Harpsichord
The Harpsichord and some Harpsichord Music
I must make it clear, right at the start, that I am no expert and claim
no expertise. I have merely drawn the short straw to lead a meeting
and have done the sort of on-line research that anyone who is vaguely
interested could do.
At some point in my education I must have learned that there was a
musical instrument called a harpsichord and that it was the ancestor of
the piano. Pianos were very common in my childhood and more homes
than not seemed to have one in their front room. We had a piano but,
in addition, my father had a good quality radio-gram and a large music
collection. His collection was mainly classical but he also had a liking
for musicals.
I don’t remember any harpsichord music in his
collection.
As a student my preferred music was R & B. I was really surprised
when a good friend of mine emerged from a local music shop, Bruce
Miller’s in Aberdeen, with some classical LPs rather than the latest
Stones or Beatles LP. One of the records was of Wanda Landowska
playing Bach’s Italian Concerto. I soon had an opportunity to listen to
the recording and it proved to be a revelation to me. The sharp, crisp,
staccato notes produced by the harpsichord seemed so different to
notes played on any other instrument I had heard. Also the speed in
which one note followed the next seemed impossibly fast. I had to
listen to the concerto several times but once my ears and brain had
adjusted to this new experience I found I really liked the piece.
Wanda Landowska was a bright Polish girl who was born in 1879. Her
father was a lawyer in Warsaw. Her mother must have been quite
bright as she spoke six languages fluently. As a child the young Wanda
was a gifted musician who fell in love with Bach’s music. It was her
ambition to play every piece of keyboard music that Bach wrote. She
succeeded in this ambition quite early on in life. In 1900 the family
moved to Paris. Wanda understood that Bach did not write for the
piano but for the harpsichord. She tried to find a harpsichord so that
she could play the music on the instrument that Bach originally
composed for. She had difficulty in finding playable instruments. The
only harpsichords at the time were either in museums or were rather
crude, new, instruments constructed to provide period sound effects
for Hollywood’s film industry. As I understand it she purchased
harpsichords where she could and tried to get them re-built or repaired
into playable condition when ever possible. Once she had a playable
and tuneable instrument she started to give concerts. At first the
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Harpsichord
harpsichord was a novelty but soon her passion and talents attracted
serious interest. Her concerts put this neglected instrument back in
the spotlight. Finally the Berlin instrument maker Pleyel started
making new concert harpsichords to her exacting standards. Most of
her recordings are recorded on one of these instruments. As a Jew
living in Paris during World War Two she escaped the Nazi invasion by
travelling first to Spain and then to the USA. She continued to perform
there into the 1950s.
The first piece I propose to play is re-mastered from a 1935 shellac
recording. It is played on one of her favoured Pleyel Concert
Harpsichords. The Teutonic solidity of instrument is apparent. The
sound quality is of its day but this is the music produced by the lady
who revived the use of the harpsichord and started the modern
interest in early music being played on authentic, period instruments. I
have chosen the Allegro from the Italian Concherto. (BWV 971)
Harpsichords, in one form or another, have been around for a long
time. The earliest recorded reference to an instrument called a
harpsichord dates to 1514 but similar instruments; the clavicymbalum,
the virginal, the lautenwerk, the clavichord, and the spinette were
known before that. The first of these—the clavicymbalum—is
mentioned in documents dating from 1397 in Padua, Italy. The oldest
clavicymbalum, (there are various spellings of the word), that still
exists was built in Bologna, Italy, in 1521.
The virginal, or virginals, was quite common in England at the time of
Queen Elizabeth the first. This next piece of music is composed by
William Byrd from My Ladye Nevells Booke of virginal music. The
piece I have chosen is Lord Willobies Welcome Home. This was
composed to welcome the return of a nobleman from the battles in
Flanders. The instrument, The Liversidge Virginals, was made in 1670
but was archaic then. It currently resides in the Ashmolean Museum
and was especially restored to playing condition for this recording.
At this point I should say something about the construction and
operation of the mechanism of a harpsichord and contrast this with the
more modern piano. In a piano, or pianoforte to be correct, the strings
are struck by hard felt hammers. The striking of a key also raises a
damper which allows the note to be sustained whilst the key is
depressed. When the key is released the note is dampened.
Depressing the pedal on the right removes the damping from all notes.
This both sustains the note and allows other strings to vibrate
sympathetically thus altering the timbre of the instrument.
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Harpsichord
The action of the pedal on the left varies according to the type of
instrument. Most modern pianos have three strings for each note. For
a grand piano, the act of depressing the left pedal results in only two,
or sometimes one, of the three strings being struck. The volume of
sound is reduced. On an upright piano the mechanism is different.
Depressing the left pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings
and, as a result, the strings are struck with less kinetic energy. In
either case the overall result is a reduction in sound. The design of the
piano also allows for expression in that the harder the keys are
depressed the harder the felt hammer hits the strings and the louder
the sound.
Some grand pianos also have a central pedal. When this pedal is
depressed as a note is played that particular note will be sustained but
other notes will be dampened as the key is released as normal.
In a harpsichord strings are not hit by a hammer but are plucked.
Early instruments used a quill or piece of leather as the plectrum but
modern instruments use an engineering plastic called Delrin for the
plectra. (Delrin is polyoxymethylene for those who are interested!)
When a key on a harpsichord is struck it lifts a vertical wooden “jack”
to which a plectrum is attached. This plucks the string. As the key falls
a spring mechanism in the jack causes the plectrum to clear the string
and a felt or leather damper stops the string from further vibration. It
doesn’t matter whether the key is depressed gently or with energy;
the string will always make the same sound when plucked. This means
it is not as easy to change the expression of sound on a harpsichord.
On a piano the pianist can alter the force at which he, or she,
depresses the keys to put expression into the music. This is not the
case with a harpsichord.
Harpsichord makers over the centuries have incorporated many design
features into their instruments in order to get round these problems.
Some of these features are characteristic of French, or Flemish, or
Italian instruments. The damping of strings was an early feature to
emerge. Some instruments used two keyboards. One would pluck
strings at the centre to produce a more mellow tone whilst the other
would pluck the string near its end to produce a harsher, more
metallic, sound. Also some harpsichords had multiple jacks to pluck
one string. These could be “coupled” together, or not as required by
the nature of the music being played. The Pleyel "Grand Modèle de
Concert", as favoured by Wanda Landowska, has seven pedals and a
number of “stops”, like an organ, so that a wide range of sound
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Harpsichord
textures, as required to suit different compositions in a concert, could
be produced. The modern concert harpsichord is a very sophisticated
instrument in its own right and is not just a primitive ancestor of the
pianoforte.
Some of these methods of altering the quality of the sound can be
demonstrated on a guitar.
The next piece is also an early work by William Byrd but this time on a
Harpsichord. I am going to play part of The Bells which is inspired by
the “rounds” played by campanologists in English Churches. The
harpsichord is a modern copy of a 1697 instrument and the player is
Patrick Ayrton.
Another early English composer is Henry Purcell. Here the ledgendary
Sophie Yates playing a fine copy of a 1681 Vaudry instrument made by
Andrew Garlick of London. This is Suite No 3 in G major. (Z 662)
You have had a dose English music but different countries had their
own music and even their own versions of the harpsichord. The Italian
Domenico Scarlatti was a composer and instrumentalist of
international reputation in his day. Here Trevor Pinnock plays Sonata
in C major, K.502. This is one of the low-cost Deutsche Grammophon
Archiv CDs so there are no case notes with it.
In France there were a number of significant composers including
Rameau and Couperin. Here is Sophie Yates again. Here she plays the
Gigue from le Premiere Livre de pieces de clavecin by Rameau (1706)
Suite in a minor). [Track5] This harpsichord is another Andrew Garlick
made copy of a different, 1749, instrument.
Some more Sophie Yates; if you wish to buy just one CD of
harpsichord music then this could be the one. [Chandos Records Ltd
CHAN 0598]
1.
François Couperin Les barricades mistérieuses. (The mysterious
masks)
2.
Louis-Claude Daquin Rondo : Le coucou.
3.
Jean-Philipe Rameau. La poule (The hen) (France’s answer to
The Hen’s March around the midden?)
4.
The Italian Concerto by J S Bach. Complete.
As a direct comparison we can listen to Bach’s Italian Concerto as
played by Alfred Brendel on a quality concert grand piano.
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Harpsichord
Details of Compact Discs used in this music study.
Title
Published by
Great
Harpsichordists;
Landowsaka
Naxos Historical
8.110313
Music for
Virginals
The Ashmolean
CCL CD832
Martin Souter
William Byrd
GLOBE
GLO 5123
Patrick
Ayrton
Purcell
Harpsichord
Chandos Early
Music
CHAN 0587
ARCHIV
Produktion
419632-2
Chandos Early
Music
CHAN 0659
Chandos Early
Music
CHAN 0598
Sophie Yates
Bach
ALFRED
BRENDEL
DECCA
475 7760
Alfred
Brendel
Harpsichord
Masterpieces
Innovative
Robert
Music
Aldwincle
Productions PCD
850
Domenico
Scarlatti
SONATAS
Rameau Pièces
de clavecin
La Sophie
Featured
artist
Wanda
Landowska
Additional
Information
Bach Goldberg
Variations’ Italian
Concerto, Chromatic
Fantasy & Fugue
Music from My
Layde Nevells Booke
of virginal music,
1591
Sellinger’s Round,
Walshingham and
other keyboard
works.
There are 40 tracks
on this 1995 CD
Trevor
Pinnock
1987 Quality
recording
Sophie Yates
Contains three
complete suits, 30
tracks
Sophie Yates
Quality recording;
good selection of
18th Century music.
Recommended.
Piano. Italian
Concerto, Chromatic
Fantasia & Fugue
etc.
Not featured in
presentation but
worth listening to.
J.R.M.
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