FIMTE

A NEWLY DISCOVERED EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SPANISH HARPSICHORD

John Koster, NMM Conservator and Professor of Music, made the first public presentation at the 10th International Symposium on Spanish Keyboard Music “Diego Fernández" FIMTE 2010 of a recent discovery made during a research trip to Washington, D.C. There, in a storage facility of the Smithsonian Institution, he identified a harpsichord that had been cataloged as a nineteenth century fake as actually the sole known exemplar of an important type of mid-eighteenth- century Spanish instrument. Koster has suggested that the Smithsonian harpsichord can be attributed to Diego Fernández. A harpsichord in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington , D.C. , where it has been in storage, unstudied for decades, was formerly thought to be of Italian origin or more recently to be a nineteenth-century fake. It bears, however, a resemblance to the Portuguese harpsichords that incorporate design elements of harpsichords made in Florence by Bartolomeo Cristofori and his followers. Florentine harpsichords and pianos brought to Portugal by Domenico Scarlatti and his patrons inspired these locally made instruments in what can be called the “Ibero-Florentine” style. The largest, with five-octave GG to g 3 compasses, are uniquely well suited to Scarlatti's late sonatas. Similar instruments must have been made in Spain , likewise inspired by the Florentine instruments brought there after 1729, when Scarlatti moved there along with his pupil, Princess Maria Barbara, later Queen of Spain. Until now, no Spanish harpsichord in the Ibero-Florentine style has been known to survive. Close examination of the Smithsonian harpsichord in the light of Spanish documents and surviving instruments shows it without doubt to be Spanish. Significant Spanish features include the joinery of the baseboard, the use of Cedrela ( cedro ) for the key levers and parts of the case, and the decoration of the keyfronts with triangles of ebony and bone. The compass is GG to g 3 , and there are two 8' registers without stop levers to engage or disengage them. Certain details such as the keycheek scrolls, the cross section of the bridge, the soundboard ribbing, and the shaping of the cutoff bar show that the maker was closely familiar with actual Florentine harpsichords. The person most likely to have such an opportunity in Spain was Diego Fernández, harpsichord maker to the royal family. Although there is no known surviving instrument by Fernández for comparison, various details of the Smithsonian harpsichord correspond with what is known of his work from documents. Subtle differences from the typical Florentine layout and action elements show that particular attention was given to the touch. Although the instrument appears to have been brutally shortened, it seems to correspond to the full-compass claves chicos that Fernández is known to have made. (John Koster, October 2010, abstract from the paper delivered at the 10th International Symposium on Spanish Keyboard Music “Diego Fernández FIMTE 2010 , October 2010)

A NEWLY DISCOVERED EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SPANISH HARPSICHORD

John Koster, NMM Conservator and Professor of Music, made the first public presentation at the 10th International Symposium on Spanish Keyboard Music “Diego Fernández" FIMTE 2010 of a recent discovery made during a research trip to Washington, D.C. There, in a storage facility of the Smithsonian Institution, he identified a harpsichord that had been cataloged as a nineteenth century fake as actually the sole known exemplar of an important type of mid-eighteenth- century Spanish instrument. Koster has suggested that the Smithsonian harpsichord can be attributed to Diego Fernández.

A harpsichord in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington , D.C. , where it has been in storage, unstudied for decades, was formerly thought to be of Italian origin or more recently to be a nineteenth-century fake. It bears, however, a resemblance to the Portuguese harpsichords that incorporate design elements of harpsichords made in Florence by Bartolomeo Cristofori and his followers. Florentine harpsichords and pianos brought to Portugal by Domenico Scarlatti and his patrons inspired these locally made instruments in what can be called the “Ibero-Florentine” style. The largest, with five-octave GG to g 3 compasses, are uniquely well suited to Scarlatti's late sonatas. Similar instruments must have been made in Spain , likewise inspired by the Florentine instruments brought there after 1729, when Scarlatti moved there along with his pupil, Princess Maria Barbara, later Queen of Spain. Until now, no Spanish harpsichord in the Ibero-Florentine style has been known to survive. Close examination of the Smithsonian harpsichord in the light of Spanish documents and surviving instruments shows it without doubt to be Spanish. Significant Spanish features include the joinery of the baseboard, the use of Cedrela ( cedro ) for the key levers and parts of the case, and the decoration of the keyfronts with triangles of ebony and bone. The compass is GG to g 3 , and there are two 8' registers without stop levers to engage or disengage them. Certain details such as the keycheek scrolls, the cross section of the bridge, the soundboard ribbing, and the shaping of the cutoff bar show that the maker was closely familiar with actual Florentine harpsichords. The person most likely to have such an opportunity in Spain was Diego Fernández, harpsichord maker to the royal family. Although there is no known surviving instrument by Fernández for comparison, various details of the Smithsonian harpsichord correspond with what is known of his work from documents. Subtle differences from the typical Florentine layout and action elements show that particular attention was given to the touch. Although the instrument appears to have been brutally shortened, it seems to correspond to the full-compass claves chicos that Fernández is known to have made.

(John Koster, October 2010, abstract from the paper delivered at the 10th International Symposium on Spanish Keyboard Music “Diego Fernández FIMTE 2010 , October 2010)