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 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.
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 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.
Details of Compact Discs used in this music study.
Title / Published by / Featured artist / Additional InformationGreat Harpsichordists;
Landowsaka / Naxos Historical
8.110313 / Wanda Landowska / Bach Goldberg Variations’ Italian Concerto, Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue
Music for Virginals / The Ashmolean
CCL CD832 / Martin Souter / Music from My Layde Nevells Booke of virginal music, 1591
William Byrd / GLOBE
GLO 5123 / Patrick Ayrton / Sellinger’s Round, Walshingham and other keyboard works.
Purcell Harpsichord / Chandos Early Music
CHAN 0587 / Sophie Yates / There are 40 tracks on this 1995 CD
Domenico Scarlatti SONATAS / ARCHIV
Produktion
419632-2 / Trevor Pinnock / 1987 Quality recording
Rameau Pièces de clavecin / Chandos Early Music
CHAN 0659 / Sophie Yates / Contains three complete suits, 30 tracks
La Sophie / Chandos Early Music
CHAN 0598 / Sophie Yates / Quality recording; good selection of 18th Century music. Recommended.
Bach
ALFRED BRENDEL / DECCA
475 7760 / Alfred Brendel / Piano. Italian Concerto, Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue etc.
Harpsichord Masterpieces / Innovative Music Productions PCD 850 / Robert Aldwincle / Not featured in presentation but worth listening to.
J.R.M.
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