General Harpsichord and Clavichord Thread

[JaapT]

Last week I found out that one of the last (the last) recordings of Gustav Leonhardt can be finally purchased, at least electronically. The album contains pieces by Antoine Forqueray (gamba suites which were transcribed by his son). Leonhardt plays a beautiful french Hemsch harpsichord. I greatly enjoyed it. I like these pieces more than music by Francois Couperin. They are very lively. I also have still a vinyl record of Leonhardt from the 1970ies also with Forqueray. I am not sure which of the two recordings I prefer. I think the old one, but that is perhaps also because these were at the time a revelation.

The new recording was made by a russian/french friend of Leonhardt and distributed on  a small label, which was hard to find. So now everyone can enjoy. Greatly recommended, certainly if you do not yet have Forqueray in your collection!

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[North Star]

Somewhat tempting, indeed.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gustav-Leonhardt-joue-Forqueray-clavecin/dp/B00T0JPP4S/
http://www.amazon.fr/Gustav-Leonhardt-joue-Forqueray-clavecin/dp/B00T0JPP4S/

[Mandryka]

Interview with Hantai here, discussing things like interpretation, authenticity, the reception of baroque music etc etc.

http://www.franceinter.fr/player/reecouter?play=1040641

[Mandryka]

Here's a microtonal harpsichord as used, I believe, by the 16th century Italian avant garde

https://www.youtube.com/v/dFb1fECwk2o

[prémont]

Yes, but these instruments were relatively rare. Here is some more information about this topic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_sharp

[Que]

[repost from the listening thread]

[asin]B019G8SROM[/asin]
I have a recording of these works played by Laure Colladant played on a fortepiano (Mandala), but it never quite settled with me.... The epiphany of her Woelfl set was absent... Was it the music?

Now I know what was the matter: the music simply sounds way better on a harpsichord. Sebastian de Albero was a contemporary of Domenico Scarlatti, though his junior, like Antonio Soler. This is a s close to Scarlatti as you can get IMO, though I also hear some other strong Italian (Neapolitan) influences. He is definitely more Italianate than Soler. It is a geat pity that Albero died at only 34 years of age, judging from this music he might well have become the next Scarlatti.

On 2nd hearing I think Alejandro Casal, professor at the conservatory of Seville, does an excellent job. He did a Froberger disc before on Enchiriadis. One quibble might be that he sounds sometimes a bit too "mechanical" in the extremely extensive fuges that Albero wrote (which is musically a very intersting feature). Another (minor) quibble is with the recording, which is too close - the harpsichord is right there in your face, which can come across as abrasive at times. Go easy in the volume when listening, and you'll be OK.

All in all recommended. The only recording on harpsichord of music that deserved to be heard.

Q

[Mandryka]

The claviorganum that Claudio Brizi uses is described in the image - you'll see the harpsichord is a copy of a baroque instrument, the organ sounds good in early music to me, I think the link between the two offer more possibilities than any old instrument did. He can play harpsichord from the pedals for example.

His style of play is very different from Leonhardt's claviorganum CD on alpha.  Where Leonhardt uses the two instruments in one piece, he seems to use them really to give the effect of greater sustain of a harpsichord note. Brizi is much more ready to let the organ take one voice and the harpsichord take another. In Arauxo this is a nice thing to hear I think. I have no idea what if anything is known about historical claviorganum style. Note that these comments about Leonhardt are from memory, I'll check later.

Added. Not quite correct of Leonhardt, but the tone of organ seems more blended with that of the harpsichord.

His way of playing seems very natural and expressive. I originally started to listen to the CD because it includes a fantasy by Abraham van den Kerckhoven, rather beautifully played I think. Even in very familiar music, music I've thought about, like BWV 684, I enjoyed hearing what he does - not the deepest presentation of Christ's baptism in the Jordan perhaps, but still, rather good, a bold conception which avoids the trap of trying to make the music depict a river. He certainly makes sounds like I've never heard before (just listen to My Lady Carey's Dumpe) - but . . . I liked it. It sounded right.

The whole booklet is on Brizi's website, including an interview. he comes across as an inspired and imaginative musician

http://www.claudiobrizi.com

Anyway, I hope someone else will listen to this extraordinary CD and post their comments, it's on spotify.

(Does anyone have any information about the instrument Leonhardt used? I don't have the booklet.)

[Mandryka]

This is a CD worth hearing for two reasons: the music and the performance.

Johanne Couture has chosen to play pieces normally associated with lute, presumably because the boundaries between lute and harpsichord were porous. So we have suites by Ennemond Gautier and Jacques Gallot, several anonymous pieces and several by old friends like Chambonnières,  D'Anglebert and Louis Couperin. The thing that links all these pieces is Style Brisé: arpeggiated chords,  limping rhythms, constantly changing phrase lengths and a general feeling of unpredictability.

And the performance? Well she makes her copy of a Vaudry sound so lute like you could imagine she's plucking the strings with her finger nails. And at the level of interpretation she has a knack of knowing how long to let a note resound, and how long to pause between a phrase, to keep the listener hooked. It's a shame she has only recorded this one CD because my feeling is she's really very good indeed.

[king ubu]

That's the "La Belle homicide" disc, right? This one: http://www.allmusic.com/album/la-belle-homicide-mw0001946265 (the pic is not showing on my work computer)
It's been a couple of years since I bought it, but I really enjoyed it when I gave it a few spins back then. Have to locate it and listen again, thanks for the reminder!

[bioluminescentsquid]

(Does anyone have any information about the instrument Leonhardt used? I don't have the booklet.)

If you have the "Tribute to Leonhardt" set like me, the booklet is online: https://www.outhere-music.com/uploads/booklets/51824d19a1879.pdf?1.0.1.1

From the Claviorganum booklet:
"The instrument used here, made in 2001,comes from the workshops of Matthias Griewisch at Bammental (harpsichord) and Friedrich Lieb at Bietigheim-Bissingen (organ). It is composed of an Italian one-manual harpsichord, after Aelpidio Gregori, and a chest-like chamber organ with 8’ Gedackt (Bourdon) and 4’ Flute stops. By shifting the keyboard the harpsichord and the organ may be played separately or together. "

Oh dear, I just realized that I'm half a year late to the party!

[Que]

If you have the "Tribute to Leonhardt" set like me, the booklet is online: https://www.outhere-music.com/uploads/booklets/51824d19a1879.pdf?1.0.1.1

From the Claviorganum booklet:
"The instrument used here, made in 2001,comes from the workshops of Matthias Griewisch at Bammental (harpsichord) and Friedrich Lieb at Bietigheim-Bissingen (organ). It is composed of an Italian one-manual harpsichord, after Aelpidio Gregori, and a chest-like chamber organ with 8' Gedackt (Bourdon) and 4' Flute stops. By shifting the keyboard the harpsichord and the organ may be played separately or together. "

Welcome to the forum.

Q

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Bobtail Squids can appreciate classical music too. (Apperently, they have better taste than most humans). 

On another note, as a non-French speaker, what is the closest English translation of La Belle homicide. (The beautiful murder?) Some context?

[kishnevi]

Bobtail Squids can appreciate classical music too. (Apperently, they have better taste than most humans). 

On another note, as a non-French speaker, what is the closest English translation of La Belle homicide. (The beautiful murder?) Some context?

Not a French speaker, and don't have the CD, but I think the phrase can be translated as "the beautiful murderess"

Edit: the tracklist at the link Roi Ubu posted reveals one of the pieces on the recording is titled La Belle Homicide

[bioluminescentsquid]

Bobtail Squids can appreciate classical music too. (Apperently, they have better taste than most humans). 

Thanks - but I tend to prefer thinking that I'm an elusive colossal squid (who, by the way, are also bioluminescent), somewhere in the depths of the oceans
But thank you, guys, for your warm welcomes!

On a (slightly) related note, what does the expression "douceur violente" mean? I've encountered it a the title of a Bailes lute album, and on a Dolmetsch clavichord, and I think it translates into "gentle violence," which doesn't make sense.

[Mandryka]

La belle homicide, the beautiful murderer/murder, is the title of a piece originally by Vieux Gaultier, later transformed by his pupil Charles Mouton. I have no idea why it's called La Belle Homicide, I don't know who gave Gaultier's piece the title.

La Douceur Violente - violent softness/gentleness/sweetness. An oxymoron. I think it's a great description of style brisé, which is sweet, and full of rhythmic and melodic irregularities, asperities. It may help to note that the 1694 Acadamie Francaise Dictionary defines "violent" as "Acting impetuously" But it may not help to note that the same dictionary defines "douceur" as "A way of acting which is far from every sort of violence."

I've often said that the greatest art is about paradox.

[Que]

Oh, come on guys....  

Both expressions obviously refer the eternal concept of LOVE...

Plucked this from the net - from the booklet of Lislevand's CD "La belle homicide":

"The homicide in question is indeed a very sweet one. We recall the words from a Dowland song: to see/to touch/to kiss/to die. This Grace procures the metaphorical death of the late Renaissance: the sublime ecstasy of physical love.

In Gaultier's Rhetorique des Dieux, he adds the following text under the tablature of the L'homicide: (english translation) This Fair Lady, by her charms, brings death to all that see or hear her. But that Death is unlike ordinary deaths in that it is the beginning of life, instead of marking its end."

Q

[Mandryka]

Oh, come on guys....  

Both expressions obviously refer the eternal concept of LOVE...

Plucked this from the net - from the booklet of Lislevand's CD "La belle homicide":

"The homicide in question is indeed a very sweet one. We recall the words from a Dowland song: to see/to touch/to kiss/to die. This Grace procures the metaphorical death of the late Renaissance: the sublime ecstasy of physical love.

In Gaultier's Rhetorique des Dieux, he adds the following text under the tablature of the L'homicide: (english translation) This Fair Lady, by her charms, brings death to all that see or hear her. But that Death is unlike ordinary deaths in that it is the beginning of life, instead of marking its end."

Q

And now I remember that in Shakespearian England people thought that an orgasm was a sort of death. When Romeo says he wants to die in Juliette's arms, for example. How could I have forgotten!

This lute music is porno!

[prémont]

And now I remember that in Shakespearian England people thought that an orgasm was a sort of death. When Romeo says he wants to die in Juliette's arms, for example. How could I have forgotten!

Yes, analogue to the French term "la petite mort" .

This lute music is porno!

Do you consider sex synonymous with with porno?

[Mandryka]

Do you consider sex synonymous with with porno?

You mean the expression of sexual passion in public music, like in Tristan Act II or the overture to Rosenkavalier? I don't know, I think the question is interesting. One thing I would say is that I don't necessarily think that pornography is a bad thing.

Anyway returning to Gaultier or Mouton's La Belle Homicide, the problem I have with que's  explanation is seeing how eroticism is reflected in the music. I'm beginning to think that Que was too quick to draw the conclusion, unless someone can convince me that there's something in the music which ties it to orgasm.

[prémont]

You mean the expression of sexual passion in public music, like in Tristan Act II or the overture to Rosenkavalier? I don't know, I think the question is interesting. One thing I would say is that I don't necessarily think that pornography is a bad thing.

IMO pornography (when we exclude pervertions) is the unscrupulous commercial exploitation and trivialization of basic normal sexual behavior. On the other hand I admit that some of the so-called artistic descriptions of sexual behavior may seem to cross the border to pornography. I use to say, that if I like it, it is art, and if I do not like it, it is pornography. But I am well aware, that even degusting descriptions may have an artistic aim. So the best definition may be one which includes the intention of its autor, and not depends upon how the reader/listener/viewer perceives it. So I do not think your musical examples above are pornography.