This list is about the main harpsichord topics: making, playing, temperament
(I might add history, regulation, decoration and so on, but let us keep this
simple).

 

Everything is important, of course. We tell beginners and students that the
purpose of playing harpsichord music on the harpsichord (and not on a modern
piano) is to reproduce a performance as much as possible in agreement with
the score and with what we know the composer expected to hear. We look for
the right sound and a playing style consistent with both the instrument and
the score. 

 

With these basics in mind, the three topics I listed above can be ranked,
IMHO of course, as follows:

 

            1st. Playing

 

            2nd. Making

 

            3rd. Temperament

 

Let us check 1 vs 2: I prefer a stylish performer on a 2nd rate harpsichord
that a performer who disregards the composer's style yet plays on an
excellent instrument.

As for 2 vs 3 it should also be obvious. What sounds best: a very good
harpsichord tuned to a temperament that is not the best choice for the
music, or a poor harpsichord with the perfect temperament choice?

 

So I have always been perplexed by the fact that this list discusses mostly
Making, less so Temperaments and even less so Playing.

 

Until recently my impression was that simply many of our fellow members were
Makers, and therefore the priority makes sense for them.

 

Then I enrolled in the Harpsichord ... Facebook group and, to my surprise,
Making is also prevalent by an huge margin.

 

Again, this may be subjective: perhaps makers are much more interested in
having their wares showing in lists than players!

 

I have yet a THIRD statistics. My books. The one on Temperaments (the most
expensive one) outsells all the others put together. Well, maybe this book
is good and the others are bad, or perhaps it is more unique and the others
have more competitors?

 

However, I have yet a FOURTH statistics. From my "Academia.edu" list of
about 30 papers of mine, which I mostly uploaded during the first few months
of 2016. People browsing the web go there for the paper's title, and
therefore the number of "hits" is unrelated to the paper's quality or the
final opinion of the reader. The number just shows how much the average
harpsichordist browising the web is interested in different harpsichord
topics. I find the numbers  VERY surprising: 

 

- Temperament: A paper of mine about Vallotti's temperament (essentially
just showing that Vallotti is a good average of Werckmeister's circular
temperaments) in its original English version has had dozens of readers, and
the Italian version has had several hundred readers. Other papers of mine on
temperament and stringing also have good hit statistics.

 

- My papers on playing style fare consistently worse, much worse! For
example one in Italian about "L'Art de Toucher le Clavecin" and its
implications when performing F. Couperin, uploaded last November and
referred to by the organisers of the Italy-wide "300 years of L'Art de
Toucher" macro-event (with scores of recitals and conferences all around
Italy but hardly any paper published), in four months got only 8 hits.

 

- My selection from Haney's "Harpsichord" magazine, advertised here in
HPSCHD-L, got just ONE hit!

 

From the above, needless to say, we cannot infer that harpsichord players
are more interested in harpsichord making and tuning than in playing: this
is highly unlikely. 

My conclusion is simply that harpsichordists are not much interested in
reading at all. And indeed I have already commented this alarming trend I
see among young harpsichordists: they play baroque keyboard music on the
harpsichord just because they like the instrument's sound, but to follow the
historical style (articulation, ornamentation, rhythmic alterations and so
on) is very low on their priorities.

 

I hope to be wrong somewhere, because so far my impression is that, lately
we seem to have lost sight of the most important matter in the harpsichord
revival: how we play it.

 

Best Regards

 

CDV 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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