Harpsichord History

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Subject guarantor:

Ivana BAŽANTOVÁ

Name of lecturer(s):

Ivana BAŽANTOVÁ

Learning outcomes of the course unit:

1. Theory introduction to the fuction and structure elements of the harpsichord.

2. Introduction to the development of types of harpsichords of the 16th to 18th centuries and on the basis of the study of conserved original instruments or their descriptions in resources.

3. The current situation, potential and perspectives.

Mode of study:

Presentation, supported provision of instructor study texts, image documentation, sound samples.

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

Presumed is partial independent activity in learning historical instruments commonly used today. Construction and sound in relation to performance.

Recommended optional programme components:

1. Participation in an excursion to a Dulcimer workshop.

2. Active maintenance of the instrument.

Course contents:

Brief course curriculum;

1. Plucked keyboard instruments - family and its representatives (harpsichord, spinet, virginala, claviciytherium, and others) - brief characteristics, common and varying markings.

2. The harpsichord - Italian, Spanish, Holland-Flemish, French, German (north and Scandinavia, south and Switzerland), British, in the Czech lands.

3. Situations in the 20th century - modern construction, copies.

Syllabus:

The harpsichord is similar to other instruments, the bearer of general markings of the culture in a place and time, in which it was used, adapted in construction, uses of available material and mainly efforts toward a particular quality of sound. The grand Baroque harpsichord has generally a given form and potential, but most of its construction components influence the sound or are transformed into a particular sound ideal, style or aim. The focus of knowledge in HIstory of the Harpsichord is an introduction to the historical „schools', their qualities and potential, because most of them, in today's repertoire played, remain in the copies of those historical harpsichords. Of course copies have a spirit of the present (material, fusion of individual types, etc.). And, even though the effort to come close to individual examples of the “golden era" of the harpsichord in the Baroque still reigns, additionally players are looking for adequate sound for selected types of compositions (Byrd on the English Virginal, Frescobaldi on the Italian instrument, Bach on a copy of Hass, etc.).

The presentation rests, particularly, on a tracing of original preserved or sufficiently described and depicted instruments: This regards the size of the instrument and its form, if possible the placement of the ribs, resonance board material, strings, jambs, plectrum, type of register pulls or other mechanisms,outer casing, decorative elements (painting, laquer, inlays, papers, etc.), keyboard (extent, key division), number of kezs and types of connections, pedal mechanisms, reconstructions, etc. The presentation is documented through image material, and sometimes, sound recordings of period instruments). The development of the modern harpsichord in the 20th century is not forgotten and the return to the building of copies according to historic originals. The presentation includes data about some significant builders of the past and present.

Recommended or required reading:

Literatura předmětu:

Bělský, Vratislav, Cembalo.Nástroj a jeho literatura, JAMU Brno 2002

Boalch, Donald, Makersa of the Harpsichord and Clavichoird 1440-1840, 2. rozš. vyd., Clarendon Press, Oxford 1974

Henkel, Hubert, Kielinstrumente: Spinette, Querspinette, Virginale, Cembali, Clavicytherien, DVfM, Leipzig

Heyde, Hubert, Musikinstrumentenbau 15.-19. Jahrhundert (kunst - Handwerk - Entwurf), 2.vyd., DVfM, Leipzig 1986

Hubbard, Frank, Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making, 4. vyd., Cambridge/London, 1972

-Harpsichord Regulating and Repairing, 9. vyd., Boston Tuner´s Supply Inc., 1980

Kottick, Edward L., A History of the Harpsichord, Indiana University Press, 2003

Rueger, Christoph, Musikinstrument und Dekor, Ed. Leipzig 1979

Russell, Raymond, The Harpsichord and Clavichord, 2. vyd. Faber a Faber, 1973

Grove a MGG - příslušná hesla podle nástrojů

Planned learning activities and teaching methods:

Lecture

Assessment methods and criteria:

The course is concluded with a test. Part of the test is an appraisal of a construction school according to photo material (external markings, basic construction).

Course web page:

Note:

Number of students in a group: 6. This course is intended for Cembalo student in the 1st year according to free spaces and other interested parties.

Schedule for winter semester 2014/2015:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

Schedule for summer semester 2014/2015:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Harpsichord (Bc) (next compulsory subject)