SEHKS and MHKS merge

From Thursday March 7 through Saturday March 9, 2002, two concurrent events at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania vied for the attention of early-keyboard enthusiasts. In one of them, the fifteen semi-finalists of the fifth international harpsichord competition organized by the Southeastern Historic Keyboard Society competed for a place in the final round and more than $9,000 in prize money.

Throughout the competition the absence of the fifth judge, Kenneth Gilbert (who withdrew only days before the event began), may have accounted for several seemingly-split decisions. Rather than three finalists, four were advanced to the finals, resulting in a four-hour harpsichord-playing mara-thon. Each contestant was heard in Couperin (Ordre 25 or 27), Bach (Partita in A minor), Scarlatti (Sonatas K 298-299 or 435-436), plus a work of choice (pieces by Buxtehude, Milán, Cabezón, Froberger, or additional works by Bach and Scarlatti). Judges Arthur Haas, Charlotte Mattax Moersch, Davitt Moroney, and Jacques Ogg deliberated for quite a long time to determine the order of prizes.

For this auditor, Michael Sponseller's canny ability in producing particularly beautiful sounds from Willard Martin's Saxon-style harpsichord elevated his playing to a higher plane. While there was little doubt about the musical gifts of young Martin Robidoux, his playing had far too many technical glitches for a prizewinner in this competition.

The second event, a joint meeting of the Southeastern and Midwestern Historical Keyboard Societies, began Thursday evening with a bi-sited, festive recital. Fortepianist Richard Fuller started the evening in Moravian College's Peter Hall, playing a "fuller-sounding" instrument by Keith Hill in Sonatas in d and f-sharp of Moravian composer Christian Latrobe and Italianate Londoner Muzio Clementi.

Continuing the program (in Foy Concert Hall), Funaro gave rhythmically-irresistible performances of dance-inspired pieces by Stephen Dodgson, and, from prize-winning Aliénor Competition works by Timothy Brown, Dimitri Cervo, Sally Mosher, and Kent Hollday, who additionally had been commissioned to write a Toccata as the required new work for the semi-final round of the Jurow Competition.

As a highlight of Friday's banquet at the 1758 Sun Tavern (graced with original engravings of "His Excellency" George Washington and "Lady" Washington, as well as a truly historic straight "bent-sided" Zuckermann kit harpsichord), Bethlehem native Willard Martin, one of America's most insightful and important harpsichord builders, was honored with career achievement awards from both societies.

SEHKS past-president Karen Jacob included two hymns to be sung by the audience in her aptly-chosen organ recital, which began a very long evening of Moravian music. The hard benches in Peter Hall (former chapel of the Women's Seminary) made one admire both physical stamina and patience of Moravians past. Pennsylvania chamber music ensemble Satori, using modern strings, flute, and guitar, gave devoted readings of an interminable number of works by John Antes, Haynack Otto C. Zinck, Johann Christian Till, and Johann Baptist Wendling, interspersed with Paul Larson's readings from early Moravian church diaries.

Another 18th-century organ, a single-manual instrument built by David Tannenberg in 1776, was heard in a short program played by Philip Cooper during a Saturday morning excursion to the George Whitefield House Museum in nearby Nazareth. This gentle four-stop instrument, almost surely originally built for the Moravians of the Bethlehem Brothers House, is an unaltered example of a Moravian organ, used primarily for hymns and as "continuo" with other instruments. The Thuringian-styled 8-foot Viola da Gamba, wooden 8-foot Flauto Amabile, 4-foot open wood Flaut, and 2-foot Principal played individually and in various combinations, showed the full range of the instrument's capabilities.

Many papers and mini-recitals overfilled all remaining time slots, with concurrent sessions programmed for Friday afternoon, and a further double booking necessitated by one presenter's late arrival early Saturday afternoon. For the complete listing of all events, see the SEHKS website <www.sehks.org&gt;.

A few presentations that stand out in memory include two clavichord programs (Bach beautifully rendered by Harvey Hinshaw, Moravian devotional music played by Judith Conrad); Geneviève Soly's fleet-fingered and enthusiastic presentation of harpsichord works by the Bach-contemporary Christophe Graupner; David Chung's brilliant performance of Buxtehude's Praeludium in g as example of the stylus phantasticus; Edward Parmentier's insightful session on formal structures in Bach's second volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier. (He surely deserved an audience prize for the largest-sized handout!) And yes, there was considerable interest in my presentation on Richard Strauss' Capriccio Suite for Harpsichord, especially at the opportunity to hear a (non-issued) recorded performance by the work's dedicatee, Isolde Ahlgrimm.

Providing historical background and considerable insight into important early examples of piano making in the Pennsylvania Moravian communities, Laurence Libin and keynote speaker Michael Cole detailed the construction of several instruments from the collection  of the Whitefield House during the group visit there.

With so many fine, well-prepared harpsichordists on site for the competition, it seemed almost perverse not to utilize the non-finalists as demonstrators of the instruments during the builders' showcase time slot. If the Societies hope to enroll a new generation of players as members in their organizations every effort should be made to involve these younger talents. In yet another instance of how two concurrent events seemed to have little congruence, there were no scheduled public presentations from members of the competition jury (although they were available for comments to the competitors). With artists of such distinction, this was a decided disappointment to many, especially since Moroney and Ogg were making their first visits to a SEHKS or MHKS event.

At another level of involvement, members of the Societies' executive boards scurried to meetings, often during meal times, and drafted resolutions at all hours of the day and night. At separate annual business meetings, SEHKS elevated Ardyth Lohuis to its Presidency with Dana Ragsdale assuming the Vice-Presidential post; MHKS  retained President Nina Key and Vice-President Martha Folts in their positions.

Bethlehem, a small city with a well-preserved 18th-century core, provided an engaging historic setting for early music events. Several outstanding restaurants were situated within this central core. Staying at the downtown Radisson Bethlehem Hotel, conveniently only a block from the Moravian College music venues, meant that all events were within easy walking distance. We were not the only conventioneers at the Hotel, however: collegiate wrestling teams from Harvard and Lehigh were in town, providing muscle to complement our music. (Too bad the planners hadn't known in advance: potential harpsichord movers, perhaps!)

As an especially appreciated gesture, multiple copies of The Square Piano in Rural Pennsylvania 1760-1830, the catalog from a 2000 exhibition, were provided to attendees by Paul Larson, editor of the volume.

A stroll on Sunday morning (made somewhat challenging by the sudden return of a blustery cold wind) took me past the Moravian Book Shop (established in 1745) to walk by the offices of the Bethlehem Bach Choir, founded in 1898 (quite modern, though, in relation to Moravian College, dating from 1742!). An historic marker at the edge of the campus remembers John Frederick Wolle (1863-1933), "organist, composer, and conductor, born and raised in Main Hall [of Moravian College], founder and conductor of the Bach Choir, 1895-1905 and 1911-1932."

Also observed, a 1911 fountain at Main and Market Streets, with this inscription:

Drink, Pilgrim/ Here And if/ Thy Heart Be/ Innocent/ Here too shalt/ Thou refresh/ Thy spirit.

Even for those of us long past innocence, there was nourishing musical refreshment to be found in Bethlehem.

Larry Palmer, Harpsichord Contributing Editor of The Diapason, is the current President of the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society.

Musical research came to vibrant life in a Friday evening interactive program presented by the Southeastern and Midwestern Historical Keyboard Societies at Stetson University’s Elizabeth Hall. Michigan instrument maker David Sutherland (Ann Arbor) introduced his just-completed fortepiano based on a design by Giovanni Ferrini, an associate and successor to piano inventor Cristofori of Florence. Small details from the Dresden pianos of Gottfried Silbermann indicate an acquaintance with Ferrini’s Florentine piano. Sutherland proposes that instruments of this particular style may have provided the pianos that ultimately gained the approval of J. S. Bach: thus, the genesis of the idea for including early piano in the group of keyboard instruments suitable for Bach’s ensemble music.

Enid Sutherland played the opening of Bach’s Sonata in G for viola da gamba and obbligato keyboard instrument, partnered successively by three possible period instruments: a large Germanic harpsichord after Gräbner (built by John Phillips, played by Wayne Foster); a lautenwerk (by Willard Martin, played by Charlotte Mattax); and the Sutherland-Ferrini piano (played by Gregory Crowell). With each the music worked in subtly differing ways. The harpsichord was loudest; the lautenwerk offered a complementary gut-strung sonority; the piano provided increased possibilities for dynamic gradation. Each was suitable and viable. No absolute favorite emerged, but an intriguing possibility was illustrated and, perhaps, provided some explanation for the many parallel triads and thick repeated chords found in the written-out keyboard parts of certain slow movements in Bach’s accompanied instrumental sonatas.

Another opportunity to hear how effective the early piano could be in solo works of Bach came on Saturday afternoon when the ever-illuminating pianist Andrew Willis (Greensboro, NC) played a mesmerizing program comprising Prelude and Fugue in F (WTC II), Partita in A minor, and the first Contrapunctus from The Art of Fugue. Reminding listeners just how different a modern Steinway piano is from its ancestors, the following program, presented by Marcellene Hawk-Mayhall (Youngstown, OH), featured compositions based on the B-A-C-H motive [B=B-flat, H=B-natural in German musical notation]. Beginning where Willis had ended, Mayhall played the unfinished Contrapunctus 14 from The Art of Fugue on the fortepiano, continuing on the modern piano with unfamiliar works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Roussel, Casella, Poulenc, Malipiero, Honegger, and Liszt (the composer’s piano version of his Prelude and Fugue on BACH).

The same Liszt work, in its more familiar organ version, served as brilliant conclusion to the meeting’s opening concert, played by Stetson University organist Boyd Jones. Opening with works by Buxtehude and Hindemith (the BACH-related Sonate II), Jones offered Bach’s ornamented chorale prelude Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr and the “Dorian” Toccata and Fugue--all selected to limn both the theme of the conference and to showcase Stetson’s historic von Beckerath pipe organ, one of the first large new mechanical-action instruments in America, installed in 1961 on the initiative of [now] emeritus professor of organ Paul Jenkins, and recently spruced up with a handsome new case designed by architect Charles Nazarian, as well as a refurbished action and new console.

A wide range of paper topics kept the interest level high during well-paced daily sessions. Joyce Lindorff (Philadelphia, PA) reported on her recent discoveries of baroque keyboard instruments and music in China during the 17th and 18th centuries, concluding with the reading of a just-translated Vatican Archive letter from missionary/composer Theodorico Pedrini (died 1746)! Ed Kottick (Iowa City, IA) outlined the current state of knowledge about Bach’s harpsichords (“none”) but detailed 18th-century German instruments possibly familiar to the great composer. Two perfectly-timed discussions of possible Bach organ registrations engaged Gregory Crowell (Grand Rapids, MI): “Crazy for France: French Influences on Bach”; and Elaine Dykstra (Austin, TX): “The Range of Possible Organ Registrations in Bach”--each lecturer urging further investigation into the registrational practices of Bach’s contemporaries as a route to a richer palette of tonal possibilities. Sarah Martin (Atlanta, GA) gave an overview of Bach’s number symbolism in his Clavierübung, Part III.

Lee Lovallo (Sacramento, CA) surveyed a broad swath of Sicily’s history in documenting several surviving organs there. David Chung (Hong Kong) gave a thorough comparison of two versions of Bach’s Toccata in D Major, BWV 912, and played the later version stunningly. Midway on Saturday afternoon Larry Palmer (Dallas, TX) spoke on the deeply felt Bach-related art works created by Miami artist Elena Presser. Interspersed among these verbal and visual presentations were short programs of music. Elaine Funaro (Durham, NC) showcased “20th-Century Inventions for Harpsichord” (by composers Stephen Yates, Ruth Schonthal, Miklos Maros, Alexei Haieff, Virgil Thomson, and Béla Bartók). Judith Conrad (Abington, MA) led the group through multiple treatments of the Phrygian cadence in her clavichord recital “What should we, poor sinners, do?”--works by Scheidt, Pachelbel and Bach’s Partite BWV 770 on the eponymous chorale. Dana Ragsdale (Hattiesburg, MS) was joined by baroque violinist Stephen Redfield in a brilliant program of concerted works by Biber, Muffat, and Schmelzer, plus an alternative reading of Bach’s Sonata in G, BWV 1019, in which the solo harpsichord Corrente from Partita VI replaced the unique solo movement usually heard in this often-revised sonata.

Young Israeli-born Michael Tsalka (Philadelphia, PA) played three of Bach’s concerto transcriptions from original works of Telemann and Vivaldi in an engaging early-morning harpsichord program. Charlotte Mattax demonstrated Bach’s affection for the lautenwerk by programming his Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, BWV 998, Suite in E minor, BWV 996, and concluded with her thrilling traversal of the masterful Sonata in D minor, BWV 964. SEHKS founding president George Lucktenberg (Waleska, GA) demonstrated just how effectively a triangular spinet and Bach’s Little Preludes might serve as basic teaching tools for young players. Max Yount (Beloit, WI) beguiled the group with his expressive playing of music by three Bs: Bach and Böhm on the Beckerath organ.

In addition to the instruments already mentioned, harpsichords by Richard Kingston, Douglas Maple, and Robert Greenberg (brought to the meeting by Carl Fudge) were available for playing and viewing by the 80 attendees.

Stetson alumnus S. Wayne Foster, playing with rhythmic drive and musical verve, gave the closing recital on Saturday evening. Continuing the theme of varying keyboards in his program, Foster began with two organ works by Buxtehude (assisted by Boyd Jones playing the pedal lines on the extended-range manual) using the magnificent nine-foot Phillips harpsichord, on loan for the conference from Foster’s church, First (Scots) Presbyterian, in Charleston, SC. For the remainder of the well-crafted program he played Bach: two organ works, Concerto in A minor (after Vivaldi) and Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 544 on the harpsichord; and the (harpsichord) Toccata in D minor, BWV 913 on the organ, offering, in this lengthy work, sufficient color changes to make palatable the hyperbolic sequential writing favored by the young composer. Fine readings of the (organ) Concerto in D minor, BWV 596, and the (harpsichord) Ouverture in the French Style, BWV 831 on their composer-stipulated instruments completed the evening’s elegant music making.

Stetson University provided gracious staff assistance, beautiful, venerable venues for lectures and concerts, and rooms, both accessible and pleasant, for dining and receptions. Given that this conference was organized from scratch in less than a year’s time it was a remarkably cohesive and successful one. The meeting occurred earlier than usual because the following week was “Bike Week,” a huge rally of thousands of Harley-Davidson riders who take over the entire area surrounding Florida’s Daytona Beach. SEHKS and MHKS programs included several extra-musical sounds on Saturday as engines were revved up for the weekend! Harpsichordist/author Frances Bedford quipped that the conference should have been called “The Two-Wheel Inventions!” Not a bad idea, but the broader Bach theme allowed recent scholarship to be shared, friendships and professional relationships to be buttressed once again, the business of the societies to be accomplished, and, most importantly, great music to be experienced and enjoyed together.

For further information on the Ferrini piano, see David Sutherland’s “Silbermann, Bach, and the Florentine Piano” in the most recent volume (21) of Early Keyboard Journal, published by SEHKS and MHKS [available from Oliver Finney, Journal Business Manager, 1704 E. 975 Road, Lawrence, KS 66049-9157; [email protected]]. 

Joyce Lindorff’s article “Missionaries, Keyboards and Musical Exchange in the Ming and Qing Courts” was published in Early Music XXXII/3, August 2004, pp. 403-414.

From “A” to “Z”

A = Aliénor

On Saturday evening, May 12, 2018, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the closing program for the forthcoming 2018 conference of the Historical Keyboard Society of North America (HKSNA) is scheduled to be a “Retrospective Event” reprising representative contemporary harpsichord works selected from each of the nine Aliénor Harpsichord Composition Competitions that have occurred, beginning with the first in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1982, and culminating with the ninth in Montréal, Québec, Canada, in 2015.

Founded in 1980 by George Lucktenberg, both the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society (SEHKS) and the Aliénor Competitions were developed under the same organizational banner, the contemporary emphasis providing an unusual added concept to the mission of the fledgling early music organization. As preparations began for a third iteration of the Aliénor Competition, Lucktenberg sent a letter (dated May 19, 1990) to the recently chosen Honorary Advisory Board of ten professionals, from whom he sought help and suggestions as he formulated the rules and requirements for publication in the printed materials to be sent to prospective participants.

Re-reading the names of these board members brought back memories of an especially vibrant time in the harpsichord’s 20th-century revival and demonstrated the remarkably broad geographical spread of Lucktenberg’s acquaintanceship! In alphabetical order: William Albright (Michigan), Frances Bedford (Wisconsin), Frank Cooper (Florida), Elaine Funaro (North Carolina), Derrick Henry (Georgia), Igor Kipnis (Connecticut), Linda Kobler (New York), Larry Palmer (Texas), Keith Paulson-Thorp (Florida), and Elaine Thornburgh (California), all of whom were deeply involved in writing, promoting, and/or playing contemporary harpsichord music. Lucktenberg wrote, “I’d like more music which is not impenetrably difficult to read and perform, yet is first-class composing, and identifiably late-20th-century, all at the same time. WHO can give us that? How shall we get it?” His words certainly gave the board a good idea of the parameters he hoped to put in place.

Eventually, after the addition of a harpsichord performance competition named in honor of its sponsors Mae and Irving Jurow, the SEHKS board of directors agreed that attempting the organization and facilitation of two major competitions in alternate years was too heavy an administrative burden for busy volunteer professionals, and the quadrennial Aliénor project and its endowment were reorganized as a separate entity, but one still welcomed as a cooperative program during SEHKS conferences. Elaine Funaro succeeded George Lucktenberg as artistic director of Aliénor, and after her most successful term in that position the gala Ann Arbor retrospective will be her last “hurrah” as Aliénor just recently has been returned to the control of its former sponsor, no longer SEHKS, but now the successor society, HKSNA, which, since 2012, has been merged with the formerly independent Midwestern Historical Keyboard Society to comprise one inclusive North American early keyboard group.

In addition to competition-winning works by Ivar Lunde, Roberto Sierra, Tom Robin Harris, Glenn Spring, John Howell Morrison, Penka Kouneva, Rudy Davenport, Asako Hirabayashi, James Dorsa, Graham Lynch, Ivan Božicevic, Dina Smorgonskaya, and Andrew Collett, the May program will include two newly commissioned pieces composed by Thomas Donahue and Mark Janello, heard in premiere performances by Donahue and retiring Aliénor artistic director Funaro.

Be sure to include this “once-in-a-lifetime” celebration on your “to-do” schedule for the fast-approaching spring of 2018.

Z = Zurbarán

If you are interested in unusual art exhibitions and reside closer to Dallas, Texas, than to New York City, you might wish to take advantage of the current presentation at the Meadows Museum on the Southern Methodist University (SMU) campus. The Meadows has scored quite a coup as it shows, for the first time in the western hemisphere, a complete set of thirteen life-sized paintings by the Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664). The only other venue for this exhibition will be the Frick Collection in New York.

The Meadows is home to one of the most comprehensive collections of Iberian art in the world. Current museum director Mark Roglán has forged an impressive relationship with Madrid’s Prado Museum, so we in Dallas have become accustomed to rare and rarer viewing experiences. One of the current showings, “Jacob and His Twelve Sons—Paintings from Auckland Castle,” is on view from September 17, 2017, through January 7, 2018. It follows another spectacular offering seen earlier this year: all the extant drawings (together with several remarkable oil paintings) by the esteemed Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652) which, incidentally, contained the only portrayal I have ever seen of music’s patron Saint Cecilia at the clavichord!

From the press materials provided by the Meadows Museum: 

. . . Zurbarán was inspired by the biblical text Genesis 49, in which Jacob, Patriarch of the Israelites, gathers his twelve sons and delivers a prophetic blessing for each. [The series] consists of thirteen canvases with all but one remaining in the collection of a single owner at Auckland Castle, County Durham (UK) since 1756. [Bishop Richard Trevor of Durham extended the long dining room of his Auckland Castle residence to assure a suitable venue for these life-sized oil portraits.] This is the first time the majority of paintings in this exhibition have been presented in the Americas—indeed, it is the first time any such series of paintings by Zurbarán has been seen as a whole [on this side of the Atlantic].

But what, you ask, could be the reason that this artistic coup is featured in this column? I hasten to reassure you that there is a connection to early music! As one of many special events scheduled during this exhibition there is to be a brief collaboration utilizing another Meadows Museum acquisition, the Caetano Oldovini Portuguese organ (1762), which is rarely heard in a concert performance. As an aural “sorbet” to the afternoon segment of the daylong November 14 museum symposium devoted to discussion and reflections about the three major religions that trace roots back to the Twelve Tribes of Israel (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim), I was invited to fashion a thematically based program to play for the symposium participants.

I spent quite a lot of time attempting to find short pieces that might illustrate the various virtues and vices mentioned by Father Jacob as he made predictions and comments to and about his twelve sons. Considering the 35-minute time allotment, eventually it became apparent that such a set of pieces would require too many minutes, and that choosing an all-encompassing selection ranged from difficult to impossible, with impossible eventually tipping the scales.

Then, on one late-August morning, at last a burst of inspiration led to this playlist: from the time of the artist Zurbarán, a festive opener by Cabanilles (1644–1712) followed by the quiet and poignant Obra de falsas chromáticas from the Martin y Coll Manuscript (seventeenth century). Two pieces by John Bull (1562/3–1628) to celebrate the long-term British venue for the paintings: Coranto ‘Battle’ and Prelude and Carol: Let Us with Pure Heart. A work by my longtime SMU colleague, the distinguished Jewish composer Simon Sargon, who composed Dos Prados (From the Meadows) to fulfill my request for a work specifically made to fit the Caetano organ, his lovely Pavan with Variations (1997), expertly crafted to accommodate the organ’s bass short octave and its one treble Sesquialtera solo stop. Finally, two contrasting short pieces by later Iberian composers Domenico Zipoli (1688–1726) and José Lidon (1748–1827), the latter specifically chosen to close the recital with a short bit of avian warbling from the organ’s Rossignol stop.

The Meadows organ, originally housed in the cathedral of Evora, Portugal, is, as far as can be ascertained, the oldest playable pipe organ in Texas. The only possible rival for that designation might be the “Raisin” organ, now at the University of North Texas in Denton. A painstakingly researched and well-expressed 16-page history of this instrument, Raising the Raisin Organ, written by Susan Ferré in 2006, is accessible online by searching with the keywords Raisin organ and the author’s name.

For further information about the Zurbarán exhibition and the various special events being offered by the museum during its run, visit the website: https://meadowsmuseumdallas.org. And, should travels bring you to northern Texas this fall, consider a visit to Fort Worth, as well, where the Kimbell Art Museum currently hosts a popular art and artifact show based on the travels (and adventures) of the rake, Giacomo Casanova, Casanova: The Seduction of Europe (on view through December 31).

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."