Harpsichord french model by Hemsch.
Although I studied, or better said, I put my hands on many instruments, the harpsichord is "my instrument" more than any other, the one to which I have devoted more hours of practice and the one with which I have done more music and played more works, specially with other colleagues both as a partner in chamber music, or as a continuo player.
Although my official studies were a little eventful, my main teacher, Mireia Hernąndez, let me discover the richness of sound and articulation that it is possible to achieve from the instrument, by controlling the "touchée". It is a bold view that I try to apply and go deeper into in the never-ending search for the best musical design.
The instruments I have at home are: a harpsichord french model, of two keyboards, which is a copy of one french original HEMSCH of 1756, with a compass of 5 octaves (F 0 - F 5), 2x8', 1x4' i lute registration, transposer 415-440 Hz., size 240x93x28 cm., weight 72 kg., built in the year 1998 by Raśl M. Sevillano, luthier from Zaragoza,
and a harpsichord italian model, of one keyboard, based on an instrument by the italian maker GIUSTI from 1679, with a compass of 4 1/2 octaves (G 0 - E 5), 2x8', transposer 415-440 Hz., size 238x87x21 cm., weight 40 kg., built in the year 2003 by Bizzi, from Italy.
Here ther is a writting with my view on the organization and goals of a harpsichord teaching class, corresponding to the Elementary degree, according to the spanish regulation LOGSE. Click here to see the text of my report on the study of the harpsichord.
Note - This work includes also 10 Attachment parts, which as they are scanned documents, there are bulkier than the report itself, and therefore, I put separately. Click here to get to Attachments 1 to 10.
Little informative page in Catalan, written by the harpsichordist Maria-Teresa Julią i Pous.
Most people have a hard time to distinguish between the harpsichord, cembalo, clavichord, .... Here is a page in catalan to clarify the differences.
Very interesting and complete Web page by John Sankey on several aspects like technique, fingering, sound, and many others.
Web page that contains historical data and construction details (in french), based on the descriptions of the instrument as found in the "Encyclopčdie de Diderot et d'Alembert".And at the end of the page, there are more links related to the harpsichord.
Multilingual Harpsichord Lexicon with equivalents in diferent languages of the components of a harpsichord.
