About the Player

According to Ray Attard, CEO of Teatru Manoel, “Beatrice is a truly outstanding harpsichordist recognized for her huge talent and we are very proud to host her on stage at Teatru manoel for an evening of baroque music which will surely give our audience the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of the harpsichord.

Born in Annecy, Beatrice began her musical studies at the age of six, and as her musical career progressed, she was able to study under legendary harpsichordists such as Christian Jaccottet, Kenneth Gilbert, and Christophe Rousset. Personally advised by Huguette Dreyfus, Ton Koopman, and Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Beatrice Martin was able to complete a post-graduate perfecting course, taking her skills to new levels.

By 1998, Beatrice won first Prize at the Brugge International Harpsichord competition, and many an admiring crowd singled her out as a personal favorite. By 2000, Ms. Martin founded the ensemble Les Folies Françoises, and by 2001, she was appointed a permanent teaching position at Escola Superior de Music de Catalynya in Barcelona.

About the Instrument

If you’ve specialized in Harpsichord music, then you’d know that no two instruments sounds precisely the same. Beatrice Martin will be playing on a 1998 Jacques Braux harpsichord, purchased from Paris specifically to play for Teatru Manoel. We shall see whether or not this instrument deserves Fimbank’s financial backing when we see it in its first official performance tomorrow night.

Additional Information

There will be a Harpsichord Harmony for children between the ages of 8 and 14 that will take place today, at 5 pm. This unique performance is completely free and will provide a great opportunity for our youth to understand the magic and beauty of the harpsichord. However, booking closes by February 10.

As for the Valentine’s Day concert, Beatrice Martin will be performing at 8pm and tickets are sold through Teatru Manoel’s booking office. Don’t wait last minute, or you’ll miss out on possibly one of the best Valentine’s Day performances ever.

Compared to the piano, the harpsichord feels almost “crunchy.” It doesn’t resonate throughout the room like a piano, nor does it tolerate the use of excess force while playing. Instead, the harpsichord player must overcome the resistance the plectrum is exerting on the string rather than simply striking the keys and hoping something good comes of it. Too much force or too little force will cause the Harpsichord to sound out of tune.

Tips for Playing the Harpsichord for the first time:
• Most harpsichords are only 4 or 41/2 octaves rather than your typical 7. This means your range is much smaller.
• Expect the keys to be slimmer than a piano. While this makes it easier for the hand to stretch and reach the various keys, it can also make for a difficult transition between the two instruments.
• Many harpsichord keys are made of wood rather than ivory. The texture may seem odd to your fingertips at first, but you may find you like the difference.
• Some harpsichords keyboards are in reverse, with the naturals in black and the sharps in white, so find out which type of harpsichord you will be playing on in advance.
• The key dip is more shallow than on a piano, which makes it easier to perform trills on certain pieces of music, but it also means that you cannot simply “throw” your fingers into the keyboard and expect to have the same crisp sound.
• There are no dynamics on the harpsichord. To make it lowuder, you have to add another set of strings, or to make it softer, eliminate notes in a chord or do not play octaves in the bass.
• Each note needs to be articulated carefully in order to sound in tune.
• Fingers must be held high and should be curved

When played correctly, the Harpsichord can produce a lively, crisp sound that is perfect for playing music from the Baroque era. Although different from the piano, a harpsichord can be no less enjoyable or beautiful to listen to and to play.

The very first harpsichord was probably built back in the 1300s (and may have looked similar to the one pictured above) as a variation to an ancient instrument called the psaltery, which was actually a harp with steel strings.

Within 200 years and by the 1500s/Baroque era, the harpsichord had become an extremely popular instrument in Europe, and thus, spread to multiple countries. With its spread and popularity came several schools of harpsichord building – each with their own woodworking techniques and styles.

In this post, we’ll give you a general overview of each of these early schools of harpsichord building.

German Harpsichords

Harpsichord building actually differed in Germany, depending on whether you were from the Northern or Southern part of the country. The northern builders often modeled their harpsichords with two or three keyboards and multiple handstops – much like the French and Flemish styles.

Most of the northern German harpsichords also included choirs which stretched from 2′ to 16′ in length.

As for the southern style, most builders patterned their harpsichords after the Italian model – that is, one keyboard and shorter strings made of brass. Whereas the northern versions were built for power, these Southern German harpsichords were known for their gentle and sweet tones.

French Harpsichords

Many French-built harpsichords were designed similarly to Flemish harpsichords. Their characteristics included multiple keyboards that included anywhere from four octaves to a fully chromatic range.

French harpsichords also had three choirs that could be combined through the means of a knee-lever. Lastly, all French harpsichords were created out of oak or poplar wood, with the soundboard usually being made from pine.

Flemish Harpsichords

Flemish harpsichords were an entirely separate breed of their own. The most famous harpsichord builders, the Ruckers family, were in fact Flemish and came from the city of Flanders.

The Flems were the first to add a second keyboard to their harpsichords. Also, Flemish harpsichords integrated tighter strings than were 4 inches longer than those found on their Italian counterparts.

Not only that, but the Flems where able to design their models so that the string was plucked further from the nut, which in turn reduced the friction of string against nut, allowing for the Flemish strings to last much longer than the strings found on other versions of the harpsichord.

Most Flemish harpsichords were small, but also very compact and solid.

Italian Harpsichord

Many believe that the Italians were the first to design, create, and use the harpsichord…making their models the oldest. That said, the Italian versions were also the simplest of the various families – with little change seen over the years as well.

Most Italian models included just one keyboard that contained four octaves. Along with this feature, Italian harpsichords were all “unichord,” meaning that each note on the instrument was tied to one string. Speaking of the Italian strings, most were made of brass and strung very loosely and close to the nut.

In terms of weight and material, most Italian harpsichords were light, but large and made of cedar or cypress wood.

Lastly, most Italian harpsichords were mainly used for background accompaniment in plays and productions, and as solo instruments on occasion.

Conclusion

As you can tell, the harpsichord has a rich history. Originating in Italy, its beauty both visually and musically helped it to spread throughout most of Western Europe. With that spread came variations that has only added to the elegance of this instrument.

Harpsichord Players Only

In 1978, a harpsichordist by the name of Elaine Comparone, and some of her fellow harpsichordists decided that their instrument needed a little more publicity.
So, they formed a New York-based organization called, “Harpsichord Unlimited,” with the intentions of bringing the harpsichord to a wider audience around the world and to teach people about the history and music of their beloved instrument.

First Crack

The first concert that “Harpsichord Unlimited” undertook was at the Festival of Chamber Music at St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village. The audience loved the concert, and from there, expansion was just a matter of time for the group.

The group soon picked up more members, all of which were highly gifted harpsichord players, raising the prestige of the organization in just a matter of years. As time went on, members of “Harpsichord Unlimited” began receiving commissions to produce new harpsichord works.

Making it Big

As the organization continued to grow and grow, demands for the group to play more concerts and to compose more pieces grew as well. During that time, an annual Sunday afternoon concert and Wednesday evening concert series in New York City was established.

In 2002, the concert series was moved to Carnegie Hall, one of the most prestigious concert halls in the world. On top of their debut and performances at Carnegie Hall, the group also established an upstate concert series called the Hudson Festival Baroque.

Today

“Harpsichord Unlimited,” is still doing well today, albeit with a hiccup. During the 2008 economic crisis, many of the organization’s donors stopped financially supporting them, leaving the organization at the doorsteps of death.

Luckily, new supporters came to the rescue along with smaller contributions, helping the group to regain their financial footing.

Today, “Harpsichord Unlimited,” continues to promote the music of their instrument through concerts, festivals, and new chamber works. They do so with an eye towards showing the public that the harpsichord and its music are still relevant, even in our contemporary setting of 2011.

Then music changed with the rising of the middle class. An artist would write music for the general public and make a living by creating more and more for the masses to enjoy. Even artists not popular with the main-stream could find a loyal niche.

However, there had to be a way to distribute the music to the masses. This is where the production company came in. An artist would prove that they had music that at least some of the masses would enjoy and then the production company would record and publish their music. The music (or artist) would be marketed, and the masses would buy the published music, and the artist and production company would split the earnings.

Then the internet appeared. With the ease of digital music, people can copy music from a friend without paying a penny, not even for a tape or CD to put it on. This is considered stealing from the production company, and they are none-too-happy about that.

However, what if we went back to the “olden ways” of producing music: Sponsors? Say Coca-cola sponsored Lady Ga-Ga. Lady Ga-Ga would get paid to make music, get paid to do concerts and end up just as rich and famous. However, Coke would give away her music for free, and earn every Lady Ga-Ga fan as a loyal customer.

Production companies wouldn’t like this, but it’s time they left anyways. That’s the way of capitalism. In the end customers would be happy, artists would be happy and sponsors would have a new, powerful means of advertising.

The Wall Street Journal may not be at the top of every Harpsicordian Music lover’s or friend of Bach’s list of where to find tit-bits of interest but in the Reviews Section on May 6th 2011 there was a nice article praising Wanda Landowska titled “Remembering The Heroine of the Harpsichord.”

Most of us never had a chance to hear The Great Wanda. (I was born too late sadly.) But there is a remarkable DVD available with the only extant moving picture show of her playing. She was interviewed in her home in 1953 and the DVD includes vintage recordings of the artist performing selections from Bach, Francisque, etc. Treat yourselves to the Wanda Landowska: Uncommon Visionary” DVD and learn more of the woman who single-handedly provoked the revival of harpsichord music.

By A. J. Goldman

EISENACH, Germany—When Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska (1879-1959) met the cellist Pablo Casals, she famously told him, “You play Bach your way and I’ll play Bach his way.” While her dogmatic assertion might seem a little quaint today, a new exhibition at the Bach House, (the composer’s birthplace) makes clear just how influential Landowska has been in the way we think about and appreciate Bach’s music.

Landowska at her Pleyel harpsichord in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt in 1933. 

Her name might not exactly ring bells these days outside musical and scholarly circles, but Landowska was a tireless advocate for an instrument that, at the time, was considered an inferior predecessor to the piano, as well as a pioneer of what is now called authentic performance practice.

The exhibition “Memories of Wanda Landowska” marks the 100th anniversary of a “musical battle” between the piano and the harpsichord held November 1911 in Eisenach. The harpsichord won.

Spread over two rooms in the Bach House, numerous objects, photos and musical examples are used to explain the life and work of this musical pioneer. They show her featured alongside famous artists or reposing in the tranquility of her “Temple de la Musique Ancienne” in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, near Paris, where she lived from 1925 until driven out by the Nazis because of her Jewish origins. Some of Landowska’s belongings lend a shrine-like aspect, including the shoes that she wore while playing concerts (she wore long dresses that kept her pedal work a secret).

The exhibition’s centerpiece is an original 1927 harpsichord by Pleyel, the French make favored by Landowska, that is demonstrated every hour. At nearby listening stations, you can hear her playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Well-Tempered Clavier. For the uninitiated, these virtuosic renditions will come as a revelation. They reveal Landowska’s conviction that Bach should not be played with stiff reverence. As she wrote, “In their day, these works were accused of being too passionate. If we are incapable of evoking the same feelings, then our tradition is wrong.”

SF Bach Festival Public Masterclass Series: Harpsichord with Corey Jamason

American Bach Soloists

Join Faculty Artist Corey Jamason and the fabulous harpsichord young artists of this Festival season’s academy on July 18th.

For more info on Mr. Jamason, go to http://americanbachj.org/Artists/JamasonCorey.htm

As the world’s newest Bach Festival, and the first of its kind in San Francisco, American Bach Soloists Festival & Academy takes its place alongside the other great Bach Festivals held in Carmel, CA, Eugene, OR, and Bethlehem, PA and summer music festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, the Marlboro Music School and Festival, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival

The Bach Festival will be held at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in the heart of the performing arts district of the city’s civic center. Through its collaboration with the Conservatory, ABS’ artistic mandate of historically informed performance practice is realized along with those of the traditional, neighboring institutions: the Symphony, Opera, and the Ballet of San Francisco

In founding such a festival with a training academy in the city, American Bach Soloists solidify an enduring legacy in the historical performance movement, whose national significance in recent decades has been spurred on in no small part by the passionate commitment of musicians, listeners, and supporters in the San Francisco Bay Area

The Festival is characterized by a wide range of diverse but interlocking activities: Masterworks Series concerts, Chamber Series concerts, Academy Series, concerts, Master Class Series, Lecture Series, and Public Colloquia

The backbone of the Festival & Academy is the outstanding roster of first-rate performers, faculty, teachers and coaches.

• Venue: San Francisco Conservatory of Music
• Date: Mon July 18, 2011 2:30pm
• City: San Francisco
• Email: jstahlman@americanbach.org
• Price Range: Free
• Tickets: (415)-621-7900

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List of pages:
Harpsichord:

Inventions and Sinfonias

Duetto

Maj0r and Minor Suites (and Partitas)

The W.-T.K.I

(The W.-T.K.I II) + older versions

Pieces with Fugues

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Miscellaneous

Doubtful and/or Spurious

Transcripts (by others)

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