Early Keyboard Instruments: A Practical Guide

by David Rowland

• ISBN13: 9780521643665
• ISBN10: 052164366X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-04-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Early Keyboard Instruments covers a wide range of performance issues on keyboard instruments relevant to the music from c. 1700-c.1900. It includes descriptions of the harpsichords, clavichords, pianos and other stringed-keyboard instruments used by performers of the period as well as aspects of technique such as harpsichord registration, piano pedalling and keyboard fingering. Aspects of the notation of keyboard music are discussed, as is articulation, embellishment, tempo flexibility and rubato. A substantial chapter is devoted to case studies, illustrating how the aspects of performance discussed in the rest of the book are worked out in practice, whether playing on period instruments or on the modern piano.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Abbreviations and pitch nomenclature	xi
Stylistic awareness and keyboard music	1	(8)
Repertory, performance and notation	9	(15)
Choice and sources of repertory	9	(2)
Reportories, performance traditions and keyboard tutors	11	(3)
Editions and facsimiles	14	(4)
Aspects of notation	18	(6)
The instruments	24	(19)
Harpsichords	25	(6)
Virginals and spinets	31	(1)
Clavichords	32	(1)
Pianos	33	(6)
Temperaments	39	(2)
Purchase, care and tuning of reproduction instruments	41	(2)
Use of instruments and technique	43	(26)
Which instrument?	43	(3)
Harpsichord registration	46	(6)
Piano pedalling	52	(6)
Hand position and finger technique	58	(2)
Fingering and keyboard touch	60	(7)
Some clavichord techniques	67	(2)
Non-notated and notated issues	69	(19)
Improvisation and preluding	69	(3)
Cadenzas, fermatas and lead-ins	72	(3)
Embellishment	75	(3)
Tempo fluctuation and tempo rubato	78	(4)
Slurs, dots and wedges	82	(3)
Spread chords	85	(3)
Case studies	88	(25)
Louis Couperin's suites	88	(5)
French Overture	93	(5)
J. S. Bach
Haydn: Sonata in C minor, Hob.XVI:20	98	(2)
Mozart: Piano Concerto in C Major, K.467	100	(5)
Beethoven: Sonata in D major, Op. 10, No. 3	105	(4)
Chopin: Nocturne in Eb, Op. 9, No. 2	109	(4)
Continuo realisation	113	(12)
Instrumentation	114	(3)
Texture and style	117	(6)
Recitative accompaniment	123	(2)
Notes	125	(18)
Select bibliography	143	(5)
Index	148