A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism that plucks one or more strings with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic. The strings are under tension on a soundboard, which is mounted in a wooden case; the soundboard amplifies the vibrations from the strings so that the listeners can hear it. Like a pipe organ, a harpsichord may have more than one keyboard manual, and even a pedal board. Harpsichords may also have stop buttons which add or remove additional octaves. Some harpsichords may have a buff stop, which brings a strip of buff leather or other material in contact with the strings, muting their sound to simulate the sound of a plucked lute.
Malcolm Bilson is an American pianist and musicologist specializing in 18th- and 19th-century music. He is the Frederick J. Whiton Professor of Music in Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Bilson is one of the foremost players and teachers of the fortepiano; this is the ancestor of the modern piano and was the instrument used in Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven's time.
A fortepiano, sometimes referred to as a pianoforte, is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1698 up to the early 19th century. Most typically, however, it is used to refer to the mid-18th to early-19th century instruments, for which composers of the Classical era, especially Haydn, Mozart, and the younger Beethoven and Hummel, wrote their piano music.
The Ruckers family were harpsichord and virginal makers from the Southern Netherlands based in Antwerp in the 16th and 17th century. Their influence stretched well into the 18th century, and to the harpsichord revival of the 20th.
Johann (Georg) Andreas Stein was an outstanding German maker of keyboard instruments, a central figure in the history of the piano. He was primarily responsible for the design of the so-called German hammer action. Pianos with this hammer action, or its more developed form known as the Viennese action, may be said to be appropriate for the performance of the piano music of Haydn, Mozart, and the early works of Beethoven and Schubert.
William Richmond Dowd was an American harpsichord maker and one of the most important pioneers of the historical harpsichord movement.
The Goermans family were French harpsichord makers of Flemish origin.
The Blanchet family were an extended family of French harpsichord-makers from the late-17th century to the mid-19th century, by which time they had become piano makers.
Burkat Shudi was an English harpsichord maker of Swiss origin.
The Kirkman family were English harpsichord and later piano makers of Alsatian origin, active from the 1750s until the late 1800s.
The Couchet family were Flemish harpsichord and virginal makers in Antwerp, closely associated with, and descendants of, the Ruckers family.
The harpsichord was an important keyboard instrument in Europe from the 15th through the 18th centuries, and as revived in the 20th, is widely played today.
Alastair McAllister is an Australian harpsichord builder known for his historical integrity, design and workmanship, and for producing modern copies of instruments that closely match their prototypes in sound and touch. At the age of 15, he became inspired by the Baroque after hearing the music of Domenico Scarlatti. Working closely with his colleague, Mars McMillan, he founded Harpsichord Makers of Melbourne in 1967, in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill, and by the early 1970s he had become a full-time harpsichord builder. McAllister and his colleagues have created instruments patterned after the work of Henri Hemsch, Burkhardt Schudi, Johannes Daniel Dulcken, the Ruckers family, Christian Zell and Johann Heinrich Harrass, among others, and he has trained or influenced Australian builders such as Marc Nobel, Andrew Bernard, Alan Todd, Jean-Louis Cocquillat, and Richard Schaumloeffel.
(Franz Hermann) Martin Skowroneck was a German harpsichord builder, one of the pioneers of the modern movement of harpsichord construction on historical principles.
Artus Gheerdinck (1564–1624) was a Dutch harpsichord builder.
Philip Ralph Belt was a pioneering builder of pianos in historical style, in particular the 18th century instruments commonly called fortepianos. His pianos were modeled on instruments made by historical builders, particularly Johann Andreas Stein and Anton Walter. Belt's pianos played a role in the revival of performance on historical instruments that was an important trend in classical music in the second half of the 20th century and continues to this day.
The Denis family were French harpsichord makers from the mid 16th century to the beginning of the 18th century, by which time the Blanchet family had superseded them as the main harpsichord building dynasty in Paris. Members of the Denis family headed the instrument makers' guild for several generations, but only four harpsichords by members of the family have survived to modern times, and three spinets. Several of the Denis instruments are signed in red chalk under the sound board with the makers name, place of construction and date, along with three five-pointed stars. Instruments by the Denis family were held in high regard well after their time, as witnessed by an entry in the Encyclopédie Methodique from 1785: "The best makers of ordinary harpsichords have been the Ruckers in Antwerp... and Jean Denis of Paris".
Albert Delin was a harpsichord maker in the Low Countries.
Maria Theresia Borrekens (1728–1797), was a printer and manager of Officina Plantiniana, a leading publisher in Antwerp, from 1765 to 1797.