The double-manual harpsichord of Vital Julian Frey, after model from Jean-Claude Goujon 1749.

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.

"Harpsichord" designates the whole family of similar plucked keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginals, muselar, and spinet.

The harpsichord was widely used in Renaissance and Baroque music. During the late 18th century it gradually disappeared from the musical scene with the rise of the fortepiano. But in the 20th century it made a resurgence, used in historically informed performance of older music, in new (contemporary) compositions, and in popular culture.

Mechanism[link]

Harpsichords vary in size and shape, but all have the same basic functional arrangement. The player depresses a key pivoted in the middle of its length, which causes the far end of the key to rise. This lifts a jack, a long strip of wood, to which is attached a small plectrum (a wedge-shaped piece of quill or, nowadays plastic), which plucks the string. When the key is released by the player, the far end returns to its rest position and the jack falls back. The plectrum, mounted on a tongue that can swivel backwards away from the string, passes the string without plucking it again. As the key reaches its rest position, the string's vibrations are halted by the damper, a piece of felt attached to the top of the jack.

These basic principles are explained in more detail below.

Figure 1. Schematic view of a 2 × 8' single manual harpsichord

• The keylever is a simple pivot, which rocks on a balance pin passing through a hole drilled through it.
• The jack is a thin, rectangular piece of wood which sits upright on the end of the keylever, held in place by the registers (the upper movable, the lower fixed) which are two long strips of wood running in the gap from spine to cheek with rectangular mortises through which the jacks can move up and down.
  
  

  

  Figure 2. Upper part of a jack
• In the jack, a plectrum juts out almost horizontally (normally the plectrum is angled upwards a tiny amount) and passes just under the string. Historically, plectra were made of crow quill or leather. Most modern harpsichords based on historic instruments have plastic (delrin or celcon) plectra.
• When the front of the key is pressed, the back of the key rises, the jack is lifted, and the plectrum plucks the string.
• The vertical motion of the jack is then stopped by the jackrail, which is covered with soft felt to muffle the impact.
  
  

  

  Figure 3. When the key is pressed, the jack is raised, and the plectrum touches the string and begins to bend. Then the plectrum plucks the string and causes it to sound. The jack hits the jack rail. When the player releases the key, the jack falls back down under its own weight, and the plectrum pivots backwards to allow it to pass the string.
• When the key is released, the jack falls back down under its own weight, and the plectrum passes back under the string. This is made possible by having the plectrum held in a tongue which is attached with a pivot and a spring to the body of the jack. The bottom surface of the plectrum is cut at a slant; thus when the descending plectrum touches the string from above, the angled lower surface provides enough force to push the tongue backward.^[1]
• When the jack arrives in fully lowered position, the felt damper touches the string, causing the note to cease.

Strings, tuning, and soundboard[link]

Sound board of a harpsichord with Chladni patterns

Each string is wound around a tuning pin, normally at the end of the string which is closer to the player. When rotated with a wrench or tuning hammer, the tuning pin adjusts the tension so that the string will sound the correct pitch. Tuning pins are held tightly in holes drilled in the pinblock or wrestplank, an oblong hardwood plank.

Proceeding from the tuning pin, a string next passes over the nut, a sharp edge that is made of hardwood and is normally attached to the wrestplank. The section of the string beyond the nut forms its vibrating length, which is plucked and creates sound.

At the other end of its vibrating length, the string passes over the bridge, another sharp edge made of hardwood. As with the nut, the horizontal position of the string along the bridge is determined by a vertical metal pin inserted into the bridge, against which the string rests.

The bridge itself rests on a soundboard, a thin panel of wood usually made of spruce, fir or—in some Italian harpsichords—cypress. The soundboard efficiently transduces the vibrations of the strings into vibrations in the air; without a soundboard, the strings would produce only a very feeble sound.

A string is attached at its far end by a loop to a hitchpin which secures it to the case.

Multiple choirs of strings[link]

Many harpsichords have exactly one string per note. There are several reasons why it is sometimes an advantage to have more. When there are two choirs of strings at the same length, it is possible to arrange for them to give different tonal qualities, and thus to increase the variety of sound produced by the instrument. This is done by having one set of strings plucked closer to the nut, which emphasizes the higher harmonics, and produces a "nasal" sound quality. When two strings tuned to be the same pitch, or to an octave apart, are plucked simultaneously by a single keystroke, the note is louder and richer than one produced by a single string. The qualitative distinction is particularly noticeable when the strings are tuned an octave apart.

When describing a harpsichord it is customary to specify its choirs of strings, often called its disposition. Strings at eight foot pitch sound at the normal expected pitch, strings at four foot pitch sound an octave higher, and sometimes harpsichords have the rare 16-foot pitch (one octave lower than eight-foot) or two-foot pitch (two octaves higher).

When there are multiple choirs of strings, the player is often able to control which choirs sound. This is usually done by having a set of jacks for each choir, and a mechanism for "turning off" each set, often by moving the upper register (through which the jacks slide) sideways a short distance, so that their plectra miss the strings. In simpler instruments this is done by manually moving the registers, but as the harpsichord evolved, builders invented levers, knee levers and pedal mechanisms to make it easier to change registration.

More flexibility in selecting which strings play is available in harpsichords having more than one keyboard or manual, since each manual can control the plucking of a different set of strings. In addition, such harpsichords often have a mechanism to couple manuals together, so that two can be used while actually playing on only one. The most flexible system is the French shove coupler, in which the lower manual can slide forward and backward, so that in the backward position "dogs" attached to the upper surface of the lower manual engage the lower surface of the upper manual's keys. Depending on choice of keyboard and coupler position, the player can select any of the sets of jacks labeled in figure 4 as A, or B and C, or all three.

Figure 4. French shove coupler. To the left: uncoupled keyboards. The depressed upper key lifts the jack A upwards. The depressed lower key lifts jacks B and C. To the right: The upper keyboard is coupled to the lower one by pulling the latter. The depressed upper key lifts the jack A upwards. The depressed lower key lifts jacks A, B and C.

The English dogleg jack system (also practised in Baroque Flanders) does not require a coupler. The jacks labeled A in Figure 5 have a "dogleg" shape that permits A to be played by either keyboard. If the player wishes to play the upper 8' from the upper manual only and not from the lower manual, a stop handle disengages the jacks labeled A and engages instead an alternative row of jacks called "lute stop" (not shown in the Figure). Find full details in Hubbard 1967, p.133 ff., Russell 1973, p.65 ff. and Kottick 2003.

Figure 5. Dogleg jack, English coupler system. When depressed, the upper key lifts the "dogleg" jack (jack A) upwards. The lower key lifts all three jacks A, B, and C.

The use of multiple manuals in a harpsichord was not originally provided for the flexibility in choosing which strings would sound, but rather for transposition; for discussion see History of the harpsichord.

Jan Vermeer's famous painting A Lady Standing at a Virginal shows the characteristic practice of his time, with the instrument mounted on a table and the player standing.

The case[link]

The case holds in position all of the important structural members: pinblock, soundboard, hitchpins, keyboard, and the jack action. It usually includes a solid bottom, and also internal bracing to maintain its form without warping under the tension of the strings. Cases vary greatly in weight and sturdiness: Italian harpsichords are often of light construction; heavier construction is found in the later Flemish instruments and those derived from them (see History of the harpsichord).

The case also gives the harpsichord its external appearance and protects the instrument. A large harpsichord is, in a sense, a piece of furniture, as it stands alone on legs and may be styled in the manner of other furniture of its place and period. Early Italian instruments, on the other hand, were so light in construction that they were treated rather like a violin: kept for storage in a protective outer case, and played after taking it out of its case and placing it on a table.^[2] Such tables were often quite high – until the late 18th century people usually played standing up.^[2] Eventually, harpsichords came to be built with just a single case, though an intermediate stage also existed: the "false inner–outer", which for purely aesthetic reasons was built to look as if the outer case contained an inner one, in the old style.^[3] Even after harpsichords became self-encased objects, they often were supported by separate stands, and some modern harpsichords have separate legs for improved portability.

Many harpsichords have a lid that can be raised, a cover for the keyboard, and a stand for music.

Harpsichords have been decorated in a great many different ways: with plain buff paint (e.g. some Flemish instruments), with paper printed with patterns, with leather or velvet coverings, with chinoiserie, or occasionally with highly elaborate painted artwork.^[4]

Variants[link]

The terms used to denote the various members of the harpsichord family are now standardized. This was not so in the harpsichord's heyday.

Harpsichord[link]

In modern usage, "harpsichord" can mean any member of the family of instruments. More often, though, it specifically denotes a grand-piano-shaped instrument with a roughly triangular case accommodating long bass strings at the left and short treble strings at the right. The characteristic profile of such a harpsichord is more elongated than a modern piano, with a sharper curve to the bentside.

Virginals[link]

The virginal is a smaller and simpler rectangular form of the harpsichord having only one string per note; the strings run parallel to the keyboard, which is on the long side of the case.

Spinet[link]

A spinet is a harpsichord with the strings set at an angle (usually about 30 degrees) to the keyboard. The strings are too close together for the jacks to fit between them. Instead, the strings are arranged in pairs, and the jacks are in the larger gaps between the pairs. The two jacks in each gap face in opposite directions, and each plucks a string adjacent to a gap.

Clavicytherium[link]

A clavicytherium is a harpsichord with the soundboard and strings mounted vertically facing the player, the same space-saving principle as an upright piano.^[5] In a clavicytherium, the jacks move horizontally without the assistance of gravity, so that clavicytherium actions are more complex than those of other harpsichords.

Some of the earliest harpsichords for which we have evidence are clavicytheria. One surviving example from the late 15th century is kept at the Royal College of Music in London.^[5] For most of the history of the harpsichord, however, the clavicytherium was far less common than the horizontal instrument, probably because of its greater complexity and lesser reliability. In the 18th century fine clavicytheria were made by Albertus Delin, a Flemish builder.^[6]

Ottavino[link]

Ottavini are small spinets or virginals at four foot pitch. It is thought^{[by whom?]} that harpsichords at octave pitch were more common in the late Mediæval times and the early Renaissance, but lessened in popularity later on. However, ottavini remained very popular as domestic instruments in Italy. In England, Samuel Pepys makes many mentions of his "tryangle" in his diary, which references the usual shape of these instruments. In the Low Countries, ottavini were commonly paired with an 8' virginals, encased in a small cubb under the soundboard. The ottavino could be removed and placed on top of the larger virginal, making an effect like unto a double manual instrument. These are sometimes called 'mother-and-child'^[7] or 'double' virginals.^[8]

Other[link]

The archicembalo, built in the 16th century, had an unusual keyboard layout, designed to accommodate variant tuning systems demanded by compositional practice and theoretical experimentation. More common were instruments with split sharps, also designed to accommodate the tuning systems of the time.

The folding harpsichord was an instrument that could be folded up for travel.

Harpsichord by Alastair McAllister, Melbourne, 1999, and a rare pedal harpsichord, by Hubbard & Broekman, Boston, 1990

Occasionally, in late 18th c., harpsichords were built with a pedal keyboard. While these were mostly intended as practice instruments for organists, a few pieces are believed to have been written specifically for the pedal harpsichord.^{[citation needed]}

Compass and pitch range[link]

On the whole, earlier harpsichords have smaller ranges and later ones larger, though there are many exceptions. The largest harpsichords have a range of just over five octaves and the smallest have under four. Usually, the shortest keyboards were given extended range in the bass with a "short octave".

Tuning pitch is often taken to be a=415 Hz, roughly a semitone lower than the modern standard concert pitch of a=440 Hz. An accepted exception is for French baroque repertoire which is often performed with a=392 Hz, approximately a semitone lower again. Tuning an instrument nowadays usually starts with setting an A; historically it would commence from a C or an F.

Some modern instruments are built with keyboards which can be shifted sideways, allowing the player to align the mechanism with strings at either a=415 Hz or a=440 Hz. If a tuning other than equal temperament is used, the instrument requires retuning once the keyboard is shifted.^[9]

History[link]

Ruckers-Taskin (1646/1780) harpsichord, (Paris, Musée de la Musique)

Johann Sebastian Bach – Prelude in C major, BWV 846 Performed by Robert Schröter on a French harpsichord Domenico Scarlatti – Sonata in D minor K. 9, Allegretto Performed by Martha Goldstein on an Italian harpsichord Johann Sebastian Bach – English Suite No. 1 in A major, BWV 806 – prelude Performed by Martha Goldstein on a Flemish harpsichord Adriano Banchieri – The Battle Performed by Sylvia Kind on a harpsichord of the type made in the early 20th century

Problems listening to these files? See media help.

The harpsichord was most probably invented in the late Middle Ages. By the 16th century, harpsichord makers in Italy were making lightweight instruments with low string tension. A different approach was taken in Flanders starting in the late 16th century, notably by the Ruckers family. Their harpsichords used a heavier construction and produced a more powerful and distinctive tone. They included the first harpsichords with two keyboards, used for transposition.

The Flemish instruments served as the model for 18th century harpsichord construction in other nations. In France, the double keyboards were adapted to control different choirs of strings, making a more musically flexible instrument. Instruments from the peak of the French tradition, by makers such as the Blanchet family and Pascal Taskin, are among the most widely admired of all harpsichords, and are frequently used as models for the construction of modern instruments. In England, the Kirkman and Shudi firms produced sophisticated harpsichords of great power and sonority. German builders extended the sound repertoire of the instrument by adding sixteen foot and two foot choirs; these instruments have recently served as models for modern builders.

In the late 18th century the harpsichord was supplanted by the piano and almost disappeared from view for most of the 19th century: an exception was its continued use in opera for accompanying recitative, but the piano sometimes displaced it even there. 20th century efforts to revive the harpsichord began with instruments that used piano technology, with heavy strings and metal frames. Starting in the middle of the 20th century, ideas about harpsichord making underwent a major change, when builders such as Frank Hubbard, William Dowd, and Martin Skowroneck sought to re-establish the building traditions of the Baroque period. Harpsichords of this type of historically informed building practice dominate the current scene.

Music for the harpsichord[link]

Historical period[link]

Bach's Little Prelude in C major being played on a harpsichord.

The great bulk of the standard repertoire for the harpsichord was written during its first historical flowering, the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

The first music written specifically for solo harpsichord was published around the early 16th century. Composers who wrote solo harpsichord music were numerous during the whole Baroque era in European countries including Italy, Germany, England and France. Solo harpsichord compositions included dance suites, fantasias, and fugues. Among the most famous composers who wrote for the harpsichord were the members of English virginal school of the late Renaissance, notably William Byrd (ca. 1540 – 1623). In France, a great number of highly characteristic solo works were created and compiled into four books of ordres by François Couperin (1668–1733). Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) began his career in Italy but wrote most of his solo harpsichord works in Spain; his most famous work is his series of 555 harpsichord sonatas. Perhaps the most celebrated composer who wrote for the harpsichord was J. S. Bach (1685–1750), whose solo works (for instance, the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Goldberg Variations), continue to be performed very widely, often on the piano. Bach was also a pioneer of the harpsichord concerto, both in works designated as such, and in the harpsichord part of his Fifth Brandenburg Concerto.

Two of the most prominent composers of the Classical period (music), Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), wrote harpsichord music. For both, the instrument featured in the earlier period of their careers and was abandoned once they had shifted their efforts to the piano.

Besides solo works, the historical harpsichord was widely used for accompaniment in the basso continuo style (a function it maintained in operatic recitative even into the 19th century).

Music written for the revived harpsichord[link]

Through the 19th century, the harpsichord was almost completely supplanted by the piano. In the 20th century, composers returned to the instrument, as they sought out variation in the sounds available to them. Under the influence of Arnold Dolmetsch, the harpsichordists Violet Gordon-Woodhouse (1872–1951) and in France, Wanda Landowska (1879–1959), were at the forefront of the instrument's renaissance.

Concertos for the instrument were written by Francis Poulenc (the Concert champêtre, 1927–28), Manuel de Falla, Bertold Hummel,^[10] Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass, and Roberto Carnevale. Bohuslav Martinů wrote both a concerto and a sonata for the instrument, and Elliott Carter's Double Concerto is scored for harpsichord, piano and two chamber orchestras.

In chamber music, György Ligeti wrote a small number of solo works for the instrument (including Continuum), and Henri Dutilleux's Les Citations (1991) is scored for harpsichord, oboe, double bass and percussions. Elliott Carter's Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord (1952) explores the timbre possibilities of the modern harpsichord. Josef Tal wrote Concerto for harpsichord & electronic music (1964) and Chamber Music (1982) for s-recorder, marimba & harpsichord. Both Dmitri Shostakovich (Hamlet, 1964) and Alfred Schnittke (Symphony No.8, 1998) wrote works that use the harpsichord as part of the orchestral texture. John Cage and Lejaren Hiller wrote HPSCHD (1969) for harpsichord and computer-generated tape.

In the Preface to his piano collection Mikrokosmos, Bela Bartok suggests some ten pieces as being suitable for the harpsichord.

Harpsichordist Hendrik Bouman has composed pieces in the 17th and 18th century style, including works for solo harpsichord, harpsichord concerti, and other works that call for harpsichord continuo. Other contemporary composers writing new harpsichord music in period styles include Grant Colburn, and Fernando De Luca. Notable performers include Oscar Milani and Mario Raskin.

During the second half of the 20th century, the sound of the harpsichord (or perhaps rather more often, its electronically created equivalent) became very familiar in popular culture, appearing frequently in popular music, television, films, computer games, and so on.

See also[link]

• Clavichord

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Boalch, Donald H. (1995) Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord, 1440–1840, 3rd ed., with updates by Andreas H. Roth and Charles Mould, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-318429-X. A catalogue, originating with work by Boalch in the 1950s, of all extant historical instruments.
• Dearling, Robert (ed.) (1996) The ultimate encyclopedia of musical instruments, London : Carlton, ISBN 1-85868-185-5
• Hubbard, Frank (1967) Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making, 2nd ed., Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-88845-6. An authoritative survey by a leading builder of how early harpsichords were built and how the harpsichord evolved over time in different national traditions.
• Kottick, Edward (1987)The Harpsichord Owner's Guide. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
• Kottick, Edward (2003) A History of the Harpsichord, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-34166-3. An extensive survey by a leading contemporary scholar.
• O'Brien, Grant (1990) Ruckers, a harpsichord and virginal building tradition, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-36565-1. Covers the innovations of the Ruckers family, the founders of the Flemish tradition.
• Russell, Raymond (1973)The Harpsichord and Clavichord: an introductory study, 2nd ed., London : Faber and Faber, ISBN 0-571-04795-5
• Skowroneck, Martin (2003) Cembalobau: Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse aus der Werkstattpraxis = Harpsichord construction: a craftsman's workshop experience and insight, Fachbuchreihe Das Musikinstrument 83, Bergkirchen : Bochinsky, ISBN 3-932275-58-6. A study (written in English and German) of harpsichord building by a leading figure in the modern revival of historically authentic methods of building.
• Zuckermann, Wolfgang (1969) The Modern Harpsichord: twentieth century instruments and their makers, New York : October House, ISBN 0-8079-0165-2

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Harpsichords

Instruments

• "Queen Elizabeth's Virginal". Furniture. Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/furniture/stories/virginal/index.html. Retrieved 2007-08-12. 
• A few historic harpsichords from the collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Double virginal by Hans Ruckers, Antwerp, 1581
  • Harpsichord by Girolamo Zenti, Rome, 1666
  • Harpsichord by Jan Couchet, Antwerp, 1650
  • Octave virginal, Augsburg, ca. 1600
  • Spinetta or Virginal, Venice, ca. 1540
  • Golden Harpsichord by Michele Todini, Rome, ca. 1675
  • Harpsichord, Italy, late 17th century
  • Harpsichord by Pleyel et Cie, Paris, 1928
• A harpsichord constructed from Lego

History

• Italian Harpsichord-Building in the 16th and 17th Centuries by Shortridge

Listen

• Hear the sound of various harpsichords
• Sala del Cembalo, free harpsichord sound files

Images

• HarpsichordPhoto, photographs of early stringed keyboard instruments

Organisations

• British Harpsichord Society

Craftsman insights

• Interview with harpsichord builder Jack Peters

Music

• Scores featuring the harpsichord: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Procembalo free catalog of contemporary harpsichord music

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

Domenico Scarlatti
1738 portrait by Domingo Antonio Velasco

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (26 October 1685 – 23 July 1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style. Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti he composed in a variety of musical forms, although today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas.

Life and career[link]

Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, Kingdom of Naples, in 1685, the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. He was the sixth of ten children and a younger brother to Pietro Filippo Scarlatti, also a musician. He probably first studied under his father, the composer and teacher Alessandro Scarlatti; other composers who may have been his early teachers include Gaetano Greco, Francesco Gasparini, and Bernardo Pasquini, all of whom may have influenced his musical style.

He became a composer and organist at the royal chapel in Naples in 1701. In 1704, he revised Carlo Francesco Pollarolo's opera Irene for performance at Naples. Soon afterwards, his father sent him to Venice. After this, nothing is known of Scarlatti's life until 1709, when he went to Rome in the service of the exiled Polish queen Marie Casimire. He met Thomas Roseingrave there. Scarlatti was already an eminent harpsichordist: there is a story of a trial of skill with George Frideric Handel at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome where he was judged possibly superior to Handel on that instrument, although inferior on the organ. Later in life, he was known to cross himself in veneration when speaking of Handel's skill. In Rome, Scarlatti composed several operas for Queen Casimira's private theatre. He was Maestro Di Cappella at St. Peter's from 1715 to 1719. In 1719 he travelled to London to direct his opera Narciso at the King's Theatre.

According to Vicente Bicchi (Papal Nuncio at the time), Domenico Scarlatti arrived in Lisbon on 29 November 1719. There he taught music to the Portuguese princess Maria Magdalena Barbara. He left Lisbon on 28 January 1727 for Rome, where he married Maria Caterina Gentili on 6 May 1728. In 1729 he moved to Sevilla, staying for four years and gaining a knowledge of flamenco. In 1733 he went to Madrid as music master to Princess Maria Barbara, who had married into the Spanish royal house. The Princess later became Queen of Spain. Scarlatti remained in the country for the remaining twenty-five years of his life, and had five children there. After the death of his first wife in 1742, he married a Spaniard, Anastasia Maxarti Ximenes. Among his compositions during his time in Madrid were a number of the 555 keyboard sonatas for which he is best known.

Scarlatti befriended the castrato singer Farinelli, a fellow Neapolitan also enjoying royal patronage in Madrid. The musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick commented that Farinelli's correspondence provides "most of the direct information about Scarlatti that has transmitted itself to our day." Domenico Scarlatti died in Madrid, at the age of 71. His residence on Calle Leganitos is designated with a historical plaque, and his descendants still live in Madrid.

This section includes inline links to audio files. If you have trouble playing the files, see Wikipedia Media help.

Music[link]

	Sonata in D minor K. 9, Allegretto performed on a harpsichord by Martha Goldstein
	Sonata in E major K. 20, Presto performed on a harpsichord by Martha Goldstein
	Sonata in B minor K. 27, Allegro performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan
	Sonata in F Minor K. 69 performed on a spinet by Ulrich Metzner
	Sonata in C major K. 159, Allegro performed on a piano by Veronica van der Knaap
	Sonata in B minor K. 377 MIDI rendition
	Sonata in E major K. 380, Andante comodo performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan
	Sonata in E major K. 531, Allegro performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan

Only a small fraction of Scarlatti's compositions were published during his lifetime; Scarlatti himself seems to have overseen the publication in 1738 of the most famous collection, his 30 Essercizi ("Exercises"). These were rapturously received throughout Europe, and were championed by the foremost English writer on music of the eighteenth century, Charles Burney.

The many sonatas which were unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime have appeared in print irregularly in the two and a half centuries since. Scarlatti has attracted notable admirers, including Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich, Heinrich Schenker, Vladimir Horowitz, Emil Gilels, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and Marc-André Hamelin.

Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form, and mostly written for the harpsichord or the earliest pianofortes. (There are four for organ, and a few for small instrumental group). Some of them display harmonic audacity in their use of discords, and also unconventional modulations to remote keys.

Other distinctive attributes of Scarlatti's style are the following:

• The influence of Iberian (Portuguese and Spanish) folk music. An example is Scarlatti's use of the Phrygian mode and other tonal inflections more or less alien to European art music. Many of Scarlatti's figurations and dissonances are suggestive of the guitar.
• A formal device in which each half of a sonata leads to a pivotal point, which the Scarlatti scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick termed "the crux", and which is sometimes underlined by a pause or fermata. Before the crux, Scarlatti sonatas often contain their main thematic variety, and after the crux the music makes more use of repetitive figurations as it modulates away from the home key (in the first half) or back to the home key (in the second half).

Ralph Kirkpatrick produced an edition of the sonatas in 1953, and the numbering from this edition is now nearly always used – the Kk. or K. number. Previously, the numbering commonly used was from the 1906 edition compiled by the Neapolitan pianist Alessandro Longo (L. numbers). Kirkpatrick's numbering is chronological, while Longo's ordering is a result of his grouping the sonatas into "suites". In 1967 the Italian musicologist Giorgio Pestelli published a revised catalogue (using P. numbers), which corrected what he considered to be some anachronisms.^[1]

Aside from his many sonatas, he composed a quantity of operas and cantatas, symphonias, and liturgical pieces. Well known works include the Stabat Mater of 1715 and the Salve Regina of 1757, which is thought to be his last composition.

References[link]

• Kirkpatrick, Ralph (1953). Domenico Scarlatti. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02708-0. 

Notes[link]

Free scores[link]

• Free scores by Domenico Scarlatti in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Domenico Scarlatti at the International Music Score Library Project
• Sheet music for K.1 to K.176 John Sankey edition
• www.kreusch-sheet-music.net harpsichord sonatas by Scarlatti
• Free scores by Domenico Scarlatti in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Sheet music engraved by Sebastiano Vigna

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Domenico Scarlatti

• The Mutopia Project has compositions by Domenico Scarlatti
• Converter for Scarlatti's Works Number
• Associazione Domenico Scarlatti
• John Sankey: Keyboard Tuning of Domenico Scarlatti
• John Sankey: Complete edition, harpsichord, downloadable recordings in MIDI
• The Life of Domenico Scarlatti
• Scarlatti Domenico – A new look at the keyboard sonatas; complete catalogue including newly discovered works
• "The mercurial maestro of Madrid" by Robert White, 20 July 2007, The Guardian
• 538 Piano Sonatas (mp3 files)
• Piano Society – A short biography and some free recordings in MP3 format, performed by Roberto Carnevale, Chase Coleman, Graziella Concas, Knut Erik Jensen

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2006)

Igor Kipnis (27 September 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a well-known American harpsichordist and pianist.

Biography[link]

Born in Berlin, the son of Russian bass Alexander Kipnis, Igor Kipnis moved to the United States with his family in 1938. He learned the piano with his maternal grandfather, Heniot Levy; attended the Westport School of Music, and received his B.A. from Harvard University. He studied harpsichord with Fernando Valenti, and made his concert debut in New York in 1959. He was an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa (Harvard, 1977), and in 1993 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Illinois Wesleyan University.

Kipnis lived in Redding, Connecticut. For five years he was President and Artistic Director of the Friends of Music of Fairfield County, the Connecticut chamber music series, in addition to having served thirteen years as co-artistic director of the Connecticut Early Music Festival.

He married Judith Robison on January 6, 1953. They subsequently divorced, in May 1996, but reconciled shortly before her death on March 1, 2001 of the rare "salt and water" retention metabolic condition, Robison Syndrome.

He died in his home in Redding, Connecticut of renal cancer. His last concert was a solo piano recital in October 2001, in San Francisco. He is survived by his son, film, record producer, and Kipnis Studio Standard creator Jeremy R. Kipnis, and his wife Carolina R. Kipnis.

Musical career[link]

Following his debut in 1959, harpsichordist, fortepianist, duo-pianist, and clavichordist Kipnis performed in recital and as soloist with orchestras throughout the world, including North, Central, and South America, Western and Eastern Europe, Israel, and Australia.

Igor Kipnis performed as harpsichord soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Louisville, Dallas, Denver, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Seattle, Vancouver, Honolulu, and National Symphonies, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Capella Cracoviensis, the Boston Pops, the Munich Philharmonic, the New Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Los Angeles, St. Paul, Cologne, Israel, New Stockholm, McGill, and Polish Chamber Orchestras, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Sinfonia of Sydney, and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. His appearances at international and domestic festivals included those of Ansbach, the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, and Ludwigsburg in Germany, the Bath Festival in Great Britain, Gulbenkian in Portugal, Lanaudière in Canada, the Israel Festival, the Melbourne International Festival of Organ and Harpsichord, the Madeira Bach Festival, Poland's Music in Old Crakow, the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, and Prague Spring International Music Festival.

Kipnis's enormous harpsichord repertoire encompassed not only the traditional 16th through the 18th Century composers but also includes contemporary music and jazz as well. He is especially noted for his entertaining concert-length presentation, The Light and Lively Harpsichord, which samples the full range of the harpsichord repertoire, from Bach to Brubeck, as well as for his informal mini-concerts whose format he has extensively pioneered at college student centers throughout the United States, and, additionally, for his performances and recordings on related early keyboard instruments, the fortepiano and clavichord, and for directing ensembles from the keyboard.

In 1995, he formed a duo with New York pianist, Karen Kushner, internationally performing works for (modern) piano, four hands.^[1]

Broadcasting[link]

A frequent guest on both television and radio, such as the syndicated program, First Hearing, Kipnis for three seasons hosted his own The Age of Baroque over WQXR in New York and was host on WGBH-Boston’s syndicated program, "The Classical Organ." In 1978, he was the first harpsichordist to perform on the Grammy Awards telecast.

Editions, reviews and articles[link]

Oxford University Press has published numerous of his keyboard editions, including his anthology, A First Harpsichord Book. He was also noted for his record reviews and articles in such periodicals as The International Classic Record Collector, The International Piano Quarterly, Gramophone Early Music, Goldberg, Early Music America, the internet music magazines Music & Vision and Stereo Times, Stereophile, Audio, FI, Schwann/Opus, Stereo Review, The American Record Guide, Clavier, Opus, Chamber Music Magazine, Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter, and The Yale Review, as well as having written for the Washington Post, the New York Post, and the New York Herald Tribune. He was also involved in compiling a Harpsichord Resource Book for Greenwood Press, editing the harpsichord and clavichord volume of a two-volume Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments to be published by Garland, writing a harpsichord tutor for Oxford University Press, and, for Amadeus Press, preparing a biography of his father, the late Metropolitan Opera bass, Alexander Kipnis.

He was also for a time responsible for the covers and background sleeve notes for Westminster Records.^[1]

Recordings[link]

He was a prolific recording artist with 106 albums to his credit, of which 93 were solo. Among the honors he received were 9 Grammy Nominations, 3 "Record of the Year" Awards from Stereo Review, the 1969 Deutsche Schallplatten Prize, and the 1988 Gold Star award from the Italian periodical, Musica. Keyboard, in that magazine's annual readers' poll, named him "Best Harpsichordist" in 1978, 1979, and 1980 and "Best Classical Keyboardist" in 1982 and 1986.

Among his last record releases were The Virtuoso Scarlatti, fifteen sonatas played on five harpsichords after historical prototypes built by Hubbard of Boston and Vivaldi‘s The Four Seasons in which he directed members of the Connecticut Early Music Festival from the keyboard (both on Chesky), Sony CD reissues of The Spanish Harpsichord, the complete Bach Harpsichord Concertos with Neville Marriner conducting, Bach’s Italian Concerto and Second English Suite (together with works for clavichord), Harpsichord - Greatest Hits, as well as the complete Fantasias of J. S. Bach for harpsichord and clavichord (on Arabesque), A Treasury of Harpsichord Favorites and Mozart on the 1793 Fortepiano (two anthologies on Music & Arts), and Igor Kipnis - The First Solo Harpsichord Recordings (on VAI).

He recorded for Epiphany, Chesky, Angel (EMI), Sony Music/CBS, VAI, Arabesque, Music & Arts Programs of America, London (Decca), Musical Heritage Society, Intercord, Teichiku, Nonesuch, MCA, CRI, Grenadilla, Vanguard, Nitepro, King, Start, Golden Crest and Newport Classic.

External links[link]

• Interview with Igor Kipnis by Bruce Duffie, April 5, 2001
• Mind My Harpsichord!, In Affectionate Memory of Igor Kipnis, by Bill Newman, Music & Vision, March 15, 2002, retrieved October 4, 2006
• A Man of Many Talents, by Jennifer Paull, January 25, 2002, retrieved October 4, 2006
• Stereophile Obituary, by Wes Phillips, February 3, 2002, retrieved October 4, 2006
• Biography, by Joseph Stevenson, allmusic, retrieved October 4, 2006

References[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2010)

Rafael Puyana Michelsen (born 14 October 1931 in Bogotá) is a Colombian harpsichordist.

Puyana began piano lessons at age 6 with his aunt and at age 13 made his debut at the Teatro Colón in Bogotá. When he was 16, he went to Boston to continue his piano studies at the New England Conservatory. He subsequently studied harpsichord with Wanda Landowska and musical composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

Puyana made his harpsichord début in New York in 1957. In 1961, Puyana débuted in Boston in the Peabody Mason Concert series.^[1] One reviewer was so impressed by his performance, the sub-headline read: "Without any doubt, Rafael Puyana's recital at Jordan Hall last night was by far the greatest program of harpsichord music I have ever heard".^[2] He made his London debut in 1966. Puyana has performed with Yehudi Menuhin, Leopold Stokowski, and Andrés Segovia. Composers Federico Mompou and Xavier Montsalvatge have dedicated compositions to him - in Mompou's case, No. 11 of his Cançons i Danses.

Aside from concerts, Puyana has taught such artists as Christopher Hogwood and Elizabeth de la Porte. Puyana also collects historical instruments such as a 3-manual harpsichord made in 1740 by H.A. Hass.

References[link]

Sources[link]

• The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, published by Oxford University Press, 1994.

This Colombian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Georg Reutter (3 November 1656 – 29 August 1738) was an Austrian organist, theorbo player and composer.

Biography[link]

Reutter was born in Vienna and became a pupil of Johann Caspar Kerll, whom he later succeeded as organist at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, in 1686. In 1695 he spent some time in Italy. He was ennobled in Rome on 8 January 1695 by Prince Sforza; unlike his son, he did not use his title. Between 1696 and 1703 Reutter was employed in the Viennese court chapel as continuo player on the theorbo. The principal Kapellmeister, Antonio Draghi, recommended him to the emperor as ‘a virtuoso player able to play many instruments’. He was married three times and was the father of 15 children, of whom two became musicians (Karl and the younger Georg). In 1700 Reutter was formally appointed court organist. In 1712 he succeeded Fux as vice-Kapellmeister and in 1715 as first Kapellmeister of the cathedral; he retained that position until 1728. He passed on the position of cathedral organist to his son Georg Reutter II in 1720. He died in Vienna.

As a composer Reutter is best known for his collection of toccatas. He also composed a large number of so-called Versetteln or short organ preludes.

References[link]

This article about an Austrian composer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e