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In Reply to: where R the cool pedal-bass harpsichord CD's? posted by freddyi on March 8, 2007 at 18:33:16:
freddyi,For those who don't know about them, there were in the 18th century, pedal sections made for both clavichords and harpsichords. These pedal sections awere independent instruments like a platform that the clavichord or harpsichord sat on and allowed organists to practice organ music wihtout having to pay someone- or more than one person- to pump the bellows in some freezing and probably German church.
Though rare, there are historic examples of these extant and reproductions of these pedal sections made today. I heard Bach's Gmin Fantasy and Fugue on a pedal clavichord in Italy in 1993. It was interesting, in a medium room with a 10' ceiling, it was wonderfully articulate, but in the much larger 12th C. stone church performance venue, the pedal sound was lost. I think the 16' pedal stop was too dark and there was not enough penetrating power behind the sound, but in the right space, a fascinating sound and compelling listening.
In the late 60's early 70's, the organist E power Biggs had a pedal section made up by his harpsichord builder of choice, John Challis. Challis was a innovator and later in his career, used almumium pinblocks and soundboards were not Swiss pine, but a secret layering of aluminum and foam. The bridges look like drilled out aircraft structure. Biggs made a coupe (?) of recordings on this instrument that are really exciting music making- Columbia MS 6804 starts with the Passacaglia and Fugue in Cmin and ends with the great Gmin Fant & Fugue- two of my favourite Bach organ pieces. This is so much fun and my copy is so worn, I bought a back up copy.
But, except for a couple of recordings- I think either George Malcolm or Joseph Payne may have recorded plus a pedal clavichord recording or two, I also haven't seen much of anything in this genre for a long while. The thing is, the repetoire and playing have to be carefully done as the sustain of the pedal part is fundamental to the organ counterpoint in creating the bass line (re: "Pasacaglia & Fugue") and the stringed pedal boards don't have that long sustain.
I agree completely, it would be nice to have new rcordings of an interesting historic way of playing organ repetoire or at least reissue Bigg's works.
Cheers,
Bambi B
Follow Ups:
Hi Bambi B - that's a wonderful post! - I've not had the pleasure of hearing any live harpsichord muchless the pedal-board addition. (what types of loudspeakers deal musically with cd's of this genre?)lets hope Sony reissues Biggs' recitals and trio sonatas. (I love Glenn Gould's 'accidental' harpsichord disc of Handel & Bach - haha)
re:BWV 582 Passacaglia and Fugue, Cmin
here's a CD of pedal harpsichord I've not heard but review loos good.
"The Historical Harpsichord" Tom Robin Harris -- Runes Bookstore (309) 794-7541 Review Here
here's a synthesized mp3 of BWV 582 in pedal-harpsichord style
Best,
Freddyps - maybe U can borrow a pedalboard and make some new recordings
Freddy,For those who don't see pedal harpsichords at local jumble sales, there are a couple currently for sale:
http://www.harpsichord.com/List/list_frmset.html
sorry- you have to scroll down and there are a Herz and Sabathil pedal sections for sale.
Years ago, for a short period, I did take organ lessons and have wanted a long time to have an organ at home. I have a piano, harpsichord, clavichord, and synthesizer and have thought of finding an AGO pedal board or an electronic organ like an Allen or Rodgers, and then adapting it to run through a synthesizer module.
I agree, it would be wonderful to have Bigg's recordings re-issued, a very good player who made some great recordings on the Flentrop tracker at Harvard. By the way, I have a vague memory that Bigg's made a recording with pedal harpsichord of Scott Joplin !
Thank you for the links.
Cheers,
Biggs' Joplin CD is in-print, cheap and over at amazon.
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