"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.
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 983557
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Music score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 296545
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 304490
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 1565630
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 108082
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 111317
for Keyboard (Urtextausgabe) (Urtext)
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Music score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 549818
for: Harpsichord
Buch
Item no.: 389116
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 352035
for: Harpsichord
Solostimme
Item no.: 1626544
for: 2 harpsichords, strings, basso continuo
Score
Item no.: 168689
for: Harpsichord
Music score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 348688
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1569
for: Harpsichord, piano, orchestra
Score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 307618
Musik Aus Ostbayern 3 (Faksimile) (Facsimile)
for: Harpsichord
Item no.: 281848
for: Organ [harpsichord]
Score
Item no.: 432746
for: Harpsichord, strings
Score
Item no.: 648593
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: Piano [harpsichord]
Music score
Item no.: 460268
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Music score
Item no.: 1346369
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 177123
for: Harpsichord [organ manuals]
Music score
Item no.: 245964
for: Organ manuals [harpsichord/piano]
Music score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 558208
Gli strumenti musicali
Storia della loro evoluzione tecnica e artistica
for: Harpsichord
Book
Item no.: 254227
for: Basso continuo
Item no.: 156504
Corpus Of Early Keyboard Music 37
for: Piano [harpsichord/organ]
Item no.: 290316
for: Organ [harpsichord]
Music score
Item no.: 373744
for: Basso continuo
Item no.: 234091
für 2 Cembali bearbeitet
for: 2 harpsichords
Score, Parts
Item no.: 459443
for: Harpsichord
Music score
Item no.: 648612
Transkription für Orgel oder Cembalo
for: Organ [harpsichord]
Music score
Item no.: 777895
Transkription für Orgel oder Cembalo
for: Organ [harpsichord]
Music score
Item no.: 777897
Transkription für Orgel oder Cembalo
for: Organ [harpsichord]
Music score
Item no.: 777899
for: Harpsichord
Book
Item no.: 999101
for: Organ manuals [harpsichord/piano]
Music score
Item no.: 1203349
for: Organ [harpsichord]
Item no.: 361225
Sonate 4 aus: Sechs Sonaten für Cembalo, mit Begleitung einer Violine, op. 2
for: Harpsichord, violin
Score, part
Item no.: 641794
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Item no.: 553133
for: Harpsichord
Book
Item no.: 606734
for: Organ manuals [harpsichord/piano]
Item no.: 132262
for: Harpsichord
Book
Item no.: 606733
103 composizioni di musica organistica inedita o poco nota del '700 Veneziano
for: Organ [harpsichord]
Music score (anthology)
Item no.: 763949
Documenta augustana musica Band 6
for: Harpsichord, violin, cello
Piano score
Item no.: 648048
for: Piano [harpsichord/organ]
Music score
Item no.: 1351545
for: Organ [harpsichord]
Item no.: 664858
Performers' Facsimiles (Faksimile) (Facsimile)
for: Harpsichord [piano]
Item no.: 335333
for: Organ manuals [harpsichord/piano]
Item no.: 215631
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