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Not everyone loves the harpsichord, in any century.
The renowned conductor Sir Thomas Beecham famously decribed its sound as "skeletons copulating on a corrugated iron roof" or as "a birdcage played with toasting forks".
The harpsichord is an unusual instrument for 20th-century music. Its sound and image immediately cause one to think of the Baroque period. It also has some limitations such as limited sound level and little player control over dynamics. But a little investigation shows the instrument doing surprisingly well in the 20th century My enjoyment of Frank Martin's music ("Petite Symphonie concertante") first brought the use of the harpsichord in modern music to my attention. Further examples like Schnittke's Concerti Grossi made it clear that Martin was no isolated case. That began an active search for more and more 20th-century harpsichord music available on CD. The results of that search are listed and described here. When I first started, it seemed as if that would be a fairly contained task, but I'm learning that it is in fact a far larger area of music than I had realized. These pages too, then, will continue to grow over time, but will never to pretend to be a comprehensive list of composers, works, and performers in the field. |
Details on works and composers:
Orchestral WorksThe above categories are somewhat arbitrary and have some overlap - exactly when does an ensemble become a small orchestra? Then there's John Cage, who makes his own category (see Other above). |
Elisabeth Chojnacka, in particular, is an advocate of harpsichord in unusual modernistic settings such as tape and instruments such as African drums, bandaneon and more. She also plays the very gnarly harpsichord music of Xenakis. There's more at the web site http://www.harpsichord2000.com/home.htm (in English, with the primary version iin French).
Others specializing in contemporary harpsichord are:Elaine Funaro (http://www.elainefunaro.com/).They are influental in this music not only by playing, but also by commissioning new works. Their web sites give details on biography, discography, performances, etc. , as well as references to contemporary harpsichord works and their composers.
Barbara Harbach (http://www.umsl.edu/~harbachb/).
Elaine Comparone (http://www.harpsichord.org/bios/elaine2).
Mark Kroll (http://markkroll.com/).
There used to be a wealth of information in the repertoire list of Canadian Vivienne Spiteri (a.k.a. "vivie' vinçent"), a specialist in performance of contemporary harpsichord music, but her website seems to have vanished. Instead, there's biographical material and discography at electrocd.com, http://www.electrocd.com/bio.e/spiteri_vi.html).
On March 5, 2006, I got to hear the premiere of a new work by Peter Child, Concerto for Harpsichord and String Quartet (2005), "in memorian Peter Gombosi", as played by Maggie Cole and the Lydian String Quartet. The dedicatee commissioned the work to celebrate his life shortly after learning of his terminal illness. It's a wonderful piece, including real humor in the third movement, and was played beautifully. The program notes also mentioned that Maggie Cole plays 20th-century "music by Falla, Gerhard and Ligeti, and has had pieces written for her by Gavin Bryars and Stephen Dodgson."
Every so often one stumbles across another reference that opens the field even more. One such is a Swiss site by the Swiss Music Information Center on native contemporary composers, with a whole page devoted to composition for harpsichord (after entering the site by choosing a language, click on "Scores", then on "keyboard instruments" under "Single Instruments", then "Harpsichord").
A June 4, 2003, music review by Allan Kozinn in the New York Times described a concert by the Queen's Chamber Band (now apparently Harpsichord Unlimited and Queen's Chamber Band, on the web at http://www.harpsichord.org/index_html), led by Elaine Comparone, "an ensemble built around a harpsichord", which has "commissioned new works and presented them in the final concert of its season". As the writer says, "it gets composers thinking about contemporary possibilities of the harpsichord". The composers and works described in the review were
José Luis Greco "Vanishing Time", for string quartet and harpsichord Joseph Fennimore Duo for oboe and harpsichord Peter Susser "7.02.01.03" for string quartet, flute, oboe and harpsichord José Raul Bernardo Concertino Cubano for string trio, harpsichord and bass
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Staged Works (Opera and others)
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Manuel de Falla (1876-1946):
Nicolai Karetnikov (1930-1994):
Elena Ruehr (1963- ):
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Other
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John Cage (1912 - 1992):
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Collections
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The Harpsichord in 20th-Century Music - Collections
Part 1
Part 2
There are a number of CDs with several short works, each by different composers, too many to list separately. |
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