NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2004
www.harpsichord.org.uk
Welcome to the third e-newsletter of the British Harpsichord Society.
The membership is now around 350 members. The website has continued to grow and many more links have been added. If you haven't seen it recently, click on the "keys" above and have a look. We now attract about 40 visits per day.
Your about this newsletter will help to improve future issues. Please send any you would like publicised: performances, publications, recordings etc.
Several recitals coming up which we will be attending:
14th August 2003, Oxford, Kah-Ming Ng Solo Recital
21st August 2003, Fenton House, London. David Wright, Broadwood Harpsichord Prize Recital.
If you are going to either
and we can arrange to meet up.
William Mitchell, a long established British maker, has very kindly offered to host a musical afternoon for the Society at his home near Bournemouth on TBC February 2005.
Instruments available will be a Franco-Flemish double, based on the 1636/1763 Ruckers-Hemsch, (now part of the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands, a National Trust property near Guildford, Surrey) as well as a rare treat, the Claviorganum. This extraordinary instrument combines a double manual harpsichord with a single manual chamber organ, which achieves a remarkable sound.
There is no formal programme. The idea is for members to come and play and listen and share their enjoyment of harpsichords. All standards are welcome or you can come and listen. We hope that many people will be prepared to play something.
Please support this occasion which has been organised specifically for the Society. Offers to host other events are also very welcome.
is essential as space is limited.
We are working on a number of developments for the future. One of which is a project, suggested by a member, to begin listing the baroque keyboard repertoire by composer as extensively as possible.
This is a huge task but spread between the membership it begins to look feasible to make some impact on it. Let us know if you would like to
A good source of information is the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians which is available in many public reference libraries. If anybody has access to the online version this could make research very much easier.
Have a look at the Repertoire page to see how far we have got.
Pythagoras and the Scale Design of Early Harpsichords in France, Germany, and Italy.
Denzil Wraight
An article
written specially for the Society analysing the use of Pythagorean principles in the stringing design of some early keyboard instruments.
Do you have any material that we could publish in this way?
Symposium of Early English Keyboards (SEEK)
Call for Papers and Conference Announcement
Symposium of Early English Keyboards (SEEK)
University of Aberdeen, 15-17 April 2005
The culmination of the Early English Organ Project residency at the University of Aberdeen will be a Symposium of Early English Keyboards at which two reconstructed sixteenth-century instruments (built by Goetze and Gwynn) will be available alongside a reproduction by Darryl Martin of one of the earliest surviving English virginals. The Symposium will feature a Festival of Organs and Virginals, comprising three recitals by international artists: Pieter Dirksen (Netherlands), Davitt Moroney (USA) and Rachelle Taylor (Canada). Speakers so far include: John Caldwell, Pieter Dirksen, Dominic Gwynn, John Harper, John Koster, Darryl Martin, Davitt Moroney, Rachelle Taylor.
The organs are based on two soundboards from organs dating from between 1520 and 1540 discovered in East Anglia. English repertoire from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries will be considered in the context of the organs and harpsichords of the period. Is it possible to divide the surviving music into repertoire for organ and repertoire for harpsichord? How can we recognize pieces intended primarily for organ rather than harpsichord?
Although the lack of surviving sixteenth-century organs may be explained by the ravages of Reformation and Civil War, it is curious that so few virginals survive from before the 1630s, a situation matched by the general lack of musical sources from the sixteenth century, even though we can be fairly sure that, for example, some of Byrd’s keyboard music dates back to the 1560s and 1570s. Why do relatively few English instruments and sources survive from the sixteenth century compared with the seventeenth? To what extent did instruments, tuning systems and the repertoire change in the early seventeenth century (if at all)?
Papers are welcome on any topic related to early English keyboard music (c. 1500-1625), including:
· instruments and organology
· pitch and temperament
· sources
· editing, scribal practice and performance
· organ music in its liturgical context
· performance practice
· repertoire
Aberdeen is easily accessible from London, Amsterdam and the USA. Cheap flights are available either from London Luton or Heathrow.
Accommodation will be available in King’s Hall, Old Aberdeen.
Proposals comprising an abstract of no more than 200 words should be submitted by Email to Dr David J Smith by Friday 21 January 2005, or posted to Dr David J Smith, School of Education, College of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Hilton Place, Aberdeen, AB24 4FA, Scotland, UK.
The selection process will be completed by 11 February 2005.
Early Keyboard Weekend 6-8th May 2005
Tutors:Laurence Cummings, Micaela Scmitz and Paul Simmonds.
Farncombe Estate, Broadway, Worcestershire.
Master classes, lectures & recitals on clavichord, harpsichord and fortepiano
Featuring instruments by Malcolm Rose and Andrew Wooderson.
Details
Recital Offers
One of our aims is to introduce harpsichord music to a wider audience. We would like to encourage members to offer recitals to audiences near them. Some venues can be made available for a nominal contribution, either from ticket sales or a retiring collection. If anybody is interested in performing or helping to arrange a recital, please
Guestbook Requests
The Guestbook continues to attract requests and comments. Some members have posted requests for information on specific subjects to see if other members can help. Click on the Guestbook key on the home page to have a look and add your own comments.
Instruments for Sale and Wanted
In case you have not yet seen it, we now have a popular
Sale and Wanted page with a number of instruments available and requests.
If you have an instrument you would like to
you can place an advertisement with picture for £20. Instruments wanted ads are FOC.
Once again, please let me have your
with any suggestions or contributions for future issues.
Thanks
William