The Harpsichord This paper will be explaining the history behind the creation of the harpsichord. This paper will also look at some of the famous harpsichord composers throughout history. There are many other interesting instruments in the world, but the harpsichord made it possible to create many different sounds that led to even greater compositions. The harpsichord was the quintessential instrument in producing the modern days string instruments that are seen in the world today. The harpsichord made it possible to create legendary musical pieces. The harpsichord was one of the main instruments used during the time known As the Baroque Period. Even though the exact year the harpsichord was created there are many written accounts of a …show more content…
The instrument has many keys which were created from ebony and ivory. The harpsichord has chords which were made from brass wire, that are vertical to the instruments keyboards. The harpsichord has a piece called the ‘jack,’ that is attached to another piece that plucks the strings which causes a vibration and produces a sound. The way a harpsichord player can tune the instrument is with the tuning pin, that is located near the player. The harpsichord strings are wrapped around the tuning pin and to tune the instrument, the player has to adjust the tension with a wrench. Once the player thinks the instrument is in tune, they will make sure the chord is playing the correct pitch. The player also has to make sure the strings of the instrument are resting correctly in the slots of the bridge. The bridge of the instrument rests on a piece called the soundboard, the soundboard is essentially where the sound is produced. The vibrations from the strings cause the sound board to vibrate which makes the sound come through the harpsichord. There can also be different sounds produced depending on the lengths of the string on the instrument. If the harpsichord has multiple variations of strings the player has more availability to create different tones while playing. Since the harpsichord has multiple keyboards, it is easier for the player to choose which ones to play to produce the desired sound. The harpsichord has no dynamics though, so the loudness of the instrument stays the same no matter what string is plucked. The case of the harpsichord is what holds all the different pieces of the instrument. The strength of the harpsichord also depends on where the instrument has been produced. The lighter constructed harpsichords are typically created in Italy, but the heavier constructed instruments are created in the Flemish design. The German harpsichords were
Percussion has evolved from a small category to a wide variety of simple and technical instruments. Percussion is a category of musical instruments that is played using the hands or with a handheld stick/beater. Percussion started thousands of years ago when people played rhythms on random objects to please their friends and scare their enemy’s. People over the years discovered different ways to hit the objects.
Interestingly enough, in one article, Bach is mentioned saying that at first he was not that fond of it. Not until after the Seven Years War was over did pianos become famous in Germany. A few instrument makers in the early 18th century were building on what Cristofori had invented. One of these makers was Zumpe who became famous for his “square” pianos around the 1720’s in Germany. Fransisco Mirabal is making pianos in Spain in 1745, while Thomas Culliford starts a piano making business in London just five years later. In the 1760’s Guib and Gulliford were making pianos for Longman & Broderip (famous music publishers). A few years later in 1772, Johann Stein developed pianos with what is called the Viennese action, which is allegedly the type of piano Mozart preferred. It was not until 1775 that the piano made its debut in America. Johann Behrent of Philadelphia created square
Antonio Stradivari, a man known by many as on of the greatest luthiers of all time. The question at hand is why? From as early as the early 1700’s Stradivari was well known in the music world and still is. His instruments are reproduced in order to fool consumers into buying an instrument that has the same design as a Strad. There are also luthiers that try to replicate Stradivari’s beautiful design for their own satisfaction. Antonio Stradivari’s instruments have become socially and technically popular over time due to his superior craftsmanship, and for others, its large price tag. Stradivari’s life, affecting how his instruments were made, changed the perception of his instruments technically and socially.
Next we come to a point in time where a great leap had to be made. Musicians had made positive steps forward in the way of pitch and time but of only one or two notes at a time. What was needed was an in instrument that gave players control of many pitches simultaneously. The mechanism ...
Do you ever have one of those days when you remember your parents taking away all of your baseball cards or all of your comic books because you got a bad grade in one of your classes? You feel a little depressed and your priced possession has been stolen. This event is the same as August Wilson’s, The Piano Lesson. The story is about a sibling rivalry, Boy Willie Charles against Berniece Charles, regarding an antique, family inherited piano. Boy Willie wants to sell the piano in order to buy the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves. However, Berniece, who has the piano, declines Boy Willie’s request to sell the piano because it is a reminder of the history that is their family heritage. She believes that the piano is more consequential than “hard cash” Boy Willie wants. Based on this idea, one might consider that Berniece is more ethical than Boy Willie.
1709, Cristofori had demonstrated harpsichords built with hammer mechanisms that were capable of producing piano and forte effects. A few of these instruments even made their way into Germany the following years. Bach however, did not come into physical contact with such instruments until around 1740-a considerable length of time after the earliest pianofortes were being made. Gottfried Silbermann made the instrument that Bach came into contact with, and he was enthusiastic to receive Bach’s acclaim. Bach’s response however, was of initial disappointment: “…he spoke enthusiastically of the instrument’s tone and possibilities, but criticized its heavy touch and
When playing Baroque pieces on the piano, I generally discard any pedal use, since no keyboard instrument in the baroque era had any pedals. Ornamentations is a necessity due to the popularity as well as the expression you can achieve out of them. A limited the dynamic range is also essential, due to the terraced dynamics of the harpsichord. Improvised parts to continuo pieces is also a strong way to embellish pieces. Generally, the way performances on a harpsichord is practiced is similar to the piano when performing Baroque music.
<td width="50%">Baroque OrchestrasClassical OrchestrasString section and basso continuo central to the orchestra. Other instruments are occasional additions.Standard group of four sections: strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Different instruments treated individually.Fairly small; generally 10- 40 players.Larger than baroque; great variation to the numbers of players.Flexible use of timbres, e.g. Timpani and trumpets used generally just for festive music.Standardised sections. Most sections used regularly.Tone colour is distinctly secondary to other musical elements.Greater variety of tone colour and more rapid changes of colour. Timbre is unimportant and therefore a piece written for harpsichord could easily be rearranged for a string section.Each section of the classical orchestra has a special role. And each instrument is used distinctively.Wind instruments mainly used as solo instruments or as part of the basso continuo.The wind section had become a separate unit capable of contrast and distinct colour.The harpsichord generally plays an ostinato under the orchestra. Piano not invented.The piano introduces a third colour-tone to be contrasted with the orchestra
The Baroque Period, 1600-1750, marked another unique era of musical experimentation and evolvement. Titled after the trendy ornate architectural style during this period, the Baroque period, 1600 to 1750, witnessed a widespread change in the composer’s musical desires as they widely rebelled against the traditional styles that were prevalent during the Renaissance. With this era stained with monarchs attempting to outperform one another with pride and pageantry the development and grandeur of music excelled to new heights. The powerful monarchs of the period utilized composers heavily as they served as employed performers with the sole purpose to develop and perform musical pieces at the desire of the monarch. This servant-composer culture
Gottfried Silbermann, a German keyboard builder who was already famous for his accomplished work on the clavichord, took Cristofori’s design and improved it. Although Silbermann and Cristofori were both keyboard makers, Silbermann had further knowledge of mechanical systems which allowed him to advance Cristofori’s design. Silbermann was friends with J. S. Bach, who would deliver critiques on the newest mechanical tests Silbermann was working on at the time. Bach thought that the keys were too heavy to the touch, and that the high notes were too quiet (Sartorius). Piano designs up until this point resembled the harpsichord which are now called grand pianos. Later mechanical improvements fixed the sensitivity of the keys and the tonality of the higher notes. Accordingly the work on the piano continued well past Gottfried Silbermann’s time and ended up blossoming in
Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expanded his knowledge in the world of music. He taught him how to play the clavichord and exposed him to great composers at the time. At the age of fourteen, Bach and his good friend George Erdmann were awarded a choral scholarship to the prestigious musical school St. Michael’s in Luneburg. From then on, Bach began to build his career in the music industry. His first two years at the school he sang in the school’s a cappella choir. Historical evidence has shown that Bach at a young age would visit Johanniskirche and would listen to the works of organ player Jasper Johannsen. This was thought to have been the inspiration to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Studying at the prestigious musical school has help Bach network his way around and become acquaintances’ with some of the best organ players at the time such as Georg Böhm, and Johann Adam Reincken. Through his acquaintance with Böhm and Reincken Bach had access to some of the greatest and finest instruments.
Music has shaped the lives of people throughout history. Even in its earliest forms, music has included use of instruments. One of the oldest musical instruments known is a variation of the flute; the original flute is thought to date back nearly 67,000 years ago. Tonight we are going to move throughout the eras with a history of instrumental music. This concert will begin with the Renaissance Era and continue through time until we have reached modern instrumental music.
The pianist is a film made in 2002, directed by Roman Polanski and it circles around the life of Waldyslaw Szpilman which was played by Adrien Brody. This movie is a true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who, during the 1930’s, was known as the most talented piano player in all of Poland. As the Second World War begins, Szpilman becomes subject imposed to the anti-Jewish laws by the Germans who want to take over Poland. By the beginning of 1940’s Szpilman has witnessed his world/the community go from piano performance halls to the Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw. In addition, Szpilman was obliged to suffer the calamity of his families’ exile to German concentration camps, at the same time he is recruited into a forced German Labor Compound by a police guard named Itzak Heller, who had earlier captured his brother in jail. Then he goes hiding in buildings/apartments, but sooner or later ends-up looking through blown-up/burnt buildings at night for food and hiding throughout the daytime. Then one day, a Nazi Officer by the name of Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, discovers him in a building looking for food. Szpilman tells the captain that he is pianist but Hosenfeld doesn’t believe it. So Szpilman proves to Hosenfeld that he is a pianist by playing it on the piano. Szpilman starts out by playing a solemn and concise version of Chopin’s “Ballad in G Minor”. Hosenfeld impressed by Szpilman’s playing of piano, helps him stay alive, but later runs away from the building he is in when Russian army advances. Later it is shown that Hosenfeld is captured by the army and put in concentration camp where he hears the name of Szpilman and tells an officer that he knows Szpilman, after that we are given the assumption that Hosenfeld died in the camp. On the other h...
In the orchestra pit were twenty-two performers with historical display of the classical musical instruments and at the centered was the harpsichord - the major instrument of the baroque period. The instruments include violins, violas, cellos, bass, flute, oboe, clarinets, bassoon, horns and Timpani.
Playing musical Instrument as a hobby can be fun. It has a lot of benefits, including memory improvement and stress reducer. Music is an art which should be approached with intensity and great affection .Playing music as a hobby adds fun in life, peace, and fulfillment that lifts the spirit and make everyone involved enjoy. What then can be the benefit of playing a musical instrument as a hobby?