria
Krestinskaya) replacing the scheduled Vivaldi Concerto to have been played by
Giuliano Carmignola, indisposed in Italy. Matthias Maute romped through two
Recorder Concerti (in F Major by Telemann and the G Major, RV 443, by Vivaldi)
with musical insight and astonishing virtuosity. Like soprano Gauvin, he was
unafraid to make the occasional ugly sound for dramatic effect. Replacing
Carmignola's second star turn was Johann Wilhelm Hertel's Cello
Concerto in A minor, featuring BEMF's
superb principal cellist, Phoebe Carrai, a satisfying and expressively kinetic
player.

Announcing the program changes, Paul O'Dette quipped that it was probably
the first time, at least in North America, that a program would feature two
Hertel Concerti. A native of J. S. Bach's hometown, Eisenach, the unfamiliar
Hertel (1727-1789), proved his worth in the works heard on this program, with
the Concerto in F minor for Fortepiano and Strings
style='font-style:normal'> a stronger composition. It was lovingly played by
Kristian Bezuidenhout, who achieved hushed, nearly inaudible pianissimi in the
poignant Largo, and also improvised an extended cadenza at the end of this
movement.

A Plethora of Offerings: Fringe and Beyond

The large number of concerts during Festival Week forced would-be listeners
to make difficult choices. For example, two further sets of daily concerts at 5
and 11 included duos for bass violas da gamba; choral music for the Holy Roman
Emperor Maximilian I and his daughter Marguerite of Austria; violin and
harpsichord music for the 18th-century Russian manor house; Gypsy Primadonna
music of 1820s Moscow; "Waild and Krejzy: secular music in 1730s
Slovakia"; and baroque lute music played by the indomitable duo of Stubbs
and O'Dette, who seemed to be everywhere--opera orchestra (Boris was played
four times during the week) as well as all other appearances of the BEMF
Orchestra, master classes, solo recitals, administrative matters--an amazing
musical (and physical) expenditure of energy. Every involvement I noted was at
a very high level, as well.

There were at least 57 scheduled "fringe" concerts in various
nearby venues, plus the concurrent Early Music Exhibition (Wednesday through
Saturday) at the Radisson Hotel, where dozens of demonstration recitals were
sponsored by instrument makers and dealers. As harpsichordist for the Texas
Camerata concert on Thursday (Lindsay Chapel of Emmanuel Church), I experienced
a sold-out house of involved and appreciative auditors. It was not possible to
attend many of these added events (all by groups that had been screened before
receiving an invitation from the Festival management), but I heard enthusiastic
reports about many programs. Of the Exhibition concerts I heard two: the first
a morning program with Team Mattheson (Matilda Butkas and William Carragan),
duo harpsichordists, performing works by the featured composer of the week.
They played fine harpsichords by David Werbeloff [Boston] after Zell and Robert
Hicks [Vermont] after Stehlin for an overflowing complement of listeners, many
seated on the floor or leaning against any available wall space.

In the afternoon Duo d'amore (Geoffrey Burgess, baroque oboes; Elaine
Funaro, harpsichord) again played to a capacity audience in the ample
exhibition space occupied by The Harpsichord Clearing House. Perhaps, like me,
these auditors were eager to escape "the din of antiquity" (to borrow
Daniel Pinkham's apt phrase) and to experience old instruments in some new
music. Both players made cogent cases for their commissioned repertory; the
program included two world premieres (works by Chris Lastovicka and Edwin
McLean, whose contribution Incantations gave opportunity to hear the darker,
smoky timbre of the baroque oboe d'amore)! Funaro programmed two short
harpsichord solos by Tom Robin Harris and Stephen Yates. Additional duets were
by John Mayrose, and Andrew Ford, plus Yates's hauntingly beautiful Canto
style='font-style:normal'> (2004), a lyric fantasia well suited to both wind
and keyboard. For contrast one piece of earlier music could have benefited this
program, although all of the new works were of interest. The only other
insertion of "later music" into the Festival program was a Zuckermann
Harpsichords-sponsored program by California harpsichordist/composer Shelli
Nan.

Events with a particular educational focus included a morning clavichord
symposium at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; "Performing Baroque Music
According to Mattheson" at the Goethe Institute; "Rediscovering Boris
Goudenow: Performance and Production Issues
in German Baroque Opera"; a wide variety of instrumental and vocal
masterclasses; and organizational discussions on audience building and other
practicalities sponsored by Early Music America and a panel of early music
concert promoters. 

Friday's day-long celebration of the North German organ featured a recent,
refined Richards and Fowkes organ (opus 10, 2000) at First Lutheran Church,
with organists Edoardo Bellotti, Hans Davidsson, and William Porter playing
literature that demonstrated the organist-composer as contrapuntist, as
preacher, and as orator. In the first of the afternoon sessions, Porter used
the rich plenum and full, singing principals of this modest-sized two-manual
instrument in Buxtehude's monumental Praeludium in E minor
style='font-style:normal'> (BuxWV 142), followed by Krebs's Fantasia
on Herr Jesus Christ, dich zu uns wend
(idiomatic reed solo) and trio on Herzlich Lieb hab' ich dich, o Herr
style='font-style:normal'> (piquant, lively flutes). C. P. E. Bach's Fantasia
con Fuga in C minor served up the gravitas
of a satisfying 16-foot plenum, complete with Sesquialtera.

This provided the perfect musical segue to my other choice of fringe
program, heard in a religious edifice just across the street. First and Second
Church, destroyed by fire in 1968, was replaced, behind its damaged
façade, with a striking, contemporary building, including a second-story
high-ceilinged, freely-angled chapel. In this sky-lit quiet space Iowa's Carol
lei Breckenridge played all six of C. P. E. Bach's Sonaten für Kenner
und Liebhaber [Sonatas for Connoisseurs and
Amateurs] (Volume I, 1779) in a musical salon concert, with period poetry read
in German by Michael Herrick. 

Breckenridge, heard several years ago in memorable Mozart performances,
maintained her reputation as a master of the clavichord. Playing a large
unfretted instrument by Paul Irvin [Chicago], she limned the rapidly shifting
emotions of these Sturm und Drang compositions with unflappable technical ease.
The six sonatas, each comprising three movements, are not of equal length, nor,
frankly, of equal interest. Among all 18 movements, the very first (a dazzling
Prestissimo) was breathtaking, as was the complete (and shorter) Fifth Sonata
(F Major). Sonata Three, the only one in a minor key, required a brief retuning
(B-flat becoming A-sharp)--as did the amazing chromatics introducing the middle
movement of the final sonata.

Mid-afternoon on Friday was not a fortuitous time to attract a crowd: about
20 listeners shared this perfect pendant to the organ symposia.

At the Exhibition: An Abundance of Fine
Keyboard Instruments

At least 22 makers and distributors of keyboard instruments were listed in
the 276-page Festival program book (itself a work of art). Fine harpsichords
were much in evidence. In addition to those by builders already mentioned, some
that attracted  attention
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  were made by Adam Decker (the
Harpsichord Gallery, Atlanta); Marc Ducornet (the Paris Workshop); and by
consistently satisfying makers Richard Kingston (North Carolina)--whose Flemish
single harpsichord with colorful abstract lid painting by June Zinn Hobby was a
visual and sonic feast, Allan Winkler (Boston), and Douglas Maple
(Pennsylvania). (Harpsichords by Kingston, David Sutherland [Ann Arbor],
Winkler and Dowd were used in the opera performances and for the BEMF
orchestral programs.)

Gut-strung Lautenwerks from Steven Sorli (Amherst, MA) were beautifully
crafted, exciting instruments, as was a portable high-pitched clavichord by
Gary Blaise (San Francisco). I could not resist the 1939 John Challis
clavichord displayed by Glenn Giutarri and The Harpsichord Clearing House among
their many fine instruments, including 
chamber organs. Another triple-transposing continuo organ from Les
Ateliers Guilbault Bellavance Carignan (Quebec) had a pleasingly gentle wooden
4-foot Principal among its four stops.

Also tempting were displays on tables laden with musical facsimiles and
other scores, eye-catching recordings (among the most enticing were the 18
unorthodox and brilliant covers for the Vivaldi Edition CDs issued thus far by
the Italian label Naïve) and opulent publications such as Goldberg Early
Music Magazine, now publishing collectible single-composer issues. It was
necessary to keep checkbook and credit cards firmly under control, although
failing to do so also had its rewards (until the bills arrived).

Boston: Convenient and Memorable

Nearly all the concert venues were within walking distance or accessible by
inexpensive public transport. Food of all varieties and prices was available,
ranging from pre-packaged sandwiches to elegant restaurant menus (Legal
Seafoods was just across from the exhibition space).

And central Boston itself held so many musical associations and personal
memories. For instance it was not possible to be in Jordan Hall without
remembering Ralph Kirkpatrick's 50th anniversary harpsichord recital (in 1981,
during the very first Early Music Festival); or to walk into King's Chapel
without recalling composer Daniel Pinkham, who graced the organist/ choirmaster
position there for so many years. Lovely, now historic, harpsichords built by
William Dowd were in evidence and in use. A photograph of early music pioneer
Arnold Dolmetsch, once employed to direct the making of early instruments at
the Chickering Piano Factory across the river in Cambridge, graced the front
cover of a Boston Clavichord Society brochure.

Inexpensive dormitory housing, available in a building now owned by Emerson
College, was only steps away from Steinert Hall, endowed by one of America's
first early instrument collectors, piano dealer Morris Steinert. Directly
across the street, in the old burying ground on Boston Common, the remains of
composer William Billings are thought to be buried, and he is commemorated by a
plaque placed there during the 1976 American Guild of Organists national
convention (a conference memorable for E. Power Biggs's late-career performance
of Rheinberger Organ Concertos with the Boston Pops, despite EPB's
stress-fractured arm!).

Wagnerian swanboats long have been a feature on the pond of the Public
Garden (founded in 1839). Recent, however, is the reverent, nostalgic addition
to this venerable and well-utilized park: a Garden of Remembrance for the
victims of the 9/11 attack. Many people pause at the simple stone memorial to
meditate, and to read these touching words from Boston and Sea Poems by
Lawrence Homer, poet-laureate of Faneuil Hall:

Time touches all more gently here,

Here where man has said, No:

Trees and grass, and flowers will remain:

. . . watching swanboats glide in season.

It was a pleasure to attend this Boston Early Music Festival and Exhibition,
after a 20-year-long interval of not being there, and to observe the breadth
and vitality of the current early music scene. If Johann Mattheson's music did
not prove him to have been a composer of extraordinary genius, the event was,
nevertheless, a welcome opportunity to learn more about this 18th-century
musician and writer, to assess more knowledgeably his place among his
well-known contemporaries, and to experience yet another from the
ever-lengthening list of forgotten or unknown operas, transformed from dusty
scores to living stage productions through the inspired efforts of America's
premier early music festival. More, please.

Further Information

Stephen Stubbs: "Johann Mattheson--the Russian connection: the
rediscovery of Boris Goudenow and his other lost operas," Early Music
style='font-style:normal'> XXXIII/2 (May 2005), 283-292.
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> 

Previous BEMF reports by Larry Palmer

The Diapason, August 1981, 1, 3 [the
first Early Music Festival].

The Diapason, April 1985, 9 [the 1983
Festival].

The Diapason, October 1985, 10-11
[the 1985 Festival].

Letter to the harpsichord editor

Dear Mr. Palmer,

I don't often comment on articles in The Diapason, that is,
in a positive manner, but I don't know when I have enjoyed any writing as much
as yours on Momo Aldrich ["Momo!" in the August 1997 issue]. I assume
it was because I knew both Mr. And Mrs. Aldrich in the mid-50s. I worked in a music store in Palo Alto and met Mr. Aldrich when he watched me hang a picture of Landowska seated at a Pleyel. Mr. Aldrich asked me if I knew who the
"Lady" was; I said it was Wanda Landowska. He was surprised that I
knew.

At this point in time I knew Mr. Aldrich was on the faculty
at Stanford, but not much more. Shortly after that a friend also on the faculty
at Stanford saw me talking to Mr. Aldrich and later told me who he was, and
that he had studied with Landowska in France. Still later I read an article
about Landowska and it talked about Momo, but it took an organ recital at the
Stanford Chapel for me to meet Mrs. Aldrich, who he introduced to me as Momo.
Then the wheels started to turn.

I rebuilt several harpsichords in the next few years and after I completed the first one, and I might add that I was very proud of it, I asked Mr. Aldrich if he would play it and tell me what was right and what was
wrong.  This he did and he found
very little that was right. He made a list for me to follow and he came a
couple times a week to check on my work. Finally it suited him and he brought
in a student who wanted to buy a harpsichord. She liked it and it was sold.
Later he asked me to call on a friend in Palo Alto with a Neupert harpsichord.
It had all sorts of problems.  Mr.
Aldrich made a few suggestions, but it was Mrs. A. who came up with answers.
She told me that Landowska regularly rubbed a bar of soap on the sides of any
jack that seemed sluggish to her. And that she also trimmed plectra that she
thought were digging too much with a pair of fingernail clippers. I ended up
using both on the Neupert.

I have always felt that I learned much from both of the
Aldrichs, both in working on the harpsichord and in learning to hear it
"sing" as Landowska called it.

Some years later I was working for a company building
automated commercial broadcasting equipment. We were dubbing classical music
from records to tape and inserting tones and so on for it to control the
equipment. We had hired a recording engineer who had done much work in the
eastern part of the States and one day he happened to mention recording
Landowska. I asked him about it as she recorded at home.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  He said that in one session they
detected an "extraneous" note that didn't sound like anything even a
Pleyel might have made. When they played it back for Landowska, she listened
carefully, and finally shrugged her shoulders and said, "I broke
wind," and walked off.

Anyway, again thanks for bringing back a lot of deeply
seated and very fond memories of two people who left many impressions on me
that still guide my thoughts in my work today . . .

Richard Warburton

Skykomish, WA

English early music losses

Carl Dolmetsch (23 August 1911-11 July 1997)

Carl Frederick Dolmetsch was the second son of early music
pioneer Arnold Dolmetsch.  His
mother, Mabel, a leading writer about early dance, was Arnold's third wife.
After his father's death in 1940 Carl succeeded him as director of the
Haslemere Festival. Carl Dolmetsch was best known as a player of the recorder.
Wartime production of plastics in the Dolmetsch workshop led to his creation,
after World War II, of the Dolmetsch plastic recorder, an instrument used by
millions of school children. Carl Dolmetsch also expanded the modern repertoire
for recorder by commissioning more than fifty new works from composers such as
Lennox Berkeley, Edmund Rubbra, and Jean Françaix.

Ruth Dyson (28 March 1917-16 August 1997)

Professor of Harpsichord and Piano at the Royal College of
Music from 1964, Dyson, of Dorking, had a long association with fellow townsman
Vaughan Williams (who was a patient of her doctor father). As Leith Hill Music
Festival Librarian in the 1930s Dyson had the duty of erasing pencil marks from
orchestral parts, and she particularly treasured the telephone call from
Vaughan Williams in which he queried, "Now, my dear, you haven't
forgotten, have you, that we're meeting on Monday at 10 to rub out the whole of
Creation?"

Dyson recorded the clavichord works of Herbert Howells, the
principal keyboard duets before Mozart, and particularly loved the music of the
English Virginalists and English Baroque composers Purcell, Arne, Chilcot, and
Blow.  Her long association with
the Dolmetsch family is documented on the compact disc, The Dolmetsch Years,
Programme Six (Allegro PCD 1018), although not all of her selections played on
the clavichord are correctly identified. (She plays C. P. E. Bach's Variations
on Les Folies, Howells' Dyson's Delight 
and Hughes' Ballet, and, as track 9, C. P. E. Bach's Fantasia in C
minor  from the 18 Probestücke
of 1753, not Lambert's Fireside [Howells].)

Ruth Dyson died of a heart attack following a particularly
happy week of teaching at the Dolmetsch Summer School.

George Malcolm (28 February 1917-10 October 1997)

Well-known as a harpsichordist of brilliant technique, whose
repertoire included the English Virginalists and the major 18th-century
composers, Malcolm was also Master of Music (1947-59) at Westminster Cathedral,
where his work with the choir of men and boys was highly regarded.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  He was named CBE in 1965 and, in 1966,
an honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, from which he held degrees in
classics and music.

International Competitions in Bruges

The 12th Harpsichord and 6th Fortepiano Competitions (with a
first prize of 150,000/100,000 Belgian Francs) will be held this summer in
Bruges, Belgium from July 24 through August 1.  The competition, open to players born after December 31,
1965, will be judged by Francoise Lengellé, Wolfgang Brunner, Jesper
Christensen, Johan Huys, Gustav Leonhardt, Davitt Moroney, and Ludger
Rémy.  Information and
application forms (due by April 15), Festival van Vlaanderen-Brugge, C.
Mansionstraat 30, B-8000 Brugge/Belgium. 
Telephone 00.32.50/33 22 83; fax 34 52 04.

Clavichord Symposium in Magnano

The third biennial International Clavichord Symposium (24-28
September) co-chaired by Bernard Brauchli and Christopher Hogwood, was held in
its unique setting of Magnano in northern Italy. Special interest centered on
the pedal clavichord built by John Barnes and Joel Speerstra and expertly
demonstrated by Mr. Speerstra. Another unusual instrument was the
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  copy of a rare octave clavichord after
Praetorius, presented in a program of 15th- and 16th-century music. Many fine
copies of more familiar clavichords, particularly of the 18th century, were
displayed and demonstrated in a series of recitals, illustrated papers, and
discussion sessions.

The reawakening of interest in the clavichord is most
heartening and more than ably promoted by this influential international
conference.

--(Virginia Pleasants, London)

Features and news items for these columns are always
welcome. Address them to Dr. Larry Palmer, Division of Music, Meadows School of
the Arts, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275. E-mail:
[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]>.