A Century and a Half of Music on the Lute-Harpsichord

A CENTURY AND A HALF OF MUSIC ON THE LUTE-HARPSICHORD

Peter Philips Amarilli di Giulio Romano (Caccini) (1561-1628) (Fitzwilliam Virginal Book)

Ascanio Mayone Partite sopra Fedele (c.1570-1627) (Primo libro di diversi capricci da sonare, Naples 1603)

Claudio Merulo Toccata Quinta del Secondo Tuono (1533-1604) (Toccate d’intavolatura, Rome 1598)

François Couperin Les Idées Heureuses (1668-1733) (Pièces de clavecin, Premier Livre, Paris 1713)

Johann Sebastian Bach Prelude BWV 999; Fugue BWV 1000 (1685-1750)

Domenico Scarlatti Sonata in E major K 380 (1685-1757)

Georg Frideric Handel Concerto in B flat opus IV, n. 6 (1685-1759) (for harp, strings and continuo) Andante allegro; Larghetto; Allegro moderato (arranged for lute-harpsichord by Christopher Stembridge)

This concert featured the lute-harpsichord or Lautenwerck, a gut-strung harpsichord (sometimes supplemented with metal strings) intended to imitate the sound of the lute. German makers in the first half of the 18th century seem to have been most interested in the potentials of this instrument, and a number of different types were produced in this period: rectangular, oval, wing-shaped, or even with a hemispherical resonator below the soundboard similar to that of a lute. J. S. Bach owned two lute- harpsichords, and his Suite in E minor BWV 996 was almost certainly written for this instrument. The lute-harpsichord was also known in Italy, as we can see from Banchieri’s L’organo suonarino (1611) where it is called the arpitarrone.

In this concert Christopher Stembridge played a copy of an 18th century Saxon lute-harpsichord made by Willard Martin in 1998. It has two eight-foot gut registers, one of which is plucked at two different points, and a four-foot brass register.