| Main Forum - Stupid Lisa Garbage Face - Search
The world deserves more pedal harpsichord
Stupid Lisa Garbage Face 09/28/07, 22:19 | 
1 | When someone mentions a pedal harpsichord they may be talking about either of two types.
The first is a harpsichord that has a set of bass pedals to play bass notes in the same way an organ has a set of bass pedals. This type of harpsichord existed during Bach's time and it is said he had one in his home. This makes sense seeing as how he couldn't practice organ music at home without the extra pedals.
The second type of pedal harpsichord is one that existed from the 1940's to the 1970's, it doesn't have bass pedals and instead it refers to pedals that control the sound, similar to pedals on a piano. It's like a harpsichord on steroids. At the time people were not yet into historic performances so Baroque music would be played by a huge symphony orchestra and as such they needed an extremely loud harpsichord to keep up with it.
The type I'm referring to in my post is the first type with bass pedals.
Insert picture here:
All music that can played on the organ can also be played on the pedal harpsichord. Baroque organ music played on this instrument gives it a whole new dimension and energy, you can clearly hear each note that may otherwise be drowned in the huge loud reverberations of an organ.
I'll show some examples on how various performances on the organ compare with the pedal harpsichord.
I'll start of with an example of my favorite piece of music by Buxtehude (a composer associated with the mid-Baroque and an influence to Bach), the Passacaglia in d minor dorian, BuxWV 161. (Passacaglia being a song where a bass pattern is repeated throughout, dorian being a type of diatonic scale)
Here's an example of the start and end of the song from a good performance on the organ by the German organist Harald Vogel:
Passacaglia - Start
Passacalgia - End Section
His performance is quite good, he takes it at a slower serene pace.
Here's an example of an absolutely awful performance of the same sections by the organist Ulrik Spang-Hanssen (please, please avoid his Buxtehude recordings):
Passacaglia - Start
Passacalgia - End Section
Aughhhhhhh that was horrible. He rushes through the song, his timing is unusual and many times it sounds like he's just mashing on the keys with a pair of boxing gloves. Ok let us never speak of his horrible assaults on our ears again. I just put that up to show that the performance makes a big difference.
Ok and now for an example of the same sections played on the pedal harpsichord by my favorite keyboardist, Lionel Rogg:
Passacaglia - Start
Passacalgia - End Section
To me the difference is incredible. The end section is especially haunting on the pedal harpsichord.
Here's another Buxtehude example to show the difference between the organ and pedal harpsichord, this time the Prelude, Fugue and Chaconne in C major, BuxWV 137.
The fugue section on the organ played by Harald Vogel
The fugue section on the pedal harpsichord played by Lionel Rogg
The pedal harpsichord immediately comes across with more power and clarity, which in the case of Buxtehude really brings his music to life in a way the organ cannot.
Ok now as for Bach on the pedal harpsichord, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. The bass notes on a pedal harpsichord can sometimes be a little explosive which can create a muddy mess of sound.
Here's an example where it works, from Bach's Fantasia & Fugue in G minor, BWV 542:
The beginning of the fantasia played on the organ by Lionel Rogg
The beginning of the fantasia played on the pedal harpsichord by E. Power Biggs
Neither is better than the other here, two great performances that shows this piece has it's strengths both on the organ and the pedal harpsichord.
The fugue section played on the organ by Lionel Rogg
The fugue section played on the pedal harpsichord by E. Power Biggs
Here I prefer the pedal harpsichord just for the clarity in which you can hear the counterpoint.
As I mentioned it doesn't always work, here's a section from the famous Toccata & Fugue.. the pedals in this case don't really work in favor of it once the bass parts come in:
Fugue
Now, the reason I say the world deserves more pedal harpsichord is because there are only a very small handful of recordings for it done during the 1960's. As an instrument it's been completely ignored. There's many organists pumping out complete sets of Buxtehude on the organ, but none doing it for the pedal harpsichord. I find that disappointing as while the organ is ok I would love to hear the rest of his keyboard works on the pedal harpsichord.
There is one 1960's recording that was professionally remastered that you can buy at major online CD stores, that is E. Power Biggs performance of Bach's Trio Sonatas (music for three parts). These 6 sonatas were apparently written by Bach as practice for his sons. It's been debated whether or not these pieces were meant to be played on the pedal harpsichord instead of the organ since Bach had one. After listening to many different performances of them on the organ I would whole-heartedly agree that they were meant for the pedal harpsichord.
Here's an example from the first Trio Sonata:
An "ok" performance of the first section of the first part on the organ
The same section from the pedal harpsichord recording
Again the clarity in these pieces comes through. Biggs does an amazing job with the tone selections on the harpsichord throughout the pieces.
There are about 3 or 4 other pedal harpsichord recordings on CD out there you can find if you search for them.
Anyway so that's my rant for today.
Oh, as for the other type of pedal harpsichord, the huge loud unauthentic kind, it's mostly considered a novelty although there are a few excellent performers that used it such as Wanda Landowski.
To give you an example of how loud and "growly" it is, here's an excerpt played on one from Handel's Harpsichord Suite No. 3 in D Minor:
Handel
There is also an out of print CD out there of Bach's concertos for 2, 3 and 4 harpsichords played on these giant loud harpsichords that I do recommend (in addition to authentic recordings of course). While the big loud sound is frowned upon these days it does make for a unique listening experience.
| | Reply - Reply With Quote | | | | |
|
| |
