The 17th century harpsichord keyboard in the context of works by Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583–1643) and Johann Jacob Froberger (1616–1667)

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The 17th century harpsichord keyboard in the context of works by Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583–1643) and Johann Jacob Froberger (1616–1667)

Journal Title: Notes Muzyczny - Year 2017, Vol 1, Issue 7

Abstract

The article touches on the range and mechanism of keyboards of historical keyboard instruments, especially the harpsichord. It explains in an accessible way the basic construction principles, technical aspects and historical ways of placing notes within an octave (short and broken octave). It includes illustrations drawn by the author explaining how sound mechanism works. The range and construction of keyboards were of great importance for compositions of old masters. The influence of this phenomenon can be seen in harpsichord pieces written in different geographical regions – instruments built in England differed from the ones in continental Europe. The dependency between technical capacities of an instrument and a music piece can be observed in works by Girolamo Frescobaldi and his student Johann Jacob Froberger (1616–1667), whose importance for the development of the harpsichord literature is invaluable. Works written by both masters have common features: both of them composed strict and free forms (ricercar, fantasy, toccata, etc.), wrote pieces for the harpsichord and organ, were virtuosi regarded by their contemporaries and their opinions greatly influenced the mechanism of the 18th century keyboard instruments playing. Technical aspects of historical instruments are of special importance for the modern-day performances on available copies of old harpsichords. Due to the necessity of rendering a wide range of repertoire, numerous compromise solutions have been used in a setup of keys and their respective notes. The article presents examples of compositions by Frescobaldi and Froberger which are only possible to play on the instruments with old-type keyboards. The aspect of fingering was not included here on purpose because it requires a separate study due to its specificity. The presented text is an attempt to start a discussion on this important topic for an early music performer as there are still no in-depth publications on it in the Polish language literature.<br/><br/>

Authors and Affiliations

Maksymilian Święch

Keywords

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EP ID EP517826
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