"Brightly the keys, all twinkling, linked, all harpsichording, called to a voice to sing the strain of dewy morn..." James Joyce
The harpsichord is widely seen as the forerunner of the modern day piano, the main difference being its plucking mechanism, rather than hammers, which gives it its distinct sound, the sound of the Renaissance and the Baroque, signalling in a new dawn for early music.
Concert pitch at the time was 415 Hz, approximately a semitone lower than today, which is 440 Hz. The harpsichord it very sensitive to fluctuations in temperature and humidity, and needs to be tuned at least once a day. The tuning process only takes about 20 minutes on average, so it is a small price to pay, for a beautiful, clean tone.
Not only is the harpsichord an excellent solo instrument, for which many works (such as sonatas, suites, toccatas, variations and many more) were written by composers such as B. Sweelinck, J. S. Bach, his son C. P. E. Bach, D. Scarlatti, Handel and F. Couperin, but the harpsichord, alongside the Organ, Theorbo and Lute, plays a central role in the basso continuo in most Baroque ensembles.
The harpsichord forms the harmonic bridge between melody and bass, and its central role within the basso continuo is comparable to the modern keyboard’s function in a rock, pop or jazz band.
One of the main features of the Baroque style for harpsichord is ornamentation, such as trills, mordents, turns and tremolo, which are particularly prominent in the French Baroque with composers such as Francois Couperin and Rameau. Many such ornaments can also be found in the famous Well-Tempered Clavier (1722) by J. S. Bach.
As a favoured instrument of the bourgeoisie and royalty, the untimely end of the harpsichord was brought about by the people’s revolts of the French Revolution (1789 to 1799), harpsichords and clavichords were thrown out of the windows onto the streets of Paris in anger and burned!
With the revival of early music in the 1970s, more and more new harpsichords were built. Pioneers such as B. Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman and Nikolaus Harnoncourt reinvented Renaissance and Baroque style, and the harpsichord grew in popularity, and was once again seen on concert stages, and in chamber venues all around the world.
Today you can find harpsichords built in Flemish, French, Italian, Austrian and German styles all over the world. They all have their own individual character and tone. Historical performance practice has now become second nature for harpsichord players, and has influenced the way we approach modern keyboard instruments, and most importantly how we view the piano.
K 507-555
Oeuvres complètes pour clavier, volume 11
Le Pupitre 41
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 177123
le pupitre 57
Tome 1 – Volume 1
Livre de 1649
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 177106
Ed. A. Longo - Sonate 451-500
for: Harpsichord
Buch
Item no.: 389116
per clavicembalo
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 1653408
Twenty Pieces
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Music score
Item no.: 321317
Corpus Of Early Keyboard Music 7
for: Harpsichord [organ manuals]
Item no.: 367707
3e cycle et cycle spécialisé
for: Instrument [voice]
Music score
Item no.: 1194175
Piano music pre-classicism
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Music score
Item no.: 352235
from Op. 1, Op. 2, Op. 5
Piano music pre-classicism
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Music score
Item no.: 486232
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 639174
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 1565280
for: Harpsichord
Score
Item no.: 390313
Klassik
for: Harpsichord
Buch
Item no.: 1193823
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 1044020
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 648616
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 648625
for: Harpsichord
Book
Item no.: 999105
Johann Sebastian Bach. Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke (NBA) V/12
for: Organ manuals [harpsichord/piano]
Book (critical commentary, hardcover)
Item no.: 767758
"Triple Concerto"
Bärenreiter Urtext
for: Harpsichord, flute, violin, strings, basso continuo
Violin 2 (orchestral part)
Item no.: 817356
for: Piano [harpsichord]
Book
Item no.: 992506
for: Harpsichord
Book
Item no.: 1006683
for: Harpsichord
Book
Item no.: 999015
(Sechs kanonische Inventionen für zwei Stimmen)
op. 20
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 1643505
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 476200
für Cembalo (Klavier)
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Item no.: 305566
for: 2 harpsichords, strings, basso continuo
Single part harpsichord 1
Item no.: 188603
for: Harpsichord, strings, basso continuo
Single part Harpsichord
Item no.: 170274
Klaviermusik aus den böhmischen Ländern, Band 9
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Score
Item no.: 474361
Musicalady~Komponistinnen Des 18. Und 19. Jahrhunderts
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Item no.: 298816
Performers' Facsimiles
for: Harpsichord
Music lesson book (reprint)
Item no.: 302297
Corpus of Early Keyboard Music 20
for: Piano [harpsichord/organ]
Music score
Item no.: 290333
for: 4 harpsichords, strings, basso continuo
Viola (orchestral part)
Item no.: 328046
Praeclassica
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 421255
Praeclassica
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 421453
for: Harpsichord
Score
Item no.: 420100
Edition Vieweg (Musikschätze vergangener Zeiten)
for: Harpsichord, orchestra
Set of parts
Item no.: 339463
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 342127
Hob. XVI: 21-26
for: Piano [harpsichord]
Item no.: 355864
per il cembalo solo
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 388759
for: Harpsichord
Book
Item no.: 1162663
Urtext Stuttgarter Bach-Ausgaben
for: 2 harpsichords
2 single parts
Item no.: 1676952
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 384850
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 385293
Praeclassica
for: Harpsichord
Violin 1 (orchestral part)
Item no.: 421230
Praeclassica
for: Harpsichord
Single part Harpsichord
Item no.: 421512
Praeclassica
for: Harpsichord
Single part(n)
Item no.: 421305
Praeclassica
for: Harpsichord
Single part Harpsichord
Item no.: 421617
Oboen-Konzert
for: Harpsichord
Single part
Item no.: 421581
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