I was asked to play a special in church on Sunday so I asked Rosemary Bailey www.RosemaryBaileyMusic.com to play a soundtrack to Good King Wenceslas and Joy To The World. Hope you like, please remember this is a live recording.
http://podcasts.blog.pianosd.com/2012/12/28/ricks-christmas-special-on-piano-12.23.12.mp3
Merry Christmas
Ric
The Virginal
The precursor to the harpsichord came in the 1400’s known as the Virginal or Virginals. The logic behind the first virginals came in 1460 when a writer described it in a letter from Paulus Paulirinus of Praguein relation to the clavichord. History books can differ in their opinions or ideas of its origin.
Quite a bit of music was written on a virginal because of its size and ease of transport. This is a larger model of a virginal. Some were quite decorative like this one while others were quite simple in their design and much smaller.
The tone quality or the virginal as compared to the clavichord was/is quite different. While the clavichord struck the strings the virginal was closer in tone to the harpsichord. Later as people began to want more sound we started making the harpsichord with longer strings and a larger soundboard with more depth of sound.
The virginal was identical to the harpsichord in the way it was made with the plucking of the strings rather than the clavichord mechanism which struck the strings like the piano.
A Smaller Virginal
The virginal was very popular during the early Baroque period although like the clavichord and by a large part the harpsichord the tone was to light to be heard with the other instruments and even more difficult in larger public performances.
If you do a quick search on the virginal you will quickly see many different variations of this cool instrument. It is difficult to imagine that once this was cutting edge technology and this was a privilege to own. The tone quality of this instrument was among the best available in a keyboard instrument at this point in the 1400’s.
Art in a Virginal
However, music for the virginal and the clavichord would be written for many years to come BECAUSE of the tone. You may also note that many, MANY works of art show a young lady sitting in front of an instrument that most people assume is a harpsichord or clavichord but, as it turns out is actually a virginal.
Ric Overton
http://PianoSD.com
Although keyboard instruments as we commonly know them today has gone through many changes the idea on the whole was originally created in 1361. In 1361 there were essentially no flats or sharps as we know them today. Over the period of the next 300 – 400 years (yes, that is an accurate number) we had gone through a number of changes that brought us to the “newest” scale and was finally publicly and famously endorsed by Bach.
Bach The Well Tempered Clavier
In 1722 J.S. Bach penned The Well Tempered Clavier which was arguably one of the most famous works of all time. He repeated this work in 1742 and underscored the original endorsement of the idea of equal temperament in keyboards.
More information on The Well Tempered Clavier can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well-Tempered_Clavier in the Wikipedia website.
While we have little information of the first pianos to be created the Medici Family indicates that pianos in their pseudo present day form was in existence as early as 1700 and potentially as far back as 1698, however, the only pianos that we have in existence today date back to 1720.
The point is that the whole idea of the modern day piano would date back to the early 1700’s. In the beginning the present day piano is closest related to the Clavichord.
The Clavichord
Most people agree that the clavichord was invented sometime in the early 1400’s. Then as early as 1502 and later in 1504 there is some mention of the Clavichord being used in public performances in both England and Germany. In 1460 however, in a descriptive letter of the virginal which was also believed to have been invented in the early 1400’s and there is some reference to the clavichord as well as virginal.
The clavichord has various “editions” which differ in sense of temperament and design. Some clavichords are “fretted” instruments while others were “unfretted” which would help determine the technique used while playing as well as the music that could be used as well.
The differences in the virginal and clavichord will be discussed in later posts as well as the harpsichord and piano. So you can see some quick pictures of the virginal and clavichord, I posted a couple here.
The Virginal
The differences are not really noticeable at first glance but there are some significant differences between these two instruments. We will get much more acquainted with these early instruments and how they are finding their way back into music today.
Ric Overton
http://PianoSD.com
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