Playing the Baroque Harpsichord

Introducing the new eBook: PLAYING THE BAROQUE HARPSICHORD (2010)

Welcome to PLAYING THE BAROQUE HARPSICHORD!

This web site is devoted to musicians interested in playing early keyboard instruments—harpsichords, clavichords, virginals, organs—using authentic Baroque performance manners.
You are also welcome to my other websites: HARPSICHORDIST , UNEQUAL TEMPERAMENTS and BAROQUE FINGERINGS.

Claudio Di Veroli, Bray, Rep. Ireland, 2010 E-mail:

About the new eBook
PLAYING THE BAROQUE HARPSICHORD:
ESSAYS ON THE INSTRUMENT, INTERPRETATION AND PERFORMANCE, WITH RELEVANT TOPICS FOR THE CLAVICHORD AND ORGAN

This is an integrated collection of updated and expanded essays, some of them endorsed by leading harpsichordists. Only a few chapters are specific for the harpsichord: most of the book applies to all the Baroque keyboard instruments and some chapters to general Baroque music interpretation topics. Several colour figures are included, as well as musical examples from well-known Baroque works. The reader will find here the answer to long-standing problems. Thorough guidance is provided on difficult matters such as ornamentation, articulation, tempi, registration, sesquialter rhythms, notes inégales and further topics that have been found to be useful to the modern performer of Baroque keyboard music, whether amateur, advanced student or professional player. Find excerpts in the Preview below. [If you bought the book and wish to re-download it click here for directions].

The unique opportunity to sponsor this major work is available. Like the other eBooks by the same author, this one is expected to reach a wide distribution and readership by students and performers of early keyboard instruments, as well as researchers in the performance of early music. If you are interested in sponsorship, please contact Dr. Di Veroli at .

Contents of PLAYING THE BAROQUE HARPSICHORD

THE HARPSICHORD REVIVAL
THE HARPSICHORD FAMILY: INSTRUMENTS AND ACTIONS
BAROQUE FINGER MECHANICS
BAROQUE ARTICULATION
BASICS ON ESSENTIAL ORNAMENTS
PERFORMING THE NOTES INÉGALES
INÉGALES AND TRIPLETS IN BACH AND RAMEAU
TEMPI: AUTHENTICITY, RUBATO, TEMPI IN DIFFERENT COMPOSERS
HARPSICHORD STOP VOICING
REGISTRATION: USING THE STOPS IN DIFFERENT HARPSICHORD MODELS
REGISTRATION IN IMPORTANT BAROQUE HARPSICHORD WORKS
REPERTOIRE ISSUES: HARPSICHORD VS CLAVICHORD, ORGAN AND FORTEPIANO
A COMPLETE HARPSICHORD MULTILINGUAL DICTIONARY
LITERATURE CITED

Some important features of the book

—> A presentation on the main ancient harpsichord models and keyboard ranges (13 pages)
—> A concise explanation of articulation in early keyboards, with a list of sources and their implications (7 pages)
—> A presentation on ornaments, with a comprehensive Table and a full discussion of on-the-beat vs pre-beat performance (18 pages)
—> A detailed presentation covering all the different aspects of the performance of French notes inégales (19 pages)
—> An analysis of the relationship between inégales, triplets and overdotting in the works of Rameau and J.S. Bach (14 pages)
—> Finding the authentic tempo for Baroque pieces, exemplified in works by J.S. Bach, D. Scarlatti and Daquin (18 pages)
—> Harpsichord voicing: finding the proper and authentic loudness balance between the different harpsichord stops (11 pages)
—> A full treatment of harpsichord registration, backed by historical evidence, applied to the works of different composers (25 pages)
—> Finding the ideal type of instrument for the complete works of Frescobaldi, J.S. Bach, Haydn and other composers (19 pages)
—> The most complete ever Multilingual Harpsichord Dictionary in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish (160 entries)

Why an eBook?

This work can be read on the screen of a PC, Mac or any desktop or portable device capable of showing a document in Adobe Acrobat v.6.0 format or later.
It is also formatted for impeccable printing on Letter paper, A4 or A5 (two pages in an A4 sheet). Benefits of buying an eBook vs a ready-printed volume:
      • PRICE: less than 1/4th of the estimated price of a printed volume.
      • AVAILABILITY: an eBook is never out of print.
      • SECURITY: the reader can make a backup copy, so that the eBook cannot be lost or stolen.
      • PRINTING: if a printed volume is really needed, the reader can print it from any home computer.
      • MANY FIGURES: more than 77 figures, many of them photos and/or in full-colour.
      • PORTABILITY: the reader can carry the book around in a laptop computer or other portable device.
      • INTERNAL LINKS: internal hyperlinks, allowing the reader to "jump" to other parts of the eBook and "jump back" as well..
      • WEB ADDRESSES: they allow the reader to access on the spot web pages referred to.
      • REFERENCE: the reader interested in a particular topic can quickly search and find all the references to it in the eBook.
      • TIMELINESS: you buy the eBook and receive it on the spot.
This new book is a 9Mbyte document file. It downloads in less than 3 minutes using an Internet broadband service.

Comments from readers

".. I bought your e-book Playing the Baroque Harpsichord and am thorougly enjoying it. Clear, detailed writing and lots of good illustrations.
I will recommend it ...! "

"... You have done everything in such a logical manner and with such excellent method ... "

"... I enjoyed your book a great deal. ... I have just had all my questions about inégalité and more answered. It is a relief to find a work based on scientific thinking, and very clearly written. A surprisingly easy read, despite the wealth of information!"

PLAYING THE BAROQUE HARPSICHORD: book preview

Excerpts from the Introduction

Over the years my writings have covered quite a few matters relevant to needs of the student or player or Baroque keyboards, especially those related to solo/soloist playing of the main middle-to-late-Baroque French and German keyboard repertoire. Some of those writings have received encouraging comments from internationally-renowned performers (such as Gustav Leonhardt and Igor Kipnis). Those essays and papers are now made available here in a convenient and inexpensive eBook form. Furthermore, they are not simply reprinted or translated: they have been fully revised, updated, expanded and additionally used as the backbone over which this new book has been written. … Finally, the musical examples have mostly been selected from works easily available in modern reprints, making it possible for the reader to check the few bars reprinted here against the full score. …

The goal is to communicate ideas which I believe are significant and I have developed over decades of readings, performance, analysis and teaching, with no pretence of covering the vast field of Baroque keyboard performance. …worldwide ... a relatively uniform playing style has now developed, sometimes including manners that cannot be justified either as common Baroque practice or as the particular performance expected by the composer being played. This is one of the main issues the author has tried to address here. ... Though written mainly for the harpsichordist, this book is also addressed to the clavichordist and organist. ... and the differences between the three types of keyboard instruments are discussed.

Excerpts from the main Chapters

Some of the largest and best models of virginal produce a beautiful sound, slightly different but in no way inferior to that of a harpsichord. … All types of ancient instruments are being built again nowadays.

The only drawback of having a single manual instrument is that the player fails to develop the skills needed to play a two-manual one. But from an interpretation point of view … the … ideal general-purpose instrument …. The modern performer has to decide whether he prefers a 8'+4' or a 8'+8' instrument … Pros and cons of the two dispositions: … Should the harpsichordist purchase a finished instrument or build one from a "kit"? Some high-quality kits, when assembled by well-trained and dedicated amateurs, have proved to be excellent instruments … More often though … Drawings of the traditional jack's plucking and damping action often show as few as four stages. … the jack's action actually consists of as many as eleven distinct stages, as shown in the figure below …

Wanda Landowska invented a playing technique … curving to a maximum the small phalanxes … we often read that J.S. Bach … curved the whole fingers … always leaving their keys by curving inwards … Which of the two ways should be considered the typical Baroque keyboard technique? … Legato, non-legato, detached and staccato … are quite precise in Baroque keyboards… it is paramount to establish which was the "basic" or "default" articulation. … in modern times there has always been significant disagreement on this matter: however, the historical evidence … Santa María (1557) … Nivers (1665) … Türk (1789) … Articulation and phrasing … Paradigm of Consistency … Inconsistency …

Essential Ornaments … For most of the Baroque ornaments, the list of things … to check when playing, especially for beginners, is long but quite uniform: examples … accents … beat … length … speed …

Baroque trills and mordents before the beat … Prof. Frederick Neumann's treatise on ornamentation makes fascinating reading. Perhaps less obvious is his tendency to … … he leads the unsuspecting reader into agreeing with a—demonstrably—erroneous solution. … the modern musician is now free to trill before or after the beat … Modern taste, Ancient taste and Bird Organs. … the many extant French-Baroque musical boxes show mercilessly …

When facing a new French Baroque piece, even well-informed and experienced performers wonder:
          1. Should I use inégales in this composer's music?
                     2. Should I play inégales in this particular piece?
                              3. Which notes should be inégales?
                                        4. How inégales should they be?
                                                  5. Which passages should I single out for different degrees of inégalité?
Performing the inégales: CONSISTENCY … ARTICULATION … SLURS … DEGREE OF INEGALITÉ … SYMBOLS … DEFAULT INEQUALITY … FLEXIBILITY … STAGGERED INÉGALES …REGISTRATION …The conclusion is that slurred pairs in Baroque French music …

The performance of inégales in Bach yields more than one uncertainty … Let us now review for inégales Bach's major harpsichord pieces…. there is a completely different-and in the author's opinion much more likely-interpretation of Rameau's "coulez pointées" conundrum. …
Rameau merged both styles, featuring triplets in pieces with inégales. In the typical duplet+triplet+inégal situation the solution is simple …

Baroque evidence for rubato .... … such an approach does not tell us how the ancient harpsichordists played, but rather how some modern musicians try to concoct general rules from obvious exceptions. In order to … get an adequate and authentic tempo for a piece, let us review three traditional and time-tested methods: …It has been said that the "préludes non mésurés" ... rank among the worst-performed pieces in modern times. Indeed, the variety of modern interpretation is bewildering…. The following is a suggested approach …

Why would Corrette prescribe the upper 8' for the partition? Hubbard's explanation was that it is good advice because of … its slightly richer harmonic content … but … Corrette may have had another reason: …from the sources … we learn that 18th c. musicians were equally concerned with the two extremes: harpsichords quilled so lightly that they did not have enough loudness, or else quilled so loudly that their action was too heavy. … Today … in quite large halls … it is not unusual for otherwise fine replicas to sound decidedly too soft. Conversely, a very loud instrument …

No Baroque source deals with harpsichord registration in any detail. … Had one asked, say, François Couperin … Even though direct evidence is rare, there is instead plenty of indirect evidence, and significant conclusions can be reached, as explained below. …The expressive use of the two manuals is employed by Bach in all the [six] possible ways: … The remainder of this chapter consists of the author's suggested double-manual registrations for some important works in the harpsichord Baroque repertoire. …

REPERTOIRE ISSUES: This chapter is an attempt to clarify questions about the type of keyboard instrument intended in Baroque works, especially when the instrument was not clearly identified in the score … Was J.S. Bach a clavichordist or even a pianist? … Domenico Scarlatti … The keyboard range utilised in the Essercizi is chromatic AA-c'"....There are three alternative explanations…The best pieces that were ever written for the harpsichord. … . “I also do that sometimes”, replied Leonhardt … … the famous Toccata and Fugue in d minor BWV565… a harpsichord work by J.P. Kellner?...