Who do you think is the best harpsichord player currently?

Answer 1

There are quite a few very good players. Some that I've liked include Gustav Leonhardt, Trevor Pinnock, Colin Tilney, Blandine Verlet, and Andrew Lawrence-King to name only a handful. If you want to find more names, you could consult the Scotty catalog at the University of California, Riverside (http://scotty.ucr.edu/), type in harpsichord as a keyword, limit your search to recordings, say after 1995, and see what comes up. There are so many good players out there that it's very hard to choose only one as a favorite.

Answer 2

Famous Harpsichord Players

Answer 3

A what? Well I'll say you... you do play the harpsichord right? You may be the only person in the world to play that lol

Answer 4

I apologize for my ignorance in this area, but the only harpsichordist that I really know is Wanda Landowska and she is most definitely not current. I'm assuming that you are a harpsichordist and are probably roaring with laughter due to my pathetic knowledge of your instrument but just in case you do not know her work...she is fabulous. (sorry... I am a pianist!)

Answer 5

I don't know a lot of professional harpsichordists, but I saw Bill Porter play a few years ago, and was pretty impressed. I think he teaches at Eastman.

Answer 6

I think at the moment Richard Egarr must be right up there. Magnificent!

Answer 7

without a doubt pierre hantai smokes them all. as skilled as trevor pinnock is pierre hantai is better.

just compare them playing the same pieces, such as the Goldberg variations or chromatic fantasy and fugue.

Answer 8

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A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when each key is pressed. As well as the large instrument currently called a harpsichord, the harpsichord family also includes the smaller virginals, the muselar or muselaar virginals and the spinet (but not the clavichord which is a hammered instrument). The harpsichord was widely used in baroque music. It became less popular following the invention of the piano, but is still used in contemporary music due to its distinctive sound. Mechanism Although harpsichords vary in size and shape, they all have the same basic functional arrangement. The player presses a key, causing 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 bit of quill or plastic), which on being lifted plucks the string. When the key is released by the player, the far end returns to its rest position and the jack is lowered. The plectrum, being mounted on a tongue that can swivel backwards away from the string, passes the string without plucking it again. As the key settles into its rest position, the string vibrations are halted by the damper, a bit of felt attached to the top of the jack. Strings and soundboard Simply plucking the strings would produce a very feeble sound. The full sonority of the harpsichord arises because the strings pass over a bridge (fig. 1, 9), which provides a sharp edge supporting one end of their vibrating length. The bridge is firmly attached to a soundboard (fig. 1, 14), a thin panel of wood usually made of spruce or (in Italian harpsichords) cedar. The soundboard and case-construction efficiently transduces the vibrations of the strings to the air, making them fully audible. Also, the vibrations of one string will invite its adjacent twin string to resonate in sympathy as long as the key is pressed. Some harpsichords have a 'damper off' position so that one choir of strings is undamped and may resonate freely in response to the tones played on the other choir(s). The strings must be held at the proper tension to sound the correct note. At one end, generally closest to the keyboard, they are passed around tuning pins (fig. 1, 4), which may be rotated with an appropriate wrench (tuning hammer) to adjust each string to its proper pitch. The tuning pins are drilled in the pinblock or wrestplank (fig. 1, 23), an oblong hard-wood plank. The other ends of the strings are fitted with twisted loopholes that pass over the hitchpins (fig. 1, 10) which are driven into the liner. Multiple choirs of strings It is not unusual for a harpsichord to have exactly one string per note. However, there are several reasons why it is considered desirable to have more. When there are two choirs of strings at the same length, it is possible to give them different tonal qualities and thus increase the variety of sound that the harpsichord can produce. This is done by having one plucked close to the nut (the bridge-like device that terminates the sounding length of the strings), the other farther away. Plucking close to the nut emphasizes the higher harmonics, producing a "nasal" sound quality. When two strings are carefully tuned to be the same pitch, or an octave apart, and are plucked simultaneously (by a single keystroke), the ear will hear a single note, louder and enriched by virtue of being sounded by two differently arranged strings. The quality distinction is particularly noticeable when the one string is an octave higher or lower than the other. Thus, in 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 similarly for the rare 16-foot pitch (one octave lower) and two-foot pitch (two octaves higher). When there are multiple choirs of strings, it is desirable for the player to be able to control which ones are played at any given time. This is generally done by having multiple sets of jacks (one per string), "turning off" a choir of strings by moving the upper register (through which the jacks slide) sideways a bit, so that their plectra no longer touch the strings. In simpler instruments, this function was performed directly by hand, but as the harpsichord evolved various inventions arose making it easier to change the registration, for example with levers next to the keyboard, knee levers, or pedals. Particular flexibility in selecting the strings to be played could be obtained in instruments that had more than one manual (keyboard), since each manual could control the plucking of a particular set of strings. In addition, makers often produced arrangements whereby the notes of one manual could optionally be sounded with the other manual. The most flexible system was the French shove coupler, in which the lower manual could slide forward and backward, and in the backward position "dogs" attached to the upper surface of the lower manual would engage the lower surface of the upper manual's keys, causing them to play. Depending on choice of keyboard and coupler position, the player could select the set of jacks labeled in the diagram as A, or B and C, or all three. Harpsichord In modern usage, a harpsichord can either mean all the members of the family, or more specifically, the grand-piano-shaped member, with a vaguely triangular case accommodating long bass strings at the left and short treble strings at the right; characteristically, the profile is more elongated than that of a modern piano, with a sharper curve to the bentside. Virginals Main article: Virginals The virginals is a smaller and simpler rectangular form of the harpsichord with only one string per note running parallel to the keyboard on the long side of the case. Spinet Main article: Spinet A harpsichord with the strings set at an angle to the keyboard (usually of about 30 degrees) is called a spinet. In such an instrument, the strings are too close to fit the jacks between them in the normal way; instead, the strings are arranged in pairs, the jacks are placed in the large gaps between pairs, and they face in opposite directions, plucking the strings adjacent to the gap. Clavicytherium A clavicytherium is a harpsichord of which the soundboard and strings are mounted vertically and thus face the player. Since the strings run vertical, the jacks must move in the horizontal plane, which is why the action of clavecytheria is more involved as in harpsichords since the direction of the key-movement (up and down) must be made to go forward and back. The same space-saving principle was later embodied in the upright piano. [4] Curiously, 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.[4] The clavicytherium may have been one of the candidates for harpsichord actions during the early days of the instrument, when alternatives vied (see below, History), but ultimately was almost entirely defeated by the standard horizontal harpsichord, which has the advantage of being able to rely on the direct force of gravity to return the jacks to their rest position. However, clavicytheria continued to be made from time to time throughout the historical period. In the 18th century particularly fine clavicytheria were made by Albertus Delin, a Flemish builder.[5]. Other Several harpsichords with heavily modified keyboards, such as the archicembalo, were built in the 16th century to accommodate variant tuning systems demanded by compositional practice and theoretical experimentation. Compass and Pitch range Generally, earlier harpsichords have smaller ranges and later ones larger, though there are frequent exceptions. In general, 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 using the method of the "short octave". Tuning Pitch in nowadays' practice is taken often at a=415 Hz, a semitone below modern standard concert pitch of a=440 Hz. An accepted exception is for French baroque repertoire which is often performed from a=392 Hz, yet again one semitone lower. No doubt this is overly simplified, but common practice. Historically, tuning would commence on C or F.