Early Music (III) Les Bergeries

France was undoubtedly the place where both harpsichord construction and harpsichord composition reached its apogee. France was faithful to the harpsichord several decades longer than the rest of Europe, which embraced the piano, an instrument developed from the simpler Italian harpsichord.

In the 20th Century, the harpsichord was revived. The early period of its revival is called the revival period. Revival harpsichords tended to be constructed similarly to pianos, with heavy, iron frames, and thick, steel wire for strings. The belief was that the piano was a technological advancement over the harpsichord, and thus harpsichords would benefit from being constructed similarly. The resulting revival harpsichords had  a rather harsh, tinny sound, which many people still associate with harpsichords. In spite of this, revival period harpsichord music has a charm of its own. Most often, the pieces were performed with Romantic influence, and thus very dramatic.

Here is a recording, from 1966, of Les bergeries, a piece by François Couperin (1668-1733), performed on a revival harpsichord in the revival manner, by Zuzana Růžičková.

Following the revival period, harpsichord builders and performers tended to look back at surviving original harpsichords from the 16th-18th Centuries rather than taking cues from modern piano contruction. These historic instruments were constructed much more lightly, out of wood and glue only, and had much thinner, agile, soft iron and brass strings. The resulting sound is wonderfully rich, penetrating, organic. This is as close as we get to the harpsichord in all its splendor, as the last French harpsichord composers would have had in mind. Alongside interest in historic instruments was a revival of historically-informed performance. Pieces from this new period look back to Baroque sources for interpreting a piece, rather than 19th and 20th Century Romantic influences.

For contrast, here is the same piece, performed on a copy of a historic instrument, in a historically-informed performance style.