[CAUT] Harpsichord Register work and keydip

[Barbara Richmond]

Thanks everyone for your excellent advice and Anne, I couldn't find your
address, I thought I had it and now I certainly do.

As a matter of fact, yesterday afternoon as I was waiting while my son had
his piano lesson, I was reading through the original instructions (that came
with the kit) where nothing had been said about the keys hitting the balance
rail, but hadn't looked closely at the picture section in the back of the
booklet.  Ha!  There I saw sharps with the little sections chiseled out.

The dip is controlled by the backrail in this instrument (Flemish,one
manual, 2 registers, 78" long).

When I was first on staff at Illinois Wesleyan, there were two harpsichords,
a Merzdorf (huge, four registers, with pedals!!) and a little Neupert (sp?)
with
those round metal jacks.  I had absolutely no harpsichord experience, save
the couple of semesters of private instruction I had during college--and
that was just learning to play.  With information and advice from my friend
Patrick Baum in Houston, I did my best to get these instruments playing and
sounding as good as I could.  Then, a Hubbard & Broekman was purchased.  Oh
my, I was in love...  I learned a lot about touch and tone from that
instrument.

That all brings me to something I read in the section labeled "Further
Thoughts on Voicing" in the Zuckermann instructions:

"Don't waste time trying to make this instrument sound like a French
harpsichord (although it should not be so aggressive that you cannot play
Rameau and Francois Couperin, still it is more suited to Louis Couperin)."

snip

"Rather think, if you can, of one of those marvelous old baroque organs with
their reedy mixtures, not harsh, but gutsy."

Would anyone like to speak of the differences?  Any suggestions of websites
or recordings that might give me a hint on the
difference of tone between the French and Flemish or others?   Of course, I
wasn't
aware of any differences according to type, but have only thought about tone
in the terms, "hmm, nice" or "ick."  :-)

Barbara Richmond, RPT
near Peoria, IL

PS Eric's piano teacher (music director at our church) was interested in
this project (I did a lot to improve the harpsichord voicing at our church
last year) and told me that a local university had sold their harpsichord (I
don't know when) because their piano technicians would not service it.  Now
they use a Clavinova whenever a harpsichord is needed.  I had had my doubts
about this particular music department and well, there goes another nail in
the lid...





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Anne Acker" <a.acker at comcast.net>
To: <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 9:44 AM
Subject: [CAUT] Harpsichord Register work and keydip


> Barbara,
>
> I was told you were making inquiries about all this over on this list so I
> hopped over
>
> You know you have my direct email.  Don't be shy!
>
> Anyway,  an experienced professional harpsichord builder and technician
> works considerably faster than the quotes I've seen.
>
> I can do a 3 register double manual instrument in 8 hrs.
>
> I generally allow 2-3 hrs. per register.   2 usually does it.
>
> All that said, my total price for jobs such as this has remained
> consistent.    You need to adjust your hourly rate according to your
> experience so the total job price comes out fairly.   It isn't right to
> charge for your learning curve, but then you know that.
>
>
> As to your keydip issue and the noise...yes, first the trimming where you
> notice the interference.
>
> Then, is the keydip controlled by the backrail (usual) or the jackrail
> (also common)?
>
> In harpsichords keydip is rarely if ever controlled by keyfront punchings,
> quite unlike pianos.
>
>
> Anne
>
>
>