Singing Potatoes
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Tuesday, 22 July 2003
Go ahead and sue me, RIAA!

Three MP3s that were littering my hard drive:

  • Pavana, Earle of Salisbury by William Byrd, performed by Jeff Lee on harpsichord. (588 KB)
  • Ricercar XI by Julio da Modena, performed by Jeff Lee on tenor recorder, classical guitar and electric bass. (796 KB)
  • My Wild Irish Rose by Chauncey Olcott, performed by the All Jeff Lee Quartet. (458 KB)
Posted by godfrey (link)
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Comments
That's really you playing the harpsichord? NICE! Most people don't know how to play the poor volume-less harpsichord and bang away on it as if it were a pianola. But wow, nice phrasing to indicate dynamics. I have a recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations on harpsichord with all the repeats, but for some reason I can never get anyone to listen to it all the way through with me.
Posted by M o I r A on 24 Jul 2003 02:38
Thanks! Yes, it's really me; several years ago, I had a friend who administrated the music department at the University of South Florida, and she let me bring in some of my recording gear and play around on one of their harpsichords one evening.

It was a nice one, too — two manuals (one of which had three registers), very responsive action, quiet jack returns. I've played one which did sound like Thomas Beecham's description of 'two skeletons copulating on a corrugated tin roof', but this one was an absolute dream to play.

My harpsichord technique came mainly from learning to play pipe organs (not only working around the lack of dynamics, but also the lack of a sustain pedal). Unfortunately, I can't play anywhere near like that any more; thanks to MIDI, I got lazy. I really should dust off my keyboard and play again...

Posted by Godfrey on 24 Jul 2003 08:04
Eh? What's she got against harpsichords?

Though if your mother's a pianist, I can at least understand her dislike; not only are they completely unforgiving of errors, as you mention, but playing them violates some basic piano rules (thumb on a "black" key? go for it!), requires a radically different technique for sustain (finger-switching has to become automatic), and you can't emote by changing the force with which you play. I've known a couple of pianists who tried to play them like a piano, and they just sounded like ass.

I'm fascinated by the way they can sound so different up close than they do from several feet away (I suspect that's one reason I still haven't heard a really good synthesized harpsichord, even out of high-end keyboards).

Posted by Godfrey on 25 Jul 2003 07:06